This paper describes recent experiences gained and initiatives employed in the teaching of Java programming to first and second year students in the Institute of Technology Tallaght from September 2000 to March 2002. It outlines some elearning, technological and pedagogical initiatives that were undertaken within the department and the resultant preliminary outcomes. The outcomes have been determined after detailed analysis of the results of a survey which was commissioned to determine the effectiveness of the initiatives and also to identify those parts of the Java language which were causing students particular difficulty. The students surveyed are currently completing their fourth and final Java programming module. The Java programming modules make up the software development stream of a 2- year National Certificate in Computing (Information Systems). The typical profile of a first year computing student in IT Tallaght is someone who has achieved a reasonable but not exceptional level of academic attainment in the Leaving Certificate and who has had little or no previous exposure to software development. The design of the Java programming modules, while geared towards novices, is ambitious in an institutional learning context

Clynch, Gary

Hyland, Eamonn

English

Arrow@TUDublin

Technological University Dublin ARROW@TU Dublin Conference Papers School of Science and Computing 2002 Initial Experiences Gained and Initiatives employed in the Teaching of Java Programming in the Institute of Technology Tallaght Eamonn Hyland Technological University Dublin, eamonn.hyland@tudublin.ie Gary Clynch Technological University Dublin, gary.clynch@tudublin.ie Follow this and additional works at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ittscicon  Part of the Computer Engineering Commons Recommended Citation Hyland, E. and Clynch, G. Initial experiences gained and initiatives employed in the teaching of Java programming in the Institute of Technology Tallaght. Proceeding PPPJ '02/IRE '02 Proceedings of the inaugural conference on the Principles and Practice of programming, 2002. This Conference Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Science and Computing at ARROW@TU Dublin. It has been accepted for inclusion in Conference Papers by an authorized administrator of ARROW@TU Dublin. For more information, please contact yvonne.desmond@tudublin.ie, arrow.admin@tudublin.ie, brian.widdis@tudublin.ie. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License Initial experiences gained and initiatives employed in theteaching of Java programming in the Institute of TechnologyTallaghtEamonn Hyland, Gary ClynchDepartment of Computing,Institute of Technology Tallaght,Dublin 24,Ireland.eamonn.hyland@it-tallaght.iegary.clynch@it-tallaght.ieAbstractThis paper describes recent experiences gained and initiatives employed in theteaching of Java programming to first and second year students in the Institute ofTechnology Tallaght from September 2000 to March 2002. It outlines some e-learning, technological and pedagogical initiatives that were undertaken within thedepartment and the resultant preliminary outcomes. The outcomes have beendetermined after detailed analysis of the results of a survey which was commissionedto determine the effectiveness of the initiatives and also to identify those parts of theJava language which were causing students particular difficulty. The studentssurveyed are currently completing their fourth and final Java programming module.The Java programming modules make up the software development stream of a 2-year National Certificate in Computing (Information Systems).  The typical profile ofa first year computing student in IT Tallaght is someone who has achieved areasonable but not exceptional level of academic attainment in the Leaving Certificateand who has had little or no previous exposure to software development. The designof the Java programming modules, while geared towards novices, is ambitious in aninstitutional learning context.1. IntroductionThis paper describes recent experiences gained and initiatives employed in theteaching of Java programming to first and second year students in IT Tallaght fromSeptember 2000 to March 2002 as part of a National Certificate in Computing(Information Systems). The paper presents the results of a survey conducted amongstthe student body to determine the effectiveness of specific pedagogical initiativesundertaken with the aim of improving the learning experiences of students, and todetermine those concepts in Java that students find most difficult to understand. Theresearch was designed to be the first step in a series of surveys which will beconducted over the coming years. The study was specifically undertaken without anyreference to published research in this area. The ultimate aim of the research will be toquantitatively measure the effectiveness of various pedagogical initiatives employedin the teaching of Java in the department