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

Designing Prototype Model of an Online Collaborative Learning System for Introductory Computer Programming Course

AbstractThis paper discusses the design of the prototype model of the online collaborative learning system for introductory computer programming course. The methodology used involves three phases which are the data collection, analysis and design and the implementation phase. Initially, fifty respondents from the first year students of the Diploma in Computer Science in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Perlis, Malaysia have been randomly selected to participate in the data collection phase in order to investigate the students’ interests, learning styles as well as their learning preferences. The results have shown the need for the development of online small group discussions that could facilitate online communication and collaboration from dispersed location, hence encouraging distance learning education. A design of a structure model for an online collaborative learning system has been constructed in order to support the online collaborative learning activities in a virtual environment. The logical designs of the Online Collaborative Learning System or OCLS are being designed using the object-oriented models which are the use-case model and class diagram in order to show the concise processes of virtual “Think-Pair-Share” collaborative activities. The “Think-Pair-Share” collaborative learning technique that is being used in the design structures has been chosen because of its simplicity and relatively low-risk. Later, the physical design of the prototype model is being constructed using the Web-based technologies which are the MySQL database, PHP and Apache web server. This paper also discusses the impact of the online collaborative learning system towards the students’ performance where analysis has shown that the t-test result had a significant value of 0.01, which is less than 0.05 (sig. 2-tailed)

Contours of Inclusion: Inclusive Arts Teaching and Learning

The purpose of this publication is to share models and case examples of the process of inclusive arts curriculum design and evaluation. The first section explains the conceptual and curriculum frameworks that were used in the analysis and generation of the featured case studies (i.e. Understanding by Design, Differentiated Instruction, and Universal Design for Learning). Data for the cases studies was collected from three urban sites (i.e. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston) and included participant observations, student and teacher interviews, curriculum documentation, digital documentation of student learning, and transcripts from discussion forum and teleconference discussions from a professional learning community.The initial case studies by Glass and Barnum use the curricular frameworks to analyze and understand what inclusive practices look like in two case studies of arts-in-education programs that included students with disabilities. The second set of precedent case studies by Kronenberg and Blair, and Jenkins and Agois Hurel uses the frameworks to explain their process of including students by providing flexible arts learning options to support student learning of content standards. Both sets of case studies illuminate curricular design decisions and instructional strategies that supported the active engagement and learning of students with disabilities in educational settings shared with their peers. The second set of cases also illustrate the reflective process of using frameworks like Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to guide curricular design, responsive instructional differentiation, and the use of the arts as a rich, meaningful, and engaging option to support learning. Appended are curriculum design and evaluation tools. (Individual chapters contain references.

Facilitating Online Learning via Zoom Breakout Room Technology : A Case of Pair Programming Involving Students with Learning Disabilities

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has required many educators to redesign how they deliver their courses. In this study, we develop innovative procedures and pedagogy to teach pair programming via Zoom breakout rooms in a cloud environment. We report six fundamental innovative teaching mechanisms and procedures: 1) strategically planning a course, 2) effectively managing teaching resources, 3) enhancing faculty responsiveness, 4) selecting reliable technology, 5) mandating online educator’s training, and 6) accommodating students with learning disabilities. From teaching pair programming via Zoom breakout rooms, we have gained valuable experience in promoting collaborative, engaging, active, and problem-based learning activities in a cloud environment. Our results enrich our knowledge of delivering online education and contribute to pair programming literature in general

Combining behavioural types with security analysis

Today's software systems are highly distributed and interconnected, and they increasingly rely on communication to achieve their goals; due to their societal importance, security and trustworthiness are crucial aspects for the correctness of these systems. Behavioural types, which extend data types by describing also the structured behaviour of programs, are a widely studied approach to the enforcement of correctness properties in communicating systems. This paper offers a unified overview of proposals based on behavioural types which are aimed at the analysis of security properties

Pair modeling with DynaLearn - Students' attitudes and actual effects

With DynaLearn learners can construct scientific knowledge by manipulating icons and their in-ter-relationships, using a diagrammatic representation. The diagrams represent models that can be simulated, confronting learners with the logical consequences of the knowledge they expressed. Such modeling activities are highly advocated by science educators. Learning from the construction and debugging processes of modeling can be enhanced by collaboration. The modeling elements can serve as anchors for discussing, justifying, and explaining the model. Researchers have suggested various ways of supporting collaboration. In this study we employed Pair Modeling, which is an adaptation of the pair programming technique that is used for enhancing collaborative programming both in the industry and in academia. In this paper we present encouraging results for the use of this collaboration technique based on assignments' scores, observations, and a ques-tionnaire. Students' attitudes were neutral on the average, but the average score of the group that employed Pair Modeling was significantly higher than the average score of the control group that employed unstructured pair collaboration. We discuss the implications of the obtained results and the limitations of the study

