The CSedRes toolbox: A resource to support research in computer science education

We introduce the notion of a “CSedRes Toolbox” for educational research in the field of computer science. The Toolbox should include a repertoire of instruments and methodologies that instructor-researchers can use in planning well-designed and valid studies. We propose an on-going project for the SIGCSE membership: to incrementally add appropriate tools to the Toolbox. In this article, we motivate the existence of such a repository and describe our vision for the Toolbox. As our starting point in building up the Toolbox, we discuss the characteristics of instruments used to measure phenomena of interest in educational research, with focus on instruments developed by other researchers and how to locate these existing tools. The balance of the paper presents an instrument for assessing individuals' learning styles, Kolb's LSI-1985.