Students In Programming Courses Research Articles

The Effectiveness of Online Collaborative Learning towards Programming Skills among Undergraduate Students in Learning Programming

Programming skills are very crucial for the students who want to land their future career in software development field. Many methods are done to increase the programming skills among the students. Therefore, this research was conducted to study the effectiveness of online collaborative learning towards programming skills among undergraduate students in learning programming. A quantitative research design, a pre-experimental study of a one-group pre and post-test method is employed in this research. 30 undergraduate students who were taken programming course in a public institution in Pulau Pinang were selected by using the purposive sampling technique. Data were obtained by using pre and post assessment tests. Paired samples t-test was conducted to determine the effect of online collaborative learning on students’ programming skills. The results indicate a significant difference between programming score before the treatment (M=63.53; SD=19.83) and programming score after the treatment (M=92.43; SD=8.14); [t (29) = 11.38, p = .001]. In conclusion, this study revealed that an online collaborative learning is effective towards students’ programming skills among undergraduate students in programming course.

Instructors’ Perceptions of Intelligent Tutoring Systems and Their Implications for Studying Computer Programming in Omani Higher Education Institutions

It is a serious problem that universities worldwide, especially in the middle east, have a high rate of failure in programming courses. To overcome this issue which could probably be due to students’ lack of engagement, motivation and problem-solving skills, the Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) can be an effective tool for enhancing student learning. Despite its effectiveness, no prior research has been conducted on the impact of using ITS in higher education institutions in Oman. This study therefore investigates the perceptions of Omani University instructors to determine the levels of awareness, readiness and challenges among Omani higher institutions concerning their integration of ITS. Also, to investigate the reasons for the poor achievement of students in programming courses. We adopted two approaches in this study. First, quantitative research was conducted via a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire distributed to 59 programming instructors from different higher education institutions. Second, quantitative research was interviewing 10 instructors. Our questionnaire data reveal that most of the participants are aware of ITS’ effectiveness in the learning process. They believe that Oman’s higher education institutions are ready to adopt ITS if sufficient training and support is provided. Via text mining, our interview data illustrates the reasons behind poor performance in programming courses which includes English language barriers, deficient critical thinking, lack problem-solving skills and inadequate modes of teaching. This study clarifies the situation of higher educational institutions in term of their awareness, redness and the challenges that they may face in adopting ITS.

Facilitating computing education to graduate students in journalism and public relations from Dewey's lens: prototyping

PurposeIn a technological era driven by coding, programming and artificial intelligence (AI), there is more need than ever to develop computing skills and knowledge for non-specialist students. Nonetheless, the literature on computer science teaching methods of non-scientific majors is not as comprehensive as that of scientific ones.Design/methodology/approachPedagogically, the authors designed and implemented prototyping from John Dewey's pragmatic epistemological lens. Using a mixed methods approach, the authors tested the effectiveness and efficiency of this approach within the same course over four semesters across four academic years.FindingsAs an epistemological pedagogic device, prototyping facilitated learning by doing and experimenting and stimulated graduate students' self-directed learning, engagement and their overall ownership of the learning and teaching process, changing their role from being merely passive recipients of “strange, awkward and unfamiliar” knowledge to active constructors of “relevant and exciting” content knowledge. Such a change was reflected in the significant progress students made, driven by their commitment, motivation and enthusiasm, irrespective of their prior knowledge and age (Generations X, Y and Z). Prototyping also served as an avenue for a “Deweyian Reflection”, where graduate students, after internalizing the acquired computing skills and knowledge, started transferring such skills and knowledge to their professions (journalism and public relations (PR)) and daily practices.Research limitations/implicationsFindings from this study will add to the literature review on this subject matter and will inform future case studies in computer science education for graduate students from non-scientific backgrounds.Practical implicationsThis paper reveals that learning by doing/experimenting needs to be accompanied by in-depth reflection to enable students to transfer the acquired knowledge and skills to other settings and contexts beyond that of the lesson, task, or project in hand.Originality/valueThere is little research published on introductory programming courses offered to non-specialized students (i.e. students from non-scientific backgrounds). This study contributes to the body of research on how to effectively engage these students in programming courses informed by John Dewey's pragmatic lens/epistemological lens.

