This study is the first to investigate how an online course consisting solely of multiple-choice questions and detailed formative feedback comparesto an online course format that was previously shown to be highlyeffective. Specifically, a pure question-based learning (pQBL) version ofa course was compared to a question-based learning course (QBL)which consisted of the same questions and feedback as the pQBLcourse, but also included ordinary texts about the subject. To explorehow pQBL and QBL compared in terms of learning outcomes andcompletion time, 492 employees at the Swedish Employment Agencywere randomized to either a pQBL or a QBL version of a course aboutIT security. The results indicate that the pQBL course resulted in equallygood or better learning outcomes compared to the QBL course. Thisresult was robust to changes in how course quality was defined. Inaddition, participants completed the pQBL course slightly faster.Because a pQBL course requires less resources to produce, there arebenefits to relying on the pQBL method when teachers or studentshave limited time. Further benefits that come with the flexibility of thepQBL method are discussed

We have evaluated a new pedagogical approach, pure question-based learning, or rather, a modern, digitized version of a really old approach: the Socratic method of learning. The pedagogical approach was evaluated and improved using a design-based research methodology. An online course was developed with pure question-based learning to explain its predecessor: question-based learning. The course was successively taken by students, researchers, and practitioners, and discussed in four group seminars. Feedback from each iteration was integrated into the next version and the course is still in use, see link below. Results from the design-based research process were positive ((Formula presented.) participants, over four iterations) with the main negative results coming from the unfamiliarity of the format and feelings of exam-like stress during the first encounter. While pure question-based learning is new, it builds upon well-tested pedagogical methods. The method has several potential advantages: learning can be broken down into smaller modules, there is less passive learning for the students, less learning material needs to be created and AI could be used for this creation.

This Innovate Practice work-in-progress paperpresents findings around how distance learning, due to the theCOVID-19 pandemic, affected students as measured by time-ontask in programming.In this qualitative study, we examine a group of 36 second yearupper-secondary students in Programming 1 during a nine weekperiod in Spring 2021. During this time, they alternated betweenone whole week of distance learning followed by two weeks of inschool instruction. For the Programming 1 lessons, students usedan online platform to write, edit and run code in. We analyzedthe log data from the platform to estimate time-on-task for eachstudent for every lesson both at home and at school.We observed that students were affected differently by distancelearning as measured by time-on-task. 12 students had moreaverage time-on-task at school. 15 students had more averagetime-on-task at home. Nine students had less than five minutesdifference on average.In addition to the analysis of time-on-task, students weregiven a survey in Fall 2021 to follow up on their experienceswith in-school teaching and distance learning. In the survey,students were asked questions about their study environment athome during distance learning. From the responses, 13 studentsdescribed their study environment as “in bed” despite having access to a table and chair in a room for themselves and twentythree students described their study environment as “playingvideo games during online lectures”. Not surprisingly, studentsthat said they were playing video games during online lectureshad a lower average time-on-task by about ten minutes than theirpeers. Interestingly, students that said they participated in classin bed had a higher average time-on-task by about ten minutesthan their peers.Correlating responses from the survey and time-on-task data,we reason about how students’ study environments at homeaffected their time-on-task and how distance learning has affectedstudents in the pandemic. 

The shift to meeting students online has made traditional forms of interaction difficult or impossible to replicate. In response, we suggest that teachers become co-pilots for each other: joining lectures and extending the abilities of a solo teacher. By doing so, there are clear and distinct benefits for students, the teacher, and the co-pilot, with almost no barrier to entry and very little preparation required. Whilst there is a time cost, we feel this is well spent and acts as a gateway to more established pedagogical practices, such as peer observation and cooperative teaching. 

Distance-bounding anonymous credentials could be used for any location proofs that do not need to identify the prover and thus could make even notoriously invasive mechanisms such as location-based services privacy-preserving. There is, however, no secure distance-bounding protocol for general attribute-based anonymous credentials. Brands and Chaum’s (EUROCRYPT’93) protocol combining distance-bounding and Schnorr identification comes close, but does not fulfill the requirements of modern distance-bounding protocols. For that, we need a secure distance-bounding zero-knowledge proof-of-knowledge resisting mafia fraud, distance fraud, distance hijacking and terrorist fraud. Our approach is another attempt toward combining distance bounding and Schnorr to construct a distance-bounding zero-knowledge proof-of-knowledge. We construct such a protocol and prove it secure in the (extended) DFKO model for distance bounding. We also performed a symbolic verification of security properties needed for resisting these attacks, implemented in Tamarin. Encouraged by results from Singh et al. (NDSS’19), we take advantage of lessened constraints on how much can be sent in the fast phase of the distance-bounding protocol and achieve a more efficient protocol. We also provide a version that does not rely on being able to send more than one bit at a time which yields the same properties except for (full) terrorist fraud resistance.

While current technologies, such as online social networks, can facilitate coordination and communication for protest organization, they can also endanger political activists when the control over their data is ceded to third parties. For technology to be useful for activism, it needs to be trustworthy and protect the users’ privacy; only then can it be viewed as a potential improvement over more traditional, offline methods. Here, we discuss a selection of such privacy-enhancing technologies from a Computer Science perspective in an effort to open a dialogue and elicit input from other perspectives.

In this paper, we focus on achieving privacy-preserving access control mechanisms for decentralized storage, primarily intended for an asynchronous message passing setting. We propose two modular constructions, one using a pull strategy and the other a push strategy for sharing data. These models yield different privacy properties and requirements on the underlying system. We achieve hidden policies, hidden credentials and hidden decisions. We additionally achieve what could be called ‘hidden policy-updates’, meaning that previously-authorized subjects cannot determine if they have been excluded from future updates or not.

In this paper we first analyse the possibility for deniability under a strong adversary, who has an Internet-wide transcript of the communication. Secondly, we present a scheme which provides the desirable properties of previous messaging schemes, but with stronger deniability under the new adversary model. Our scheme requires physical meetings for exchanges of large amounts of random key-material via near-field communication and later uses this random data to key a one-time pad for text-messaging. We prove the correctness of the protocol and, finally, we evaluate the practical feasibility of the suggested scheme.