About

Bob Edmison is a Collegiate Associate Professor and the Online Teaching and Learning Coordinator at Virginia Tech's Department of Computer Science. His educational background includes a Ph.D. in computer science and applications from Virginia Tech, obtained in 2019, along with a master's degree in information technology from Virginia Tech in 2006, a master's in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Tech in 1995, and a bachelor's degree in economics from Virginia Tech in 1992. His research interests focus on computer science education, software engineering, and feedback spectrum-based fault location. He is based in Torgersen Hall, RM 2220F, at Virginia Tech, and can be contacted via email at bedmison@vt.edu or by phone at (540) 231-3957.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• World Wide Web
• Knowledge management
• Sociology
• Internet privacy
• Management
• Software engineering
• Programming language
• Psychology
• Multimedia
• Operations management
• Engineering
• Mathematics education

Selected publications

• A Call for Critical Technology to Enable Innovative and Alternative Grading Practices

  2026-02-13

  articleOpen access

  The call for alternative grading practices has been made both inside and outside the computing education community. Various practices exist to provide assessment and feedback to students that do not rely strictly on points out of one hundred percent, weighted averages, high stakes assignments, and grading for behaviors instead of learning. However, modern classrooms, especially computer science classrooms, rely on a myriad of digital tools to organize and maintain the course structure. Tools like learning management systems, automatic grading systems, submission systems, and practice systems all exist for computing students and faculty to use to help support the learning of programming concepts. By and large, these systems all rely on an underlying mechanism of points and aggregating points for scoring. In the face of such technological choices, adopting alternative grading practices can prove challenging for instructors and confusing for students. In this position paper, we advocate addressing key research problems to make these systems easier to use with alternative grading practices. These include comprehensive support for categorical grading, comprehensive support for rework and resubmission, and improved protocols for communication of scores and feedback. We propose an extension to LTI to support the needs of alternative grading practices, and we provide an initial design for this LTI extension. We discuss current problems and potential solutions and challenge the community to work on these problems and consider the design of future systems to embrace grading approaches that go beyond just points-based scoring.

  PublisherDOI

• Student Perceptions of Equitable Grading Practices

  Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen access

  Traditional grading practices have a number of limitations that often disproportionately affect students from underrepresented communities. As a result educators are exploring alternative grading practices, sometimes referred to as equitable grading practices (EGPs), that are backed by research, follow a more open assessment method, and have been shown to increase learning, particularly with these students. This paper reports on a preliminary study investigating the impact of three specific Equitable Grading Practices (EGPs) in an introductory computer science course: an EMRN grading scale for programming work, a flexible late policy, and the use of smaller and more frequent quizzes instead of larger and higher stakes exams. These practices were used in an introductory computer science course with 563 students. The study used a combination of pre- and post-surveys together with a small number of one-on-one interviews to gather student experiences and perceptions. The results indicate that while EGPs are generally well-received by students, there is room for improvement in how these practices are communicated and implemented. From these results, it is clear that student see and appreciate the benefits of these grading practices, although careful attention is needed to avoid potential pitfalls.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• There is an App for That: Moving a Large Introductory Computer Science Course to an Automated Course Delivery System

  2025-04-22

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Computer science as a discipline is well-placed to research and adopt new pedagogical technologies as they are developed. Many popular software platforms that have been adopted across institutions have started as research projects in computer science programs. Additionally, because of the growth in demand for computer science as a program of study, CS instructors have been on the forefront of adopting new approaches and technologies to be able to meet the requirements of teaching at scale. However, being at this intersection creates challenges of its own. There are hundreds of tools and approaches, many with some level of research behind them. These tools come from vendors large and small, with costs both large and small, and with a wide variety of features that may or may not meet the needs of the instructor and the approach they want to pursue. From infinite diversity comes infinite combinations, with the attendant number of questions that instructors must answer when designing their courses. What tools do we use? How do we pick? How can we integrate them? Can we get support? Will my institution approve them? How can I adopt a technique like peer instruction in a class of 600 ? Will the tools I pick support 50,000 assignment submissions per term? How do I manage change? In this paper we will report our experience redesigning our CS 2 course from a mix of disparate tools to a fully-automated, integrated course delivery system. We combined multiple teaching platforms into a unified design, that is delivered to the student as a coherent whole, rather than piecemeal. We will discuss the design decisions we made, and some we didn't, and why. We will discuss our approach, the challenges we faced, and also provide instructors with a set of “lessons learned”, questions they should ask themselves and their colleagues as they embark on any course redesign.

  PublisherDOI

• Student Perceptions of Equitable Grading Practices

  ScholarSpace (University of Hawaii at Manoa) · 2025-12-23

  article

  Traditional grading practices have a number of limitations that often disproportionately affect students from underrepresented communities. As a result educators are exploring alternative grading practices, sometimes referred to as equitable grading practices (EGPs), that are backed by research, follow a more open assessment method, and have been shown to increase learning, particularly with these students. This paper reports on a preliminary study investigating the impact of three specific Equitable Grading Practices (EGPs) in an introductory computer science course: an EMRN grading scale for programming work, a flexible late policy, and the use of smaller and more frequent quizzes instead of larger and higher stakes exams. These practices were used in an introductory computer science course with 563 students. The study used a combination of pre- and post-surveys together with a small number of one-on-one interviews to gather student experiences and perceptions. The results indicate that while EGPs are generally well-received by students, there is room for improvement in how these practices are communicated and implemented. From these results, it is clear that student see and appreciate the benefits of these grading practices, although careful attention is needed to avoid potential pitfalls.