Gamification improves the quality of student peer code review

ABSTRACT Background and Context Peer code review activities provide well-documented benefits to students in programming courses. Students develop relevant skills through exposure to alternative coding solutions, producing and receiving feedback, and collaboration with peers. Despite these benefits, low student motivation has been identified as one of the challenges leading to poor engagement and substandard review quality. Objective This research investigates gamification as a technique for motivating students to generate high-quality reviews. Method We conduct a randomised controlled study, explore the nature and length of the feedback produced by students, and measure how students perceive the value of the feedback they receive and produce. We manually categorise students’ feedback into several categories adapted from a published taxonomy for student peer review. This categorisation indicates whether the feedback contains actionable advice and identifies strengths and weaknesses in the code. Findings We found that the quality of the feedback differed significantly between experimental and control conditions. Students in the experimental condition wrote longer comments and tended to produce more specific advice for their peers. Implications The findings can assist educators in understanding how the chosen game mechanics can be a potential strategy to motivate students to produce high-quality written feedback in peer code review activities.

Metacognition and Self-Regulation in Programming Education: Theories and Exemplars of Use

Metacognition and self-regulation are important skills for successful learning and have been discussed and researched extensively in the general education literature for several decades. More recently, there has been growing interest in understanding how metacognitive and self-regulatory skills contribute to student success in the context of computing education. This article presents a thorough systematic review of metacognition and self-regulation work in the context of computer programming and an in-depth discussion of the theories that have been leveraged in some way. We also discuss several prominent metacognitive and self-regulation theories from the literature outside of computing education—for example, from psychology and education—that have yet to be applied in the context of programming education. In our investigation, we built a comprehensive corpus of papers on metacognition and self-regulation in programming education, and then employed backward snowballing to provide a deeper examination of foundational theories from outside computing education, some of which have been explored in programming education, and others that have yet to be but hold much promise. In addition, we make new observations about the way these theories are used by the computing education community, and present recommendations on how metacognition and self-regulation can help inform programming education in the future. In particular, we discuss exemplars of studies that have used existing theories to support their design and discussion of results as well as studies that have proposed their own metacognitive theories in the context of programming education. Readers will also find the article a useful resource for helping students in programming courses develop effective strategies for metacognition and self-regulation.

ANALISIS KEBUTUHAN PENGEMBANGAN VIDEO PEMBELAJARAN MATA KULIAH PROGRAM LINIER

Linear Programming is a course under the scope of algebra that must be mastered by mathematics education students. The low ability to solve linear programming problems can affect student performance when they become a teacher. This study aims to analyze the need for developing learning videos in Linear Programming courses for students of the Mathematics Education Study Program. The method used is development research which consists of Preliminary Analysis, Product Prototype, and Assessment. The research subjects were 30 students in the 7th semester of mathematics education and had attended online Linear Programming lectures in the previous semester. Data were collected by conducting written tests, questionnaires, and interviews and analyzed quantitatively descriptively. The results of the written test analysis showed that the students' ability to solve linear programming problems was low. Based on interviews, it is also known that students are not enough just to learn through modules and virtual meetings. Students tend to need learning videos/records to repeat explanations when studying the material independently. Therefore, there is a great need for learning videos that can optimize online learning of Linear Programming courses.

Input Process Output (IPO) AI Chatbot as Personal Learning Assistant for Programming Coursework

Social network services (SNS), such as Telegram, plays an important role as a platform for the students and teachers as most students in programming courses currently lack support to communicate outside the classroom. Conversational agent or Chatbot is integrated into SNS can be the ideal teacher assistants to answer and propose personalized questions to students. The proposed AI Chatbot application helps students analyze programming related problems using the Input-Process-Output (IPO) analysis was fully utilized, viewed and later documented by ten selected students based on standardized test scores. UTAUT model was used to measure the acceptance of newly introduced Chatbot. The findings demonstrate that the students had a positive perception of performance and effort expectancy, attitude, social influence, facilitating conditions, self-efficacy and behavioral intent while the anxiety constructs are low. The result indicates the need for a fully functioning IPO Chatbot consisting of solutions to programming questions involving other control structures.

