An investigation into student reactions towards rad versus traditional programming environments for novice developers

The traditional approach to programming using text editors is widely used in many institutions to teach introductory programming. These types of traditional programming environments provide fundamental programming concepts for learning, especially in the context of novice developers. In recent years, teaching institutions have seen a trend towards the introduction of visual drag-and-drop rapid application development (RAD) environments for teaching novice programmers. These \u27environments capture student interest in programming by allowing the construction of workable programs within a short time frame based on minimal pre-existing coding knowledge. However, some have argued that these visual RAD environments might not be suitable for providing fundamental programming concepts and syntax to novice developers. This research examines student perceptions towards visual RAD environments in comparison to traditional environments for learning programming for novice developers, mainly focusing on the novice developer\u27s first programming environment. To gather student reactions towards these programming environments, surveys, interviews and workshops were conducted with novice, intermediate and expert level student programmers. The results indicate that while visual RAD environments managed to capture the majority of the participants\u27 interest, the traditional approach was largely accepted as the most appropriate first environment for novice developers. Another finding from this research is the participants\u27 perceptions of the key aspects of learning programming, which also formed part of the deciding factors for the first environment. Understanding the underlying concepts, syntax and logic of the program seem to be the most important aspects followed by interest level and the ability to build workable programs quickly. The majority of participants perceived that traditional programming environments could help novice developers with understanding underlying concepts and syntax better than visual RAD environments. Although visual RAD environments do not require a traditional programming environment at the early stage of programming, the latter would become necessary as the program grows and more complex functions are required. Overall, the visual RAD environment was still the preferred environment for development despite the lack of pedagogical benefits compared with traditional environments

Exploring student perceptions about the use of visual programming environments, their relation to student learning styles and their impact on student motivation in undergraduate introductory programming modules

My research aims to explore how students perceive the usability and enjoyment of visual/block-based programming environments (VPEs), to what extent their learning styles relate to these perceptions and finally to what extent these tools facilitate student understanding of basic programming constructs and impact their motivation to learn programming

Algorithmic pedagogy: Using code analysis to deliver targeted supplemental instruction

Doctor of PhilosophyCurriculum and Instruction ProgramsJacqueline D SpearsLearning to program has long been known to be a difficult task, requiring a student to develop both fluency in the syntax and grammar of a formal programming language and learn the problem-solving approaches and techniques of computational thinking. The successful teaching strategies of the past have involved maintaining small teacher-student ratios and large amounts of supplemental instruction in lab courses. However, recent growth in the demand for programming courses from both computer science major and nonmajor students has drastically outpaced the expansion of computer science faculty and created a shortage in available lab space and time across American universities. This study involved creating a software tool for automatically delivering targeted supplemental instruction to students based on a real-time algorithmic analysis of the program code they were writing. This approach was piloted with students enrolled in a sophomore-level object-oriented software development course. The majority of students reported finding the detection and reporting of issues in their code helpful. Moreover, students who were less proficient programmers entering the course who utilized the tool showed statistically significant improvement in their final exam grade over those who did not. Thus, adopting the strategy piloted in this study could improve instruction in larger classes and relieve some of the strain on overburdened computer science departments while providing additional learning benefits for students