Virtual Programming Laboratory Research Articles

Virtual Programming Laboratory in Collaborative Inquiry Learning to Improve Higher Order Thinking Skills for Work Readiness in the Industrial World

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of using Virtual programming Lab software as a practicum tool in inquiry learning, collaboration, and increasing the ability of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) students who take programming courses. Pseudo-experimental studies are designed with experimental and control groups. This research was attended by 35 first-semester students from the Pelita Indonesia Informatics Engineering Study Program. Quantitative methods are used to determine students' HOTS levels and their acceptance of the use of virtual programming labs as computer practicum tools. The data analysis technique used is the Kolmogrof Smirnov technique. For inquiry-based collaborative learning using 7 stages of learning. The effectiveness of virtual programming with collaborative inquiry learning through HOTS questions is tested with the N-gain test. Based on the findings, it is stated that virtual programming applications with collaborative inquiry learning in programming courses are quite effective in improving students' higher-order thinking skills with an average N Gain of 60%. The ability of students to do HOTS questions in C4, C5, and C6 has increased after post-tests in experimental classes.

Student and Lecturer Perceptions of Usability of the Virtual Programming Lab Module for Moodle

Teaching introductory computer programming and choosing the proper tools and programming languages are challenging tasks. Most of the existing tools are not fully integrated into systems to support the teaching-learning processes. The present paper describes the usability evaluation of the Virtual Programming Lab module for Moodle (VPL-Moodle) based on a satisfaction questionnaire answered by 37 undergraduate students enrolled in CS1 and CS2 courses and 7 lecturers. Moreover, a heuristic evaluation performed by two specialists is also presented. Results of the descriptive and inferential analysis revealed mainly two things: a) the VPL-Moodle has a low level of usability in all five aspects analyzed by the students: satisfaction, efficiency, learnability, helpfulness, and environment control; and b) lecturers found some difficulties using the VPL-Moodle. A number of suggestions for the improvement of the VPL-Moodle interface are provided based on the findings of the paper.

An experience of automated assessment in a large‐scale introduction programming course

AbstractThe 2020 pandemic imposed new demands on teaching practices to support student's distance learning process. In this context, automated assessment (AA) is a pivotal resource that offers immediate and automatic feedback on students' programming tasks. Although the literature provides several contributions regarding AA of Programming Exercises (PEs), very few works discuss the automatic generation of personalized PE. This study reports our experience in applying a new proposal for AA‐PE in an Introduction to Programming (IP) course for a large group of students. This proposal's key feature is the ability to apply AA‐PE and parameterized unified exams to different programming languages by using the open‐source tools MCTest and Moodle (with virtual programming lab [VPL] plugin). During the first quarter of 2019, teachers of 19 of 44 IP‐FF (face‐to‐face) classes embraced our approach as a component in their pedagogical intervention. These classes achieved a higher pass rate (67.5%) than those that did not adopt our AA solution (59.1%), whereas the standard deviation was quite the same (22.5% and 21.3%, respectively). Additionally, preliminary results revealed a strong linear correlation (r = .93) between the pass rate and the average grade of the AA‐PE. In IP‐BL (blended learning), two classes used our method in the exams, with 171 students and a pass rate of 70.4%. These results corroborate previous works that continuous assessment combined with immediate feedback can contribute to students' learning process.

Using Virtual Programming Lab to improve learning programming: The case of Algorithms and Programming

AbstractProgramming is one of the basic skills that students must acquire. However, learning to program is not an easy task. Also teaching programming is an arduous but challenging task, requiring close follow‐up and constant and meaningful feedback. So the main question is: how can we help teachers and students to achieve these goals? We identified a tool that can be useful to this purpose. That is Virtual Programming Lab (VPL), a Moodle plugin that allows students to submit their code and get prompt feedback without the teacher's intervention. In order to test this concept, an experiment was performed with several classes of beginner programming students, in two editions of Algorithms and Programming course unit of the degree in Informatics Engineering lectured at the Informatics Engineering Department at the School of Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of Porto. The students were challenged to test their assignments in VPL with a set of test values previously defined by the teachers. After the experiments, we used surveys to gather the involved students' and teachers' opinion, and more than 70% of the students answered that they considered the VPL an added value for the teaching–learning process. The dynamics verified in the classes, the general opinion of the teachers, and the acceptance and participation of the students allow to classify the experience as positive.

Implantation of an Open Source Moodle Platform Across an Educational Institution

E-learning includes the use of open source and commercial tools and technologies to enhance teaching learning process, which have become familiar to students and faculty across the globe over the past decade. An online Learning Management System (LMS) provides basic tools to share course materials and other education related plug-in to communicate with students and, faculty for collecting assignments and manage grading method using open source platforms. This article describes the use and full deployment of Moodle, an open source e-learning LMS developed by Galgotias University which is one of the renowned educational institution in north India, into its teaching learning process for its 20000+ users which includes students and faculty. In this research paper we have discussedabout the use of monitoring tools used by the management and higher authorities, use of automated assessment and learning tools for students belonging to engineering and non-engineering domains, management of courses and enrolling users to the courses. The assessment analysis consists of moodle functionalities based on adhoc SQL queries, reports and statistical analysis of moodle activities performed by users of Galgotias University. The result displays the positive engagement of students and faculties on moodle, use of moodle for assessment of students using Virtual Programming Lab (VPL), Quiz, Project Based Learning (PBL), Simulations, Assignments based on rubrics, virtual classes, feedback and surveys.

Applying Action Design Research (ADR) to Develop Collaboration Virtual Programming Laboratory as Supporting System For Student Centered Learning

The development of technology is currently growing very rapidly. The change of information and communication technology (ICT) to ubiquitous technology is inevitable. This affects the development of the world of education, where the current learning method that is being promoted by the government is a student-based learning system or known as the Student Centered Learning (SCL). ADR is one of Information systems design science research frameworks. To produce a perspective design of knowledge through four main stages: Problem Formulation, Building Intervention and Evaluation (BIE), Reflection and Learning, Formalization of Learning, ADR is a combination of Action Research (AD) with Design Science Research (DSR). In learning of programming required laboratory infrastructure that can support in terms of programming practice. Growth of learning students is not aligned with the extension of supporting infrastructure, in this case the laboratory, especially the programming laboratory. In a case study at Widyatama University, along with the change of teaching and learning system, the learning media also changed. The current learning media that is e-learning, can only support theoretical learning but not support for learning in practice. This project is done by two domains: Teaching Learning Office (TLO) as the department that responsible for current e-learning, and An informatics study center developing a virtual laboratory. At the evaluation stage, testing is qualitative for users