Contemporary developments in teaching and learning introductory programming: Towards a research proposal

The teaching and learning of introductory programming in tertiary institutions is problematic. Failure rates are high and the inability of students to complete small programming tasks at the completion of introductory units is not unusual. The literature on teaching programming contains many examples of changes in teaching strategies and curricula that have been implemented in an effort to reduce failure rates. This paper analyses contemporary research into the area, and summarises developments in the teaching of introductory programming. It also focuses on areas for future research which will potentially lead to improvements in both the teaching and learning of introductory programming. A graphical representation of the issues from the literature that are covered in the document is provided in the introduction

Creating a Team Tutor Using GIFT

With the movement in education towards collaborative learning, it is becoming more important that learners be able to work together in groups and teams. Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) have been used successfully to teach individuals, but so far only a few ITSs have been used for the purpose of training teams. This is due to the difficulty of creating such systems. An ITS for teams must be able to assess complex interactions between team members (team skills) as well as the way they interact with the system itself (task skills). Assessing team skills can be difficult because they contain social components such as communication and coordination that are not readily quantifiable. This article addresses these difficulties by developing a framework to guide the authoring process for team tutors. The framework is demonstrated using a case study about a particular team tutor that was developed using a military surveillance scenario for teams of two. The Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) software provided the team tutoring infrastructure for this task. A new software architecture required to support the team tutor is described. This theoretical framework and the lessons learned from its implementation offer conceptual scaffolding for future authors of ITSs

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

A Didactic-based Model of Scenarios for Designing an Adaptive and Context-Aware Learning System

Nowadays, technology-enhanced learning systems must have the ability to take into account the context and to allow dynamic adaptation to different learners based on substantial advances in pedagogical theories and knowledge models. The main issue is to design a generic scenario which can deal with the broadest range of learning situations. From a generic scenario, the learning system will compute on the fly a particular scenario dedicated to the current learner and its learning situation. The main contribution of this paper is a semantic and didactic-based model of scenarios for designing an adaptive and context-aware learning system. The scenario model is acquired from: i) the know-how and real practices of teachers ii) the theory in didactic anthropology of knowledge of Chevallard [1]; iii) a hierarchical task model

Adaptive and context-aware scenarios for technology-enhanced learning system based on a didactical theory and a hierarchical task model

Among the main issues of future technology-enhanced learning systems, we can mention the following ones: the ability to reuse learning resources (learning objects, tools and services) from large repositories, to take into account the context and to allow dynamic adaptation to different learners based on substantial advances in pedagogical theories and knowledge models. In our framework, the goal of scenarios is to describe the learning and tutoring activities to acquire some knowledge domain (for instance physics) and know-how to solve a particular problem. The main contribution of this paper is an adaptive and context-aware model of scenario based on a didactical theory and closely related to a domain model, a learner model, a context model. These models are acquired from: i) the know-how and real practices of teachers in a problem-based learning approach in a particular framework: an institution IUFM, different categories of probationary teachers, a course about ?the air as gas in its static and dynamic aspects: properties, theory and applications?; ii) the theory in didactic anthropology of knowledge of Chevallard [1]; iii) a hierarchical task model

EU–originated MOOCs, with focus on multi- and single-institution platforms

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