Incorporating Visualization Tools and Active Learning Approach for Programming Courses

Programming languages are a vital domain for Computer and Information Technology engineering. The programming languages like C, C++, Java, Python, Mobile Application Development, and Web Technologies are important programming courses in CSE and IT curriculum. Understanding the programming courses includes a basic understanding of the syntax of programming language, logical & critical thinking to solve the problem, use of various editors to write and execute the program. Effective delivery of the programming course creates a great deal of influence on student’s interest in programming and software development. The students lose their interest in programming due to the inefficient delivery of these courses which leads to a gap in technical competency required by the IT sector. The current Covid 19 pandemic exposed the limitation of traditional teaching methods for programming courses. Teaching such programming courses on online mode becomes a big challenge for faculty by considering the skillset required to inculcate amongst the students for learning programming courses. The primary objective of this paper is to overcome these challenges by the effective use of a pedagogical approach for teaching programming courses. The various active learning methods and tools are discussed in this paper that was used to teach the programming language. The result shows that by implementation of such methods & tools you can retain the interest of students in programming courses and thus increase their performance and improve the skillset required in IT industry. Keywords— Computer Programming, Activity-based learning, Visualization tools, logic building, Critical thinking, Continuous Assessment.

ANALISIS KEBUTUHAN PENGEMBANGAN VIDEO PEMBELAJARAN MATA KULIAH PROGRAM LINIER

Linear Programming is a course under the scope of algebra that must be mastered by mathematics education students. The low ability to solve linear programming problems can affect student performance when they become a teacher. This study aims to analyze the need for developing learning videos in Linear Programming courses for students of the Mathematics Education Study Program. The method used is development research which consists of Preliminary Analysis, Product Prototype, and Assessment. The research subjects were 30 students in the 7th semester of mathematics education and had attended online Linear Programming lectures in the previous semester. Data were collected by conducting written tests, questionnaires, and interviews and analyzed quantitatively descriptively. The results of the written test analysis showed that the students' ability to solve linear programming problems was low. Based on interviews, it is also known that students are not enough just to learn through modules and virtual meetings. Students tend to need learning videos/records to repeat explanations when studying the material independently. Therefore, there is a great need for learning videos that can optimize online learning of Linear Programming courses.

Identifying nonconformities in contributions to programming projects: from an engagement perspective in improving code quality

ABSTRACT Project-based learning is among the most common learning approaches aimed at conveying professional standards and best practices to students in programming courses. However, team projects commonly impose problems related to responsibility sharing, such as low effort or inequality in contributions. This paper presents a collaborative programming assessment system featuring a code quality assessment function with specific metrics to measure individual contributions. Student engagement data is used to detect nonconformities in collaboration using a learning analytical approach. Latent profile analysis was used to detect four theoretical team profiles differentiated by team effort (2 levels) and within-team collaboration (2 levels). We demonstrated the efficacy of assessing code to evaluate team dynamics and student behaviour, wherein efforts to resolve coding style failures can be used as a proxy by which to estimate the taskwork awareness of team members. Submission data from 146 students in 41 web-programming projects revealed four behavioural patterns that could potentially hinder the effective functioning of programming teams: free-riding, social loafing, the bystander effect, and lone wolves. We also demonstrated the applicability of automated programming assessment systems to the monitoring of learning progress, thereby facilitating timely interventions to correct difficulties at the team level.

Formative assessment tasks as indicators of student engagement for predicting at-risk students in programming courses

Previous studies have proposed many indicators to assess the effect of student engagement in learning and academic achievement but have not yet been clearly articulated. In addition, while student engagement tracking systems have been designed, they rely on the log data but not on performance data. This paper presents results of a non-machine learning model developed using ongoing formative assessment scores as indicators of student engagement. Visualisation of the classification tree results is employed as student engagement indicators for instructors to observe and intervene with students. The results of this study showed that ongoing assessment is related to student engagement and subsequent final programming exam performance and possible to identify students at-risk of failing the final exam. Finally, our study identified students impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. These were students who attended the final programming exam in the semester 2019-2020 and who scored well in formative assessments. Based on these results we present a simple student engagement indicator and its potential application as a student progress monitor for early identification of students at risk.

