Promoting Students’ Programming Logic and Problem-Solving Awareness With Precision Feedback: A Two-Tier Test-Based Online Programming Training Approach

Abstract

Fostering students' computer programming skills has become an important educational issue in the globe. However, it remains a challenge for students to understand those abstract concepts when learning computer programming, implying the need to provide instant learning diagnosis and feedback in computer programming activities. In this study, a Two-Tier Test-Based Programming Training (T3PT) approach was proposed. Accordingly, an online learning system was developed to provide students with precision feedback for guiding them to identify misconceptions of computer programming to improve their computer programming learning achievement. In order to examine the effects of the proposed approach, a learning system was developed and a quasi-experiment was conducted. Two classes of 99 eighth-grade students from Taiwan were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The students in the experimental group used the learning system based on the T3PT approach, while the control group used the conventional learning system. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach was significantly superior to the conventional programming learning approach in terms of students' programming logic concepts, problem-solving awareness, technology acceptance, and satisfaction with the learning approach. Accordingly, discussion and suggestions are provided for future research.