and identify exactly those areas of Java thatstudents have most difficulty with.The structure of the paper is as follows. Section 2 gives a brief introduction tocourses offered by the Department of Computing in IT Tallaght. Section 3 describessome pedagogical initiatives undertaken with respect to the teaching of Java with theintention of enhancing the learning experiences of students. Section 4 provides therationale for the survey and the survey design. Section 5 provides an analysis of thesurvey results. Section 6 provides conclusions.2. Introduction to the Computing Department, IT TallaghtThe Department of Computing, IT Tallaght, offers a 4-year programmeleading to a B.Sc. in Computing (Information Systems). The main thrust of theprogramme is the application of information technology to the solution of businessproblems. The primary objective of the programme is the production of professionalinformation systems developers. The flexible structure of the programme providesstudents with the option of leaving after 2 years with a National Certificate inComputing, after 3 years with a National Diploma or after 4 years with a B.Sc. inComputing. The programme is designed to prepare students for entry into a range ofsystems development careers by equipping them with the requisite technical, businessand interpersonal skills to meet the requirements of the software developmentindustry.3. Pedagogical InitiativesWhen the software development stream of the National Certificate courseunderwent a major review in 2000, one outcome of that review was that Javaprogramming would be taught from the start of the course for a period of 2 years full-time. New software development modules were developed (based on Java) and asthey were being delivered for the first time, consideration was given to otherpedagogical models that could be used to improve or add value to the softwaredevelopment learning experiences of students. Up until recently, lecturers in thedepartment traditionally delivered software development lectures to students inlecture theatre settings using slides and a whiteboard. These lectures were then furthersupplemented with practical sessions in the computing laboratories. Continuousassessments were normally distributed on paper (either one-off in-lab assessments orprojects over a period of time) and students completed and submitted theseassessments with associated paper documentation. Although this method of lecturesand assessment worked well, it was argued that this pedagogical model of teachingsoftware development could be improved. The potential of e-learning, specifically theWorld-Wide-Web, multimedia and course management systems were considered tosee if these technologies could be successfully exploited within the department toprovide an ‘added-value’ dimension to the traditional teaching model.Within this context, the first Java teaching initiative was implemented, whichwas the development of a departmental e-learning Intranet resource (Compweb i.e.http://compweb.it-tallaght.ie). Its primary purpose was to act as a repository of coursematerials for both staff and students involved with the Java modules. This resourcewas implemented prior to the start of the semester 1 module in September 2000 andwas available on all workstations in the computing laboratories.  The course noteswere published in web format using standard hypertext navigational features.Compweb has been used to deliver not just course notes, but also course schedules,laboratory worksheets and solutions, sample programs, continuous assessments andsolutions, continuous assessment results, and previous examination papers. It hassince been expanded to include most modules within the B.Sc. in Computing.The second teaching initiative included the introduction of a live codingapproach in lectures. This approach involves the lecturer using a laptop and projectorto demonstrate sample code, which supplements and illustrates the key points coveredin the lectures. The lecturer goes through sample problems and solutions in real-timewith the students.The third teaching initiative was the commissioning of a special teachinglaboratory equipped with an interactive whiteboard (smartboard) to further enhancethe live coding/teaching approach. The smartboard is an interactive whiteboardcoupled with a high-beam multimedia projector. The projector can be used to projecta screen image from the instructor’s or student’s workstation onto the smartboard. Theinstructor can use special colour pens to write over the image on the smartboard ashe/she would do with a traditional whiteboard. In addition to projecting images ontothe smartboard and writing over them with special markers, synchronisation softwareenables the instructor to project the image currently on the smartboard onto the screenof every workstation in the laboratory. The instructor can therefore project the screenimage of his/her workstation, or indeed the screen image of any student’s workstation,onto