Invited viewpoint: teaching programming to students in physical sciences and engineering

Computer programming is a key component of any physical science or engineering degree and is a skill sought by employers. Coding can be very appealing to these students as it is logical and another setting where they can solve problems. However, many students can often be reluctant to engage with the material as it might not interest them or they might not see how it applies to their wider study. Here, I present lessons I have learned and recommendations to increase participation in programming courses for students majoring in the physical sciences or engineering. The discussion and examples are taken from my second-year core undergraduate physics module, Introduction to Programming for Physicists, taught at The University of Manchester, UK. Teaching this course, I have developed successful solutions that can be applied to undergraduate STEM courses.

Inspiration, Strategies and Insight for Learning Programming Language

This study explores how the first-year undergraduate students in School of Engineering, Kathmandu University learns their very first programming language i.e. C programming. The students were requested to response to an online questioner, where they were asked about their perception about the programming language they are learning, their motivation on learning that particular language and their strategy on preparing for the subject. Student’s concept on C programming and their approach for preparing for the exam are categorized. Our results show what kind of different strategies they use to learn this particular programming language. Additionally, the insights of this paper point that learning theory of programming and practicing programming goes hand in hand in C programming course and the focus here is on learning difficult topics which involves investigating students perceptions and conceptions of causality in relation to learning difficulties (Berglund et al., 2009). This study is intended to be helpful for future teachers and students in programming courses in Nepal.

Research on the Teaching Reform of Programming Courses Based on Robotics Education in High School

Programming is of great importance to the cultivation of computational thinking and logical thinking ability. However, the programming course in the middle school stage has been unpopular for years among most students. There are two reasons that contribute to this phenomenon: First, teachers paid more attention to grammar teaching than computational and logical thinking; second, students perceived that the content of programming course was not important, and unrelated to actual situation, and not enthusiastic for programming course. Out of fear about debugging, students tend to have lower intention for getting good grades or attain programming skills. Under these circumstances, this research introduced robot design and application into programming courses for students in high school, using robot teaching as a carrier, and integrating the cultivation of logical thinking into teaching. Carrying out teaching practice and related research with robot education as the carrier, this study succeeds in stimulating students’ sense of self-efficacy in the field of programming, cultivating students’ logical thinking ability, scientific research ability, and developing their scientific inquiry spirit.

Multiple-Choice Questions in Programming Courses

Low performance of nontechnical engineering students in programming courses is a problem that remains unsolved. Over the years, many authors have tried to identify the multiple causes for that failure, but there is unanimity on the fact that motivation is a key factor for the acquisition of knowledge by students. To better understand motivation, a new evaluation strategy has been adopted in a second programming course of a nontechnical degree, consisting of 91 students. The goals of the study were to identify if those students felt more motivated to answer multiple-choice questions in comparison to development questions, and what type of question better allows for testing student knowledge acquisition. Possibilities around the motivational qualities of multiple-choice questions in programming courses will be discussed in light of the results. In conclusion, it seems clear that student performance varies according to the type of question. Our study points out that multiple-choice questions can be seen as a motivational factor for engineering students and it might also be a good way to test acquired programming concepts. Therefore, this type of question could be further explored in the evaluation points.

Creating Guided Code Explanations with chat.codes

Effective communication is crucial for instructors and students in programming courses. However, communicating about code can be difficult --- particularly in asynchronous settings where an instructor authors an explanation meant to be read and understood by a student later on. Communicating about code is uniquely difficult for two reasons. First, because of the dichotomous nature of the explanation, which consists of fragments of code and natural language descriptions. Second, instructors' explanations of code often involve modifying code throughout their explanation. This paper introduces chat.codes, a new tool for creating guided explanations about code. chat.codes introduces two features that make it easier to communicate about code. First, it adds deictic code references that allows instructors to write messages that reference specific regions of code. Second, it tracks and summarizes code edits in-line with messages, allowing instructors to create explanations in stages. An evaluation showed that these features were beneficial for both instructors and students.

