Tools to support practical teaching of software engineering

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto, Budapest University of Technology and Economics. 201

Estrategias educativas en la enseñanza de la programación: un enfoque constructivista

La asignatura de programación es una de las que tienen el índice más alto de reprobación en el área de ingeniería del ITESO. El problema se observa también en otras universidades alrededor del mundo, según lo muestran diversas investigaciones, que además señalan que uno de los factores responsables de esta dificultad tiene relación directa con la manera de enseñar, tanto en lo referente al estilo docente como a los contenidos específicos que se trabajan en las sesiones de clase y que restringen el desarrollo de las habilidades cognoscitivas necesarias para el dominio de la programación. Esta investigación abordó las estrategias educativas del proceso de enseñanza de la programación, las cuales se exploran desde tres niveles: las acciones, los episodios y la secuencia metodológica. El objetivo fue reportar los principales hallazgos sobre estas estrategias que son las utilizadas en el Departamento de Electrónica, Sistemas e Informática del ITESO, con la intención de proporcionar información que ayude a la coordinación del área curricular de programación a evaluar, planear y diseñar políticas para mejorar la práctica docente

Facillitating, teaching and learning of programming with inter-active multimedia.

This thesis investigates effective ways of designing and integrating InteractiveMultimedia (IMM) to facilitate teaching and learning of programming. Drawing on apreliminary investigation in IMM and learning, an initial design and integrationapproach was developed. The architecture and design features of IMM courseware andits integration were modelled to suppOli the learning activities defined by Laurillard'sconversational and Mayes' learning frameworks and to accommodate the needs for thedomain identified at two UK Universities. The approach aimed to improve the quality ofstudent learning with IMM courseware through creating a learning context whichsupports the teaching and learning processes; encourages students to use the coursewarefor learning; and increases their motivation and interests in the subject matter they study.The primary emphasis of this approach lies in integrating IMM for lectures and tutorial.Sequent case studies were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach insupporting teaching and learning. Two IMM courseware, consisting of resource-orientedand task-oriented materials, were developed and integrated into four programmingmodules at Napier and BruneI Universities. To explore the effects of hyperlinks inproblem-solving contexts, three different variations of the task-oriented material weredeveloped: one without hyperlinks, the second with questions (static), and the third withmodel answers when the questions were answered incorrectly (dynamic).The results suggested that student learning experience was enhanced by the use of theIMM courseware for teaching and learning: their performance and perceptions of thesubject matters improved. Using the IMM courseware in lectures and tutorials enhancedthe teaching and learning processes, promoted active learning and reflective thinking,and created collaborative learning environment. However, weaknesses were alsoidentified in supporting student learning with different knowledge levels. As for thehyperlinks effects, the results showed that the 'dynamic' hyperlinks improved students'performance most effectively. They helped students become aware of theirmisconceptions and correct them through revisiting the resource-oriented material; andin the process reflect on what they learnt in lectures. The 'static' hyperlinks were foundto be beneficial when students did not have sufficient knowledge to test. In addition, theresults revealed various factors affecting student learning with IMM. Among them wasstudents' familiarity with IMM, which emphasised the importance of integrating IMMcourseware in a way that encourages students to use it for learning.The thesis presents a design and integration approach informed by the findings from thecase studies, and proposes a design and integration process with IMM. The processconsists of three phases (designing and integrating IMM, and facilitating learning withIMM) and the factors affecting the phases, and illustrates the relationship between them