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Counsell, S

Ghinea, G

Lauria, S

Scott, MJ

Shepperd, M

Swift, S

Tucker, A

IEEE Transactions on Education

English

Computer programming is notoriously difficult to learn. To this end, regular practice in the form of application and reflection is an important enabler of student learning. However, educators often find that first-year B.Sc. students do not readily engage in such activities. Providing each student with a programmable robot, however, could be used to facilitate application and reflection since, potentially, robots facilitate engaging learning experiences while providing immediate and intuitive feedback. This paper explores whether an introductory course centered upon programming personal robots in preparation for an end-of-course event day—a Robot Olympics—can help students to firstly, engage in programming practice more frequently and secondly, improve the quality of their code. A survey was conducted to examine the students’ programming practice behavior and students’ final coursework submissions were also reviewed for aspects of program quality. The findings from this cohort were compared to a reference group from a previous cohort that shared similar learning objectives and entry requirements, but had focused on web programming instead of using robots. The results reveal statistically significant increases in programming practice compared to the reference group. Furthermore, being enrolled on the course that culminated in the Robot Olympics was a significant predictor of two aspects of program quality: functional coherence and sophistication. This suggests that robot-centered courses can promote engagement with, and enhance some aspects of, programming practice

Brunel University Research Archive

Enhancing practice and achievement in introductory programming with a robot olympics

Computer programming is notoriously difﬁcult to learn. To this end, regular practice in the form of application and reﬂection is an important enabler of student learning. However, educators often ﬁnd that ﬁrst-year B.Sc. students do not readily engage in such activities. Providing each student with a programmable robot, however, could be used to facilitate application and reﬂection since, potentially, robots facilitate engaging learning experiences whilst providing immediate and intuitive feedback. This paper explores whether an introductory course centered upon programming personal robots in preparation for an end-of-course event day—a Robot Olympics—can help students to ﬁrstly, engage in programming practice more frequently and secondly, improve the quality of their code. A survey was conducted to examine the students’ programming practice behavior and students’ ﬁnal coursework submissions were also reviewed for aspects of program quality. The ﬁndings from this cohort were compared to a reference-group from a previous cohort that shared similar learning objectives and entry requirements, yet had focused on web programming as opposed to using robots. The results reveal statistically signiﬁcant increases in programming practice compared to the reference-group. Furthermore, being enrolled on the course culminating in the Robot Olympics was a signiﬁcant predictor of two aspects of program quality: functional coherence and sophistication. This suggests that robot-centered courses can promote engagement with, and enhance some aspects of, programming practice

Scott, Michael

Counsell, Steve

Stanislao, Lauria

Swift, Stephen

Tucker, Allan

Shepperd, Martin

Ghinea, Gheorghita

Falmouth University Research Repository (FURR)

Enhancing Practice and Achievement in Introductory Programming With a Robot Olympics

Enhancing Practice and Achievement in Introductory Programming With a Robot Olympics

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Brunel University Research Archive

Falmouth University Research Repository (FURR)

Brunel University Research Archive

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