Abstract:
This preliminary report is based upon the experiences of
six students who had recently completed their first
semester of studying Unix. A phenomenographic analysis
of the interview transcripts identified four categones of
how students experienced Unix. One of the categories is
Unix as a resource, in which the student focuses on
characteristics of Unix such as its cost, vulnerability to
attack, robustness, and load capacity. The other three
categories focus on the direct user experience of Unix.
These three categories form an outcome space that is
linear and hierarchical. Those three categories are, from
lowest to highest: Unix as a set of commands, Unix as a
tool for solving certain problems, and Unix as a
professional computing environment. For this outcome
space, there are indications of a direct relationship
between the category most prominently manifested in
each student's interview transcript and the student's final
mark in the Unix course. There are also indications of a
similar relationship between the outcome space and the
student's performance on the R-SPQ-2F test for deep and
surface learning.