Development of Mobile-Interfaced Machine Learning-Based Predictive Models for Improving Students’ Performance in Programming Courses

Student performance modelling (SPM) is a critical step to assessing and improving students performances in their learning discourse. However, most existing SPM are based on statistical approaches, which on one hand are based on probability, depicting that results are based on estimation; and on the other hand, actual influences of hidden factors that are peculiar to students, lecturers, learning environment and the family, together with their overall effect on student performance have not been exhaustively investigated. In this paper, Student Performance Models (SPM) for improving students performance in programming courses were developed using M5P Decision Tree (MDT) and Linear Regression Classifier (LRC). The data used was gathered using a structured questionnaire from 295 students in 200 and 300 levels of study who offered Web programming, C or JAVA at Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria between 2012 and 2016. Hidden factors that are significant to students performance in programming were identified. The relevant data gathered, normalized, coded and prepared as variable and factor datasets, and fed into the MDT algorithm and LRC to develop the predictive models. The evaluation results obtained indicate that the variable-based LRC produced the best model in terms of MAE, RMSE, RAE and the RRSE having yielded the least values in all the evaluations conducted. Further results obtained established the strong significance of attitude of students and lecturers, fearful perception of students, erratic power supply, university facilities, student health and students attendance to the performance of students in programming courses. The variable-based LRC model presented in this paper could provide baseline information about students performance thereby offering better decision making towards improving teaching/learning outcomes in programming courses.

Analisa Pendekatan User Experience dan Psikologi Kognitif Terhadap Kenyamanan Pengguna Sistem Informasi KRS-Online Sebagai Bahan Evaluasi dan Pengembangan Sistem

The implementation of the academic information services, UMM has been trying to present some system of academic services for the various students needs, one of the highlights is KRS-Online system because it is the most frequently used system of students in programming courses in each semester.Complaints and suggestions certainly are reasonable for the system services are used by many people.This study aimed to KRS-Online users’ convenience can be measured empirically based indicators of variable users’ experience and cognitive psychology to prove whether these two variables can affect the users’ convenience.Based on this research, it has been proved that the users’ experience and cognitive psychology significantly affect both users’ convenience variables partially tested individually or simultaneously or together.

Analysis of User Experience and Cognitive Psychology Approaches to the Convenience of KRS-Online Information System Users as Material for System Evaluation and Development

The implementation of the academic information services, UMM has been trying to present some system of academic services for the various students needs, one of the highlights is KRS-Online system because it is the most frequently used system of students in programming courses in each semester.Complaints and suggestions certainly are reasonable for the system services are used by many people.This study aimed to KRS-Online users’ convenience can be measured empirically based indicators of variable users’ experience and cognitive psychology to prove whether these two variables can affect the users’ convenience.Based on this research, it has been proved that the users’ experience and cognitive psychology significantly affect both users’ convenience variables partially tested individually or simultaneously or together.

Investigating Difficulties of Learning Computer Programming in Saudi Arabia

Learning computer programming is one of the main requirements of many educational study plans in higher education. Research has shown that many students face difficulties acquiring reasonable programming skills during their first year of college. In Saudi Arabia, there are twenty-three state-owned universities scattered around the country that provide free college education for Saudi students. Through a quick glance at the website of these universities, we found out that almost all of them offer the same course description and requirements for the computer-programming course. The poor performance of students in these programming courses, however, is always a hot topic during educational gathering held on the country; it is always mentioned that students' performances differ from a university to another and between different regions of the country. The main objective of this research is to investigate the reasons behind the major discrepancies in the performance of students in computer programming course in three main regions of Saudi Arabia: East, West and North. For the purpose of this research, we designed a questionnaire to be filled by a random sample of students from each region considered in this study. The questions on this questioner are related to a set of indices such as socio-economic indices, learning environments indices, and the quality of teaching offered indexes. This paper presents our findings on the difficulties students face while learning computer programming in some regions of Saudi Arabia.