mJeliot: ICT support for interactive teaching of programming

This paper reviews the issues and problems faced by students in learning programming, thus recommend a conceptual framework to overcome the problem. Computer programming courses are said to be complex and difficult, particularly to novice students. Among the causes of students' failure in developing programming skills is their inability to visually illustrate the flow of the program code during the program execution. To overcome this problem, a Program Visualization (PV) is recognized as one of the available learning support tools that can help novice students in enhancing their understanding of the programming execution. Nevertheless, using the PV alone without the active engagement with the tools will not produce the optimal learning outcome on students' programming performance. Previous studies indicated that, active learning strategies are among the most effective strategies in learning programming. Apart from learning strategies, there is a requirement of active involvement of students in the learning process, the ability to think logically which affect their ability to solve problems, thus lead them to develop a program. In addition, using PV as learning aids is expected to increase the students' self-efficacy in learning assignment activity and overcome the challenges of learning. Consequently, it is also important that these aspects are viewed in studies related to the effectiveness of any instructional materials such as PV to enhance programming performance, particularly in finding approaches that can improve novices' self-efficacy.

Proceedings of the 17th ACM annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, 2012

From paper to computers, the way that we have been writing down thoughts and performing symbolic computations has been constantly evolving. Teaching methods closely follow this trend, leveraging existing technology to make teaching more effective and preparing students for their later careers with the available technology. Right now, in 2012, we are in the middle of another technology shift: instead of using PCs and laptops, mobile devices are becoming more prevalent for most everyday computing tasks. In fact, never before in human history were incredibly powerful and versatile computing devices such as smartphones available and adopted so broadly. We propose that computer programming, and thus the teaching of programming, can and should be done directly on the mobile devices themselves, without the need for a separate PC or laptop to write code. Programming on smartphones that we carry around with us at all times means instant gratification for students, as they can show their games and applications to their friends, and it means that students can do their homework or additional practicing at all times. We describe TouchDevelop, a novel mobile programming environment, and call out challenges that need to be overcome and opportunities that it creates.

Algorithms, 2010

In recent years, many tools have been proposed to reduce programming learning difficulties felt by many students. Our group has contributed to this effort through the development of several tools, such as VIP, SICAS, OOP-Anim, SICAS-COL and H-SICAS. Even though we had some positive results, the utilization of these tools doesn't seem to significantly reduce weaker student's difficulties. These students need stronger support to motivate them to get engaged in learning activities, inside and outside classroom. Nowadays, many technologies are available to create contexts that may help to accomplish this goal. We consider that a promising path goes through the integration of solutions. In this paper we analyze the features, strengths and weaknesses of the tools developed by our group. Based on these considerations we present a new environment, integrating different types of pedagogical approaches, resources, tools and technologies for programming learning support. With this environment, currently under development, it will be possible to review contents and lessons, based on video and screen captures. The support for collaborative tasks is another key point to improve and stimulate different models of teamwork. The platform will also allow the creation of various alternative models (learning objects) for the same subject, enabling personalized learning paths adapted to each student knowledge level, needs and preferential learning styles. The learning sequences will work as a study organizer, following a suitable taxonomy, according to student's cognitive skills. Although the main goal of this environment is to support students with more difficulties, it will provide a set of resources supporting the learning of more advanced topics. Software engineering techniques and representations, object orientation and event programming are features that will be available in order to promote the learning progress of students.

Computer Science Education, 1998

Systems and methodologies have been developed to improve the learning and practice of programming. We examine the kinds of support tools that have been developed to date, and we discuss their role in meeting the needs of beginning students. We begin with a literature review to summarize the actual difficulties involved in learning the tasks of program development. A comprehensive survey of environments developed to support the learning of problem solving and programming follows, covering programming environments, debugging aids, intelligent tutoring systems, and intelligent programming environments. A careful analysis of these systems uncovers the limitations that have prevented them from accomplishing their goals.

Teaching computer programming to young students is a major challenge. This paper describes a web-based course for teaching programming using visualization and a gaming theme. Concepts are taught using real world examples that the target students can identify with; in this way some of the problems related to understanding abstract concepts are alleviated and learning occurs in context. The full range of multimedia technology including animation, sound and video are used to immerse the student in an environment where learning is fun and visual display of the concepts reinforce learning. A gaming theme is used for formative assessment. Students are provided with 'game' activities such as "spot the error", "predict the output" and "put in order". These enhance critical thinking. They test comprehension and knowledge as well as higher order thinking skills.

Algorithms, 2010

Both learning how to program and understanding algorithms or data structures are often difficult. This paper presents three complementary approaches that we employ to help our students in learning to program, especially during the first term of their study. We use a web-based programming task database as an easy and risk-free environment for taking the first steps in programming Java. The Animal algorithm visualization system is used to visualize the dynamic behavior of algorithms and data structures. We complement both approaches with tutorial videos on using the Eclipse IDE. We also report on the experiences with this combined approach.

2010

In recent years, many tools have been proposed to reduce programming learning difficulties felt by many students. Our group has contributed to this effort through the development of several tools, such as VIP, SICAS, OOP-Anim, SICAS-COL and H-SICAS. Even though we had some positive results, the utilization of these tools doesn't seem to significantly reduce weaker student's difficulties. These students need stronger support to motivate them to get engaged in learning activities, inside and outside classroom. Nowadays, many technologies are available to create contexts that may help to accomplish this goal. We consider that a promising path goes through the integration of solutions. In this paper we analyze the features, strengths and weaknesses of the tools developed by our group. Based on these considerations we present a new environment, integrating different types of pedagogical approaches, resources, tools and technologies for programming learning support. With this environment, currently under development, it will be possible to review contents and lessons, based on video and screen captures. The support for collaborative tasks is another key point to improve and stimulate different models of teamwork. The platform will also allow the creation of various alternative models (learning objects) for the same subject, enabling personalized learning paths adapted to each student knowledge level, needs and preferential learning styles. The learning sequences will work as a study organizer, following a suitable taxonomy,

Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 2009

Extended Library for Visual Interactive Applications (ELVIA) is a programming tool developed and used by the two most important public universities in the Baja California peninsula in México. ELVIA provides a Java class framework that helps novice students of programming to automatically generate the graphical user interface of interactive applications, focusing in the classes and objects that compose the applications. This paper describes ELVIA, some application examples and experiences applying this programming tool in introductory programming courses. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 20: 214–220, 2012

International Federation for Information …, 2010

Teaching informatics allows students to work out solutions for given problems. If this is done with typical elements in an object-oriented manner, they will find out objects and discuss several possible ways to structure a solution by combining the work of these objects. After ...

This paper describes an interactive programming assistance tool (iPAT) which is designed to assist students in solving introductory programming problems in C# and to reduce the instructor's work load in handling programming lab sessions. This is the only tool developed to assist students and instructors in solving their practical lab session problems, which comes with features such as error handling, screen sharing, a lab resource management system and a solution archive to solve common errors in C# programming. During a large computer lab setting with over 50 students, communication can be very limited between students and lab instructors. This problem was addressed via a fully integrated desktop application which allows students to undertake programming exercises and receive interactive guidance in getting their programs to compile and run. To ensure the accuracy of the system, it was deployed in a LAN network of ten computers which gave the idea of virtual lab environment. Then according to a five point scale ten undergraduates were asked to rank the usefulness of the system giving one to indicate that the system is 'not at all useful' and five to indicate that the system is 'extremely useful'. According to the provided rankings an average rating of 4.3 was obtained.