the smartboard and also onto the screen of every workstation in the laboratory.This laboratory has been received so positively by staff and students that all softwaredevelopment classes are now timetabled there.4. Survey Rationale and DesignTo determine the effectiveness of these various initiatives and of thedepartment’s performance in teaching Java in general, a qualitative research study wasundertaken. All of the 90 semester 4 (second year) students were surveyed. Toconduct this research, the instrument considered most appropriate to the objectivesand resources of the research was a questionnaire. The questionnaire was designedafter a detailed analysis of the research objectives. Questions were developed tocapture data to meet those objectives.The students have completed 3 semesters of Java to date and they are currentlycovering GUI building, applets, and database and file I/O in their fourth semester. Thetopics covered in Semester 1 were introducing Java and the Java platform, variablesand types, conditional statements, and looping statements. The topics covered inSemester 2 were arrays, objects and classes, and inheritance. The topics covered inSemester 3 were polymorphism, packages, exceptions, threads, and advancedlanguage features. Programming style and practice were covered throughout the threesemesters.The questionnaire was designed to ascertain facts about how students rated theJava programming learning experience over the previous 3 semesters. Specifically thefocus was to determine what difficulties students had with parts of the Java language,what parts of the language they found easy, and also how effective the extra teachinginitiatives may have been.The lecturers delivered the questionnaires to the students personally in asupervised classroom. Students were allocated class time to fill them in and wereasked to treat the questionnaire seriously. 63 questionnaires were returned giving aresponse rate of approximately 70% of all second year students.The questions were designed to accept a mixture of open ended and check boxresponses. The open-ended data was analyzed and interpreted with the detailed checkbox data and grouped under a number of overall headings.5. Survey Results and AnalysisThe purpose of the analysis is to highlight any strong trends, either positive ornegative, which can help educators within the department to deliver the modules withadded pedagogical value. Trends of interest include all aspects of course delivery, i.e.how Java is taught, facilities, course scheduling, course notes, worksheets, continuousassessments, exams etc. The purpose is also to discover those concepts in the Javalanguage with which students have particular difficulty. The design of the survey wasprimarily qualitative in nature, though some numerical data has been produced whichhas been subjected to a quantitative analysis.The first group of questions on the questionnaire inquired into the students’perception of the Java language over the 3 semesters in terms of which were the ’most’difficult’ topics and which were the ’easiest’ topics to understand. Specifically thestudents were asked the following two questions:“Please select the 3 most difficult topics to understand (in no particularorder)”“Please select the 3 easiest topics to understand (in no particular order)”There were asked to pick from the list of topics for semester 1 to semester 3 inclusiveas described in section 4 above. An analysis was performed where the number oftimes each topic was selected was counted, and divided by the total number ofselections made. As regards the most difficult topics, arrays emerged as the mostdifficult topic to learn with 28% of total selections (Table 1). The next most difficulttopic identified was threads at 20%. Polymorphism came next at 14%.The expectation of the instructors was that polymorphism would prove to bean extremely difficult concept for students to grasp. The survey indicates that studentsdid have a difficulty with polymorphism but that arrays were selected exactly twiceas often as polymorphism. It is possible that the extra time and effort devoted to theteaching of polymorphism, in anticipation of perceived student difficulties, resulted inthis positive outcome. It may also be the case that the instructional materials used toteach arrays were weak, that enough time was not devoted to the topic, or thatcomprehending complex data structures such as arrays is intrinsically a problem forstudents. Further analysis is required to determine exactly whether any of these, orsome combination of these, is the case. The exercise will be repeated again to see if afirm trend emerges.Table 1: Those topics that were considered ’most difficult’Arrays 28%Threads 20%Polymorphism 14%Looping Statements 10%Exceptions 9%Inheritance 6%Objects and Classes 4%Advanced Language Features 3%Others combined 6%As regards the easiest topics inheritance emerged as the easiest topic tounderstand with 18% of the total