  Publisher

• Early Experiences with Specifications Grading in Introductory CS Courses

  2024-10-13

  article

  This innovative practice paper describes our experiences with alternative grading practices in introductory computing courses and two large public universities in the United States. Computing classrooms often use traditional grading practices involving allocating points to assignments, deducting points for mistakes and tardiness, and combining assignment scores using a weighted average to determine grades. Recent research suggests that these practices may diminish achievement, discourage students, and suppress effort to such an extent that they are considered by some as detrimental. We approach our work as an exploratory case study, without predefined research questions or hypotheses. Our experiences began with the adoption of specifications grading. We outline the grading scheme applied to traditional programming assignments and exams/quizzes, and discuss the initial integration of these schemes with conventional auto-grading tools. We delve into student perceptions of alternative grading, their utilization of flexible deadlines, and resubmission opportunities. We conclude with a discussion of two challenges encountered during our exploration: student acceptance of a novel grading form, and the adaptation of tools designed for traditional grading to support alternative grading mechanisms. Our early exploration aims to inspire further research on the use of alternative grading in computing. It is clear from our observations that simply implementing the practices does not ensure the equitable and inclusive outcomes that can be achieved with these practices. If students are not prepared to use these practices, they find them difficult to understand and can feel that they are not being treated fairly. Additionally, we wish to foster a community of practice to assist faculty members exploring these changes, with the goal of creating more equitable and inclusive classrooms.

  PublisherDOI

• Simplify, Consolidate, Intervene: Facilitating Institutional Support with Mental Models of Learning Management System Use

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-06-26

  preprintOpen access

  Measuring instructors' adoption of learning management system (LMS) tools is a critical first step in evaluating the efficacy of online teaching and learning at scale. Existing models for LMS adoption are often qualitative, learner-centered, and difficult to leverage towards institutional support. We propose depth-of-use (DOU): an intuitive measurement model for faculty's utilization of a university-wide LMS and their needs for institutional support. We hypothesis-test the relationship between DOU and course attributes like modality, participation, logistics, and outcomes. In a large-scale analysis of metadata from 30000+ courses offered at Virginia Tech over two years, we find that a pervasive need for scale, interoperability and ubiquitous access drives LMS adoption by university instructors. We then demonstrate how DOU can help faculty members identify the opportunity-cost of transition from legacy apps to LMS tools. We also describe how DOU can help instructional designers and IT organizational leadership evaluate the impact of their support allocation, faculty development and LMS evangelism initiatives.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Transforming Grading Practices in the Computing Education Community

  2024-03-07 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access

  It is often the case that computer science classrooms use traditional grading practices where points are allocated to assignments, mistakes result in point deductions, and assignment scores are combined using some form of weighted averaging to determine grades. Unfortunately, traditional grading practices have been shown to reduce achievement, discourage students, and suppress effort to such an extent that some common elements of traditional grading practices have been termed toxic. Using grades to reward or punish student behavior does not encourage learning and instead increases anxiety and stress. These toxic elements are present throughout computing education and computer science classrooms in the form of late penalties, lack of credit for code that doesn't compile or pass certain unit tests, among others. These types of metrics, that evaluate behavior are often influenced by implicit bias, factors outside of the classrooms (e.g., part-time employment), and family life situations (e.g., students who are caregivers). Often, students in these situations are disproportionately from low-socioeconomic backgrounds and predominantly students of color. Through this paper, we will present a case for adoption of equitable grading practices and a call for additional support in classroom and teaching technologies as well as support from administrations both at the department and university level. By adopting a community of practice approach, we argue that we can support new faculty making these changes, which would be more equitable and inclusive. Further, these practices have been shown to better support student learning and can help increase student learning gains and retention.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Identifying critical self-regulated learning skills: a Delphi process study

  Computer Science Education · 2024-10-27 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Simplify, Consolidate, Intervene: Facilitating Institutional Support with Mental Models of Learning Management System Use

  Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · 2024-11-07 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Measuring instructors' adoption of learning management system (LMS) tools is a critical first step in evaluating the efficacy of online teaching and learning at scale. Existing models for LMS adoption are often qualitative, learner-centered, and difficult to leverage towards institutional support. We propose depth-of-use (DOU): an intuitive measurement model for faculty's utilization of a university-wide LMS and their needs for institutional support. We hypothesis-test the relationship between DOU and course attributes like modality, participation, logistics, and outcomes. In a large-scale analysis of metadata from 30000+ courses offered at Virginia Tech over two years, we find that a pervasive need for scale, interoperability and ubiquitous access drives LMS adoption by university instructors. We then demonstrate how DOU can help faculty members identify the opportunity-cost of transition from legacy apps to LMS tools. We also describe how DOU can help instructional designers and IT organizational leadership evaluate the impact of their support allocation, faculty development and LMS evangelism initiatives.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Data-Informed Learning Design in a Computer Science Course

  2023-01-01 · 2 citations

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Stephen H. Edwards

  Virginia Tech

  8 shared

• Taha Hassan

  Virginia Tech

  6 shared

• Vincent Berry

  Université de Montpellier

  6 shared

• Larry Cox

  Virginia Tech

  5 shared

• Daron Williams

  Virginia Tech

  5 shared

• Brian Plancher

  4 shared

• D. Scott McCrickard

  Virginia Tech

  3 shared

• Margaret Ellis

  Virginia Tech

  3 shared