Social Worked-Examples Technique to Enhance Student Engagement in Program Visualization

يعد تعلم البرمجة من بين أهم التحديات في تعليم علوم الكمبيوتر. حاليا، يتم استخدام تصوير البرامج ) PV ( كأداة للتغلب علىمعدلات الفشل والتسرب العالية في مادة اساسيات البرمجة. ومع ذلك، هناك مخاوف متزايدة بشأن فعالية أدوات تصوير البرامج الحالية استناداالى النتائج المختلطة المستمدة من الدراسات المختلفة. تعتبر مشاركة الطلاب أيضًا عاملاً حيويًا في بناء PV ناجحًا، كما تعد أيضًا جزءًا مهمًامن عملية التعلم بشكل عام. تم إدخال العديد من التقنيات لتعزيز المشاركة في أدوات تصوير البرامج؛ ومع ذلك، فإن مشاركة الطلاب في PVلا يزال يمثل تحديًا كبيراً. استخدمت هذه الورقة ثلاث نظريات مختلفة: البنيوية، والبناء الاجتماعي، والحمل المعرفي لاقتراح تقنية لتعزيزمشاركة الطلاب في استخدام أدوات تصوير البرامج. تعمل تقنية الأمثلة المكتملة الاجتماعية ) SWE ( على تحويل المثال المكتمل التقليدي إلىنشاط اجتماعي ، حيث يتم التركيز بشكل أكبر على دور التعاون في بناء معرفة الطلاب. حددت هذه الدراسة ثلاثة مبادئ يمكن أن تعززمشاركة الطلاب من خلال تقنية SWE : التعلم النشط والتعاون الاجتماعي والأنشطة ذاتس التحميل المنخفض.Learning programming is among the top challenges in computer science education. A part of that, program visualization (PV) is used as a tool to overcome the high failure and drop-out rates in an introductory programming course. Nevertheless, there are rising concerns about the effectiveness of the existing PV tools following the mixed results derived from various studies. Student engagement is also considered a vital factor in building a successful PV, while it is also an important part of the learning process in general. Several techniques have been introduced to enhance PV engagement; however, student engagement with PV is still challenging. This paper employed three theories—constructivism, social constructivism and cognitive load to propose a technique for enhancing student engagement with program visualisation. The social worked-examples (SWE) technique transforms the traditional worked-example into a social activity, whereby a greater focus is placed on the collaboration role in constructing students’ knowledge. This study identified three principles that could enhance student engagement through the SWE technique: active learning, social collaboration and low-load activity

Dagstuhl Reports : Volume 1, Issue 2, February 2011

Online Privacy: Towards Informational Self-Determination on the Internet (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 11061) : Simone Fischer-Hübner, Chris Hoofnagle, Kai Rannenberg, Michael Waidner, Ioannis Krontiris and Michael Marhöfer Self-Repairing Programs (Dagstuhl Seminar 11062) : Mauro Pezzé, Martin C. Rinard, Westley Weimer and Andreas Zeller Theory and Applications of Graph Searching Problems (Dagstuhl Seminar 11071) : Fedor V. Fomin, Pierre Fraigniaud, Stephan Kreutzer and Dimitrios M. Thilikos Combinatorial and Algorithmic Aspects of Sequence Processing (Dagstuhl Seminar 11081) : Maxime Crochemore, Lila Kari, Mehryar Mohri and Dirk Nowotka Packing and Scheduling Algorithms for Information and Communication Services (Dagstuhl Seminar 11091) Klaus Jansen, Claire Mathieu, Hadas Shachnai and Neal E. Youn

Utilizing educational technology in computer science and programming courses : theory and practice