selections (see Table 2). This may be due to the factthat inheritance is a very natural concept that students can relate to, though furtherinvestigation is warranted before a firm conclusion could be reached in this regard.Packages and unexpectedly conditional statements came next at 16% and 15%respectively.Table 2: Those topics that were considered ’easiest’Inheritance 18%Packages 16%Conditional statements 15%Exceptions 10%Variables and Types 10%Objects and Classes 8%Looping statements 7%Polymorphism 5%Threads 4%Others combined 7%Another group of questions inquired into the students’ perception of what were thebest experiences and the main obstacles in learning Java programming in IT Tallaght.45% praised the quality of the course notes and indicated that this was one of the bestparts of the experience. Some interesting and related comments were their approval ofthe overall course structure and how they liked the way the course had been brokendown into learnable component areas. One third of the sample indicated that theyfound Java very difficult and that this was the biggest obstacle they faced. Lack ofaccess to facilities (i.e. computers during peak hours) also emerged as an obstacle for37% of the sample. The other obstacle of mention that recurred was the unavailabilityof the Compweb Intranet resource outside the college. Finally some interestingcomments emerged in relation to room facilities such as making the environment ofthe laboratories more attractive with the inclusion of plants etc.The next group of questions inquired into the students’ perception of howuseful the three teaching initiatives were i.e. Compweb, utilising the laptops in theclassroom to demonstrate live coding and the use of the special teaching laboratorywith the interactive whiteboard (smartboard) to do the same. Specifically thequestions asked were as follows:“How useful was the Compweb resource”“How useful was the Live Coding approach”“How useful was the Smartboard”In each case the possible answers were “Very useful”, “Useful” or “Not useful at all”.A breakdown of the answers to these questions is shown in Tables 3, 4 and 5 below.Overall all 3 initiatives were received very positively. The students have experienceof more traditional types of teaching in other modules e.g. whiteboards, markers,slides, workshops etc. but nothing of this nature in software development. Of the 3initiatives the Intranet resource Compweb received the highest “very useful” ratingwith 97%, followed by the Smartboard with 74% and lastly the “ live coding”approach with 67%. The Compweb resource facilitates self study by the students andthis may have resulted in it being given the highest rating by the students.Table 3: The Compweb Intranet resourceVery useful 97%Useful 3%Not useful at all 0%Table 4: The “Live Coding” approachVery useful 67%Useful 30%Not useful at all 3%Table 5: The Smartboard resourceVery useful 74%Useful 21%Not useful at all 5%6. ConclusionsThe aim of the survey was to get some preliminary information about theeffectiveness or otherwise of the pedagogical initiatives undertaken and to pinpointspecific problem areas within the Java language which could be targeted for improvedand/or more focused teaching effort. No firm conclusions can be made at this stagebased on the research results to date. A more quantitative analysis will be performedin the future before firm conclusions can be determined. Also no firm trends can bedetermined from the analysis of a survey of just one group of students at one point intime. It is intended that a new questionnaire will be designed and delivered at threeseparate time intervals in the future which will facilitate a more quantitative analysis. A number of tentative conclusions have been reached as a result of this initialresearch. First of all, all three initiatives have been deemed to have educational meritas they have enriched the learning experiences of the students. The intention is thatthey will be further expanded in the future. The e-learning resource Compweb will bedeveloped further and students will be given off campus access to it. Consideration isalso being given to equipping all other computing laboratories with Smartboardtechnology.Another conclusion is that further investigation is warranted into the wholetopic of arrays. The instructional materials for arrays are to be reviewed andconsideration given to the use of multimedia courseware to help convey pictorially theconcepts of arrays, particularly multi-dimensional arrays. Also under investigation isthe use of e-learning and course management software to support the Java stream.

Initial Experiences Gained and Initiatives employed in the Teaching of Java Programming in the Institute of Technology Tallaght

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Initial Experiences Gained and Initiatives employed in the Teaching of Java Programming in the Institute of Technology Tallaght

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