Insights into students' conceptual understanding of operating systems: a four-year case study in online education

Abstract

For decades, instructors and researchers have been trying to improve or enhance the learning process of students. In this process, it is important to know whether students have misconceptions in their conceptual understanding. The study of these elements is becoming a relevant research area in science and engineering education. This article provides insights into why students have misconceptions in an online course on operating systems. Specifically, this study presents a four-year qualitative case study of 78 online students in order to identify misconceptions and the causes that generate them. Our results indicate that students experienced misconceptions with the concept of interrupt. In fact, this study reveals that the natural-language meaning of the term interrupt is a hindrance to understanding this concept. In addition, a methodology for discovering misconceptions and their causes is developed.