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

Using an e-learning tool to overcome difficulties in learning object-oriented programming

This study was motivated by the need to overcome the pedagogical hindrances experienced by introductory object-oriented programming students in order to address the high attrition rate evident among novice programmers in distance education. The initial phase of the research process involved exploring a variety of alternative visual programming environments for novices. Thereafter the selection process detailed several requirements that would define the ideal choice of the most appropriate tool. An educational tool Raptor was selected. Lastly, the core focus of this mixed method research was to evaluate undergraduate UNISA students’ perceptions of the Raptor e-learning tools with respect to the perceived effectiveness in enhancing novices’ learning experience, in an attempt to lower the barriers to object-oriented programming. Students’ perceptions collectively of the Raptor visual tool were positive and despite the fact that the sample size was too small to achieve statistical significance, these quantitative and qualitative results provide the practical basis for implementing Raptor in future. Thus providing learning opportunities suited to learner interests and needs, can lead to an enormous potential to stimulate individuals’ motivation and development in creating a more positive learning experience to overcome barriers in programming and enhance concept understanding to address the diverse needs of students in distance education that could lead to a reduced dropout rate.ComputingM. Sc. (Computing

Greenfoot evaluation as a tool for an introduction to game programming

Διπλωματική εργασία--Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2018Τα τελευταία χρόνια, παρατηρούνται ολοένα και λιγότερες εγγραφές φοιτητών σε μαθήματα επιστήμης των υπολογιστών, λόγω της λανθασμένης αντίληψης ότι όσοι ασχολούνται με τον προγραμματισμό είναι μοναχικοί, απομονωμένοι άνθρωποι. Καλό είναι ο προγραμματισμός να διδάσκεται σε μικρότερες ηλικίες πριν σχηματιστεί αυτή η εικόνα, πράγμα το οποίο φέρνει άλλες δυσκολίες όπως είναι το χαμηλό ενδιαφέρον και κίνητρο των μαθητών. Ο προγραμματισμός έχει κάποια χαρακτηριστικά που μπορούν να βοηθήσουν πολύ τον μαθητή ή τον φοιτητή, όπως για παράδειγμα ότι επιτρέπει να αναπτυχθεί η δημιουργικότητα του, αναπτύσσει στοιχεία αλληλεπίδρασης, έχει άμεσα αποτελέσματα, ενώ παράλληλα ο τρόπος εκμάθησης του προγραμματισμού μπορεί να είναι συναρπαστικός. Μεταξύ των μεθοδολογιών που υπάρχουν για την αποτελεσματικότερη διδασκαλία των αρχών του προγραμματισμού είναι η χρήση εκπαιδευτικών μεθόδων, η χρήση κατάλληλων γλωσσών και εργαλείων που διευκολύνουν την αντιμετώπιση των δυσκολιών του προγραμματισμού και συντελούν στην αύξηση του κινήτρου των μαθητών. Ένα από τα εργαλεία που χρησιμοποιούνται για τη διαδικασία αυτή είναι το Greenfoot. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία σχετίζεται με την παρουσίαση του εργαλείου αυτού τόσο από την εκπαιδευτική σκοπιά του προγραμματισμού, όσο και από την πλευρά της ανάπτυξης παιχνιδιών. Παρουσιάζονται έρευνες από τη σύγχρονη βιβλιογραφία, προκειμένου να παρουσιαστούν όλες οι πλευρές και οι μελέτες που έχουν γίνει με το εν λόγω εργαλείο. Παράλληλα, στην εργασία αυτή παρουσιάζονται και τα μέσα ανάπτυξης και οι στόχοι λειτουργίας του εργαλείου. Σκοπός της εργασίας είναι να γίνει μια πλήρης μελέτη των αναφορών που υπάρχουν και των πειραμάτων που έχουν γίνει. Παράλληλα, η εργασία παρουσιάζει και στηρίζει την ανάπτυξη μιας έρευνας η οποία έχει ως στόχο τη λήψη της γνώμης των χρηστών σχετικά με το εργαλείο Greenfoot, των επιλογών που έχει αυτό, των στοιχείων του, καθώς και της επισήμανσης των χαρακτηριστικών που του λείπουν ως εργαλείου ανάπτυξης παιχνιδιών. Μέσα από την έρευνα αυτή και την ανάλυση των αποτελεσμάτων, πάντα στο πλαίσιο της εργασίας, θα αναπτυχθούν δύο επεκτάσεις των δυνατότητων του περιβάλλοντος, των οποίων η παρουσίαση θα γίνει μέσα από ένα παιχνίδι σοβαρού σκοπού που αναπτύχθηκε στο Greenfoot

