LoopAcademic: Helping the Learning and Teaching of Introductory Programming

Abstract

AbstractComputer course students tend to have difficulties in introductory programming classes, both with the syntax of the languages and in the development of logical reasoning to solve problems. These difficulties have caused problems for these courses, such as increased of dropout and retention, cancellation of enrollments in classes and, also, in the course, and the need to allocate new teachers to meet the growing demand for students in these classes. In order to assist students in the development of the necessary programming skills to solve problems solved by computers, this work proposes LoopAcademic, a Web environment for learning and teaching introductory programming concepts. To develop this environment, we used a design process based on the students’ needs who experience this context. To evaluate the environment, a usability test was applied, with seven students. The results of the usability test showed the potentials of the environment to help to minimize some of the main problems arising in learning to program presented by students.KeywordsProgramming teachingPrototypingUsability test