Supporting Introductory Test-Driven Labs with WebIDE

WebIDE is a new web-based development environment for entry-level programmers with two primary goals: minimize tool barriers to writing computer programs and introduce software engineering best practices early in a student\u27s educational career. Currently, WebIDE focuses on Test-Driven Learning (TDL) by using small iterative examples and introducing lock-step labs, which prevent the student from moving forward until they finish the current step. However, WebIDE does not require that labs follow TDL. Instructors can write their own labs for WebIDE using any software engineering or pedagogical approach. Likewise, instructors can build custom evaluators - written in any language - to support their approach and provide detailed error messages to students. We report on a pilot study in a CS0 course where students were split into two groups, one that used WebIDE and one that didn\u27t. The WebIDE group showed a significant improvement in performance when writing a simple Android application. Additionally, among students with some programming experience, the WebIDE group was more proficient in writing unit tests

Improving WebIDE through Delightful Design and Gamification

WebIDE is a web-based online learning environment. WebIDE has been used successfully to teach CS0 and CS1 students Java and C concepts and software engineering best practices, specically Test Driven Development. Previous Web- IDE development has concentrated on developing functionality. The main goal of this eort is to improve two non-functional aspects of WebIDE. The rst is to design a more delightful user interface. The second is to add a scoring mecha- nism that encourages students to develop best practices. The scoring mechanism rewards students who answer the question correctly on the rst attempt, dis- couraging them from spamming the answer button. Our objective is to motivate the students to think before answering. The innovations are evaluated through a semi-controlled experiment that was conducted during the Fall quarter of 2012 at Cal Poly

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research

Desarrollo de un juego serio basado en test.driven learning para la enseñanza de matrices y transformaciones geométricas en cursos de programación de los primeros años de la Escuela Profesional de Ingeniería de Sistemas

Este trabajo nace de nuestra preocupación por la dificultad en el aprendizaje de cursos de programación y matemáticas en los estudiantes de primeros años de la carrera de Ingeniería de Sistemas. Actualmente en la currícula de este programa en la Universidad Católica de Santa María, los cursos de programación y/o matemáticas impartidas durante los primeros años pueden llegar a ser muy complejos, ocasionando dificultades en su aprendizaje. La solución que plantea el presente trabajo está basada en la construcción de un Juego Serio utilizando el enfoque: Test Driven Learning con el uso de estrategias enseñanza-aprendizaje para promover el aprendizaje de matrices y implementación de operaciones básicas, aplicadas en transformaciones geométricas. Fue aplicado en cursos de 1er año y de 2do año en los años 2017 y 2018 obteniendo resultados relevantes de la experimentación los cuales se analizaron estadísticamente, utilizando las pruebas de Kolmogorov-Smirnov y Wilcoxon para determinar si existen diferencias significativas, además se realizó una medición de patrones en actividad cerebral utilizando un dispositivo para este fin (Emotiv Insight), finalmente se incorporó encuestas estructuradas a los estudiantes para comprender sus percepciones de la metodología propuesta en relación a la tradicional. Se concluyó que los estudiantes incrementan su motivación al experimentar una metodología basada en juegos, así mismo quedó demostrado que los estudiantes mejoraron sus calificaciones utilizando el videojuego en parejas, se determinó que no existe una diferencia significativa con una metodología tradicional en cuanto conocimientos, pero se puede decir que la metodología experimental generó mayor motivación en los estudiantes. Palabras clave: TDD, TDL, Estrategias de enseñanza, Transformaciones Geométricas, Deserción, Ingenierías, Juegos Serios

An evaluation of interactive test-driven labs with webIDE in CS0

WebIDE is a framework that enables instructors to develop and deliver online lab content with interactive feedback. The ability to create lock-step labs enables the instructor to guide students through learning experiences, demonstrating mastery as they proceed. Feedback is provided through automated evaluators that vary from simple regular expression evaluation to syntactic parsers to applications that compile and run programs and unit tests. This paper describes WebIDE and its use in a CS0 course that taught introductory Java and Android programming using a test-driven learning approach. We report results from a controlled experiment that compared the use of dynamic WebIDE labs with more traditional static programming labs. Despite weaker performance on pre-study assessments, students who used WebIDE performed two to twelve percent better on all assessments than the students who used traditional labs. In addition, WebIDE students were consistently more positive about their experience in CS0