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

Graceful Language Extensions and Interfaces

Grace is a programming language under development aimed at education. Grace is object-oriented, imperative, and block-structured, and intended for use in first- and second-year object-oriented programming courses. We present a number of language features we have designed for Grace and implemented in our self-hosted compiler. We describe the design of a pattern-matching system with object-oriented structure and minimal extension to the language. We give a design for an object-based module system, which we use to build dialects, a means of extending and restricting the language available to the programmer, and of implementing domain-specific languages. We show a visual programming interface that melds visual editing (à la Scratch) with textual editing, and that uses our dialect system, and we give the results of a user experiment we performed to evaluate the usability of our interface

Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences Proceedings 2017

The conference proceedings of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences biannual conference, May 31-June 2, 2017 at Charleson Southern University

Learning programming language with problem based learning methodology in scientific competitions with Robocode

Orientador: Marcos Augusto Francisco BorgesDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de TecnologiaResumo: Alunos das gerações atuais, inseridos em um contexto de conectividade no universo digital, podem considerar desmotivadores ambientes de ensino tradicionais para disciplinas de programação. Este trabalho apresenta uma abordagem para ensino-aprendizagem de linguagem de programação, a partir do desenvolvimento de competições científicas baseadas no jogo digital educacional Robocode. O objetivo está associado em avaliar se competições científicas com Robocode estimulam aprendizagem de conceitos de programação de computadores em cursos técnicos e superiores da área de informática. O presente trabalho baseia-se nos conceitos da metodologia de aprendizado baseado em problemas (PBL ¿ Problem Based Learning) associado ao Robocode. Técnicas de pesquisa, como estudo de caso e questionários, foram utilizados com objetivo em identificar as potencialidades que o ambiente de ensino-aprendizagem pode proporcionar nas disputas entre equipes envolvendo conceitos de linguagem de programação Java. O trabalho discute a evolução, entre as competições Robocode do LIAG. Com a participação de professores apoiados no PBL, foram determinadas estruturas para os problemas gerados no jogo durante as competições. Professores com papel junto às equipes competidoras, de forma a prover suporte no sequenciamento e levantamento de hipóteses para resolução dos desafios inerentes à competição Robocode. O resultado do desenvolvimento de ambientes com métodos diversificados de ensino-aprendizagem, apontam as competições como uma abordagem efetiva quando o objetivo é auxiliar o estímulo de alunos com métodos lúdicos e colaborativos na aprendizagem de conceitos de linguagem de programação. A experiência de organização de competições científicas com envolvimento interinstitucional com base no jogo educacional Robocode foi analisada ao longo de dois anos, na Liga 2015 e Robocode Brasil 2016Abstract: Students of current generations, inserted in a context of connectivity in the digital universe may consider demotivating the traditional teaching environment for programing disciplines. This study presents an approach to teaching-learning programing language from the development of scientific competitions based on the educational digital game Robocode. The goal is associated with evaluating if scientific competitions with Robocode stimulate the learning of computers programing concepts in technical and superior courses of Computer Science área. The present work is based on problem-based learning (PBL) methodology concepts associated to Robocode. Research techniques, such as case studies and questionnaires were used to identify the potentialities the teaching-learning environment can provide in disputes among teams involving Java programing language concepts. The paper discuss the evolution, between the LIAG competitions Robocode. With teachers participation of supported in the PBL, structures were determined for problems generated in the game during the competitions. Teachers act together with the competing teams, in order to provide support in the sequencing and hypotheses to solve the challenges inherent to the Robocode competition. The result of the development of environment of diversified teaching-learning methods points out the competition an effective approach when the goal is to assist the stimulation of students with playful and collaborative methods in learning concepts of language programing. The experience of organizing scientific competition with interinstitutional involvement based on Robocode educational game was analyzed over two years, in the 2015 League and Brazil Robocode 2016MestradoTecnologia e InovaçãoMestre em Tecnologi