Students' perception on the use of visual tilings to support their learning of programming concepts

Abstract

In this research, we explore the use of visual tiling patterns (tilings for short) in the teaching of basic programming concepts to novice students. Tilings are made by connecting regular polygons side-by-side and their construction can be defined by the use of a simple set of commands. We believe tilings are a suitable context to situate the learning of elementary programming concepts for beginning programmers. The importance of placing commands in a proper sequence, of grouping a set of commands and using them repetitively, and of identifying logical errors can be demonstrated using tilings. We have created a prototype, which allows learners to create tilings based on a simple textual language, and used it within an introductory programming class at a Chinese university, where most students have minimal or no programming experience. After using the prototype in class, we conducted a class survey asking students about their perception of the usefulness of such the tool to support their learning. In this paper, we report the findings and our experiences using the tool.