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 paper, we describe our approach in addressing learning challenges students experience in introductory programming courses. We combine two effective instructional methodologies to help students learn to plan pr...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781450305006
In this paper, we describe our approach in addressing learning challenges students experience in introductory programming courses. We combine two effective instructional methodologies to help students learn to plan programs prior to writing code: Cognitive Apprenticeship Learning (CAL) and Cognitive Tutors (CT). In the CAL component, the instructor models program planning in class and paper handouts are used to scaffold program planning in homework assignments. In CAL-CT, the program-planning process is also supported by a computer tutor which provides step-by-step feedback and advice. The results show that the combined CAL-CT approach yielded substantial gains over traditional instruction. Its advantage over the CAL-Only approach is also significant.
In today's teaching and learning approaches for first-semester students, practical courses more and more often complement traditional theoretical lectures. This practical element allows an early insight into the r...
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In today's teaching and learning approaches for first-semester students, practical courses more and more often complement traditional theoretical lectures. This practical element allows an early insight into the real world of engineering, augments student motivation, and enables students to acquire soft skills early. This paper describes a new freshman introduction course into practical engineering, which has been established within the Bachelor of Science curriculum of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of RWTH Aachen University, Germany. The course is organized as an eight-day, full-time block laboratory for over 300 freshman students, who were supervised by more than 60 tutors from 23 institutes of the Electrical Engineering Department. Based on a threefold learning concept comprising mathematical methods, MATLAB programming, and practical engineering, the students were required to transfer mathematical basics to algorithms in MATLAB in order to control LEGO Mindstorms robots. Toward this end, a new toolbox, called the "RWTH-Mindstorms NXT Toolbox," was developed, which enables the robots to be controlled remotely via MATLAB from a host computer. This paper describes how the laboratory course is organized and how it induces students to think as actual engineers would in solving real-world tasks with limited resources. Evaluation results show that the project improves the students' MATLAB programming skills, enhances motivation, and enables a peer learning process.
In this poster, it is aimed to share the experience of using course management systems (CMS) in a CS 1 course. The aim was to focus on the individual needs of students while learning programming. Creating a social onl...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781605583815
In this poster, it is aimed to share the experience of using course management systems (CMS) in a CS 1 course. The aim was to focus on the individual needs of students while learning programming. Creating a social online environment for solving exercises and sharing solutions seemed to be effective to support instructors as well as students.
Novice programmers, have diffucalties in understanding fundamental programming concepts and methods. In order to overcome these difficulties, several nethods have been proposed, such as programming mechanical construc...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781934272114
Novice programmers, have diffucalties in understanding fundamental programming concepts and methods. In order to overcome these difficulties, several nethods have been proposed, such as programming mechanical constructions (educational robotics). In this paper we present a comparison between two programming environments for the LEGO robots, used in the teaching of programming to young pupils. Our results seem to suggest that probably, a text-based interface, such as BrickxCC, could be at least equally effective, if not more effective, as totally graphical interfaces, often used to introductory programming courses.
Teaching and learning how to program requires environments designed to support these activities rather than commercially available integrated development environments. This paper presents an instructional environment ...
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ISBN:
(纸本)1581130856
Teaching and learning how to program requires environments designed to support these activities rather than commercially available integrated development environments. This paper presents an instructional environment which embraces the entire process of design, algorithm development, testing and debugging while minimizing the syntactic details with which students must cope. Students using this environment develop a view of programming in which design and testing are integral parts of program development.
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