There is one thing the Computer Science Education researchers seem to agree: programming is a difficult skill to learn. Educational technology can potentially solve a number of difficulties associated with programming and computer science education by automating assessment, providing immediate feedback and by gamifying the learning process. Still, there are two very important issues to solve regarding the use of technology: what tools to use, and how to apply them? In this thesis, I present a model for successfully adapting educational technology to computer science and programming courses. The model is based on several years of studies conducted while developing and utilizing an exercise-based educational tool in various courses. The focus of the model is in improving student performance, measured by two easily quantifiable factors: the pass rate of the course and the average grade obtained from the course. The final model consists of five features that need to be considered in order to adapt technology effectively into a computer science course: active learning and continuous assessment, heterogeneous exercise types, electronic examination, tutorial-based learning, and continuous feedback cycle. Additionally, I recommend that student mentoring is provided and cognitive load of adapting the tools considered when applying the model. The features are classified as core components, supportive components or evaluation components based on their role in the complete model. Based on the results, it seems that adapting the complete model can increase the pass rate statistically significantly and provide higher grades when compared with a “traditional” programming course. The results also indicate that although adapting the model partially can create some improvements to the performance, all features are required for the full effect to take place. Naturally, there are some limits in the model. First, I do not consider it as the only possible model for adapting educational technology into programming or computer science courses. Second, there are various other factors in addition to students’ performance for creating a satisfying learning experience that need to be considered when refactoring courses. Still, the model presented can provide significantly better results, and as such, it works as a base for future improvements in computer science education.Ohjelmoinnin oppimisen vaikeus on yksi harvoja asioita, joista lähes kaikki tietojenkäsittelyn opetuksen tutkijat ovat jokseenkin yksimielisiä. Opetusteknologian avulla on mahdollista ratkaista useita ohjelmoinnin oppimiseen liittyviä ongelmia esimerkiksi hyödyntämällä automaattista arviointia, välitöntä palautetta ja pelillisyyttä. Teknologiaan liittyy kuitenkin kaksi olennaista kysymystä: mitä työkaluja käyttää ja miten ottaa ne kursseilla tehokkaasti käyttöön? Tässä väitöskirjassa esitellään malli opetusteknologian tehokkaaseen hyödyntämiseen tietojenkäsittelyn ja ohjelmoinnin kursseilla. Malli perustuu tehtäväpohjaisen oppimisjärjestelmän runsaan vuosikymmenen pituiseen kehitys- ja tutkimusprosessiin. Mallin painopiste on opiskelijoiden suoriutumisen parantamisessa. Tätä arvioidaan kahdella kvantitatiivisella mittarilla: kurssin läpäisyprosentilla ja arvosanojen keskiarvolla. Malli koostuu viidestä tekijästä, jotka on otettava huomioon tuotaessa opetusteknologiaa ohjelmoinnin kursseille. Näitä ovat aktiivinen oppiminen ja jatkuva arviointi, heterogeeniset tehtävätyypit, sähköinen tentti, tutoriaalipohjainen oppiminen sekä jatkuva palautesykli. Lisäksi opiskelijamentoroinnin järjestäminen kursseilla ja järjestelmän käyttöönottoon liittyvän kognitiivisen kuorman arviointi tukevat mallin käyttöä. Malliin liittyvät tekijät on tässä työssä lajiteltu kolmeen kategoriaan: ydinkomponentteihin, tukikomponentteihin ja arviontiin liittyviin komponentteihin. Tulosten perusteella vaikuttaa siltä, että mallin käyttöönotto parantaa kurssien läpäisyprosenttia tilastollisesti merkittävästi ja nostaa arvosanojen keskiarvoa ”perinteiseen” kurssimalliin verrattuna. Vaikka mallin yksittäistenkin ominaisuuksien käyttöönotto voi sinällään parantaa kurssin tuloksia, väitöskirjaan kuuluvien tutkimusten perusteella näyttää siltä, että parhaat tulokset saavutetaan ottamalla malli käyttöön kokonaisuudessaan. On selvää, että malli ei ratkaise kaikkia opetusteknologian käyttöönottoon liittyviä kysymyksiä. Ensinnäkään esitetyn mallin ei ole tarkoituskaan olla ainoa mahdollinen tapa hyödyntää opetusteknologiaa ohjelmoinnin ja tietojenkäsittelyn kursseilla. Toiseksi tyydyttävään oppimiskokemukseen liittyy opiskelijoiden suoriutumisen lisäksi paljon muitakin tekijöitä, jotka tulee huomioida kurssien uudelleensuunnittelussa. Esitetty malli mahdollistaa kuitenkin merkittävästi parempien tulosten saavuttamisen kursseilla ja tarjoaa sellaisena perustan entistä parempaan opetukseen