Nowadays, it is increasing the importance of developing skills related to the computational thinking at earlier stages of education, and the adoption of tools that implement the visual programming paradigm has been we...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781728103822
Nowadays, it is increasing the importance of developing skills related to the computational thinking at earlier stages of education, and the adoption of tools that implement the visual programming paradigm has been well succeeded in presenting introductory notions of programming from kindergarten to college. Such tools allows the user to program while manipulating blocks that represent programming languages instructions. iVProg is among this class of tools and was firstly implemented in Java and could be integrated to Moodie using iAssign. Due to technological evolution, iVProg also evolved to iVProg and its integration to Moodie is still possible by using the new version of iAssign that allow the integration of IITML stack packages to Moodie. In this paper we describe how this evolution takes place and presents iVProg functionalities as well as iAssign extension to include HTML stack packages into Moodie. In addition, we give some teaching support whenever integrated using iVProg with Moodie using iAssign.
We have introduced Peer-Educators through the Supplemental Instruction program and four Team-Based Learning laboratory assignments in our introduction to programming course. These four laboratory assignments are using...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781450358903
We have introduced Peer-Educators through the Supplemental Instruction program and four Team-Based Learning laboratory assignments in our introduction to programming course. These four laboratory assignments are using Finch Robots to facilitate student comprehension of basic object-oriented programming concepts. In contrast to other lab assignments, Finch labs are team-based activities that revolve around programming Finch, a programmable robot to do activities like moving, sensing the environment, playing music, etc. Introducing the Finch labs has multiple benefits for the students. It helps better anchor the basic concepts of object-oriented programming, since interacting with the Finch robot is done by instantiating a Finch object and performing method calls on the object. This helps students understand many of the object oriented topics of the course, like object instantiation, method calls, passing arguments to a method and changing the state of an object. Furthermore, the labs facilitate peer learning in a natural way, since students group to work on a physical object. The goal of our intervention is to increase retention in our introduction to programming offerings. We are currently on the third year of our project and after having concluded in the interventions we want to adopt we are evaluating them through post-activity surveys, end of the semester surveys and comparison of retention data.
At our university, like at many other institutions, the pass rate in the introductory programming (CS1) course is relatively low, in the approximate range of 50% to 75%. We would like to discover factors that have an ...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781450326056
At our university, like at many other institutions, the pass rate in the introductory programming (CS1) course is relatively low, in the approximate range of 50% to 75%. We would like to discover factors that have an impact on student success in introductory programming in order to better advise and place our students into the course at the appropriate point in their academic careers. Our main motivation for increasing the CS1 pass rate is to help our students graduate on time. It has long been thought that mathematics background is a factor in determining a student's success in introductory computer science courses. Currently, our students must be concurrently enrolled in college algebra or placed into a higher mathematics course. However, given our current low pass rate, we wonder whether this is the proper prerequisite. In order to gather information about mathematics background, we administered a questionnaire to the students enrolled in the class during Spring 2013. We then analyzed the pass rate of our introductory programming students in relation to their mathematics background. Our findings indicate that students who are prepared to take calculus I in the same semester as they take introductory programming were more likely to pass introductory programming. These findings suggest that changing our math prerequisite to pre-calculus may increase the pass rate in our introductory programming course.
In this work, we seek to better understand how game design principles impact the effectiveness of a video game learning environment for computational problem solving. Video games naturally encourage problem solving an...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781450329668
In this work, we seek to better understand how game design principles impact the effectiveness of a video game learning environment for computational problem solving. Video games naturally encourage problem solving and incremental learning of their game play systems, but it remains unclear how well that transfers to learning the structures and processes of computing. We are building a gateway game that establishes familiar problem solving game play, then expands player affordances to include the use of automation and abstraction. programming in-game entities is presented to players as a constrained selection and refinement process, which they explore and master in order to achieve in-game goals. We are exploring whether computational problem solving can be cast as accessible, intrinsically engaging game play, by following principles of good game design: exploratory player-controlled pace and direction, encouraging trial and low-cost failure, immediate formative feedback, level-appropriate challenge, non-intrusive assessment and expanding affordances. The game we are building to evaluate these factors will be positioned as a bridge for middle- and early high-school students to engage with computational problem solving.
This session is for anyone currently using Alice Level 2 and/or Alice Level 3, or those exploring the possibility of using Alice in their curriculum. The discussion leaders and attendees will share teaching strategies...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781450336857
This session is for anyone currently using Alice Level 2 and/or Alice Level 3, or those exploring the possibility of using Alice in their curriculum. The discussion leaders and attendees will share teaching strategies, tips, and techniques with each other and those new to Alice. This is an opportunity to share assignments and pointers to web sites to access instructional materials, such as syllabi, student projects, exams, and other resources. There will be a special emphasis on the new Alice 3 to Java textbook and accompanying support materials, how Alice supports the transition to Java, and mapping Alice 2 and Alice 3 curriculum standards and guidelines.
This workshop, designed for pre-AP, introduction to programming, programming for non-majors, and CS1 Java courses, will introduce the tools in Alice 3 that are specifically designed to support a transition to Java and...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781450336857
This workshop, designed for pre-AP, introduction to programming, programming for non-majors, and CS1 Java courses, will introduce the tools in Alice 3 that are specifically designed to support a transition to Java and will provide experience with the software, a new textbook, and the available course materials. The workshop offers hands-on experience in programming with Alice 3 and Java, together. Participants will see how to use Alice 3 to build virtual worlds and how to transfer these programs into a Java IDE. The workshop will also explore curricular design and implementation. Alice 3 uses built-in tools including a Java language display that dynamically updates and displays the Java syntax as students build their Alice project, and a plugin for a Java IDE that allows students to start their projects in Alice and then continue their work by writing Java code. These tools allow students to develop animations and simple games using objects in a truly object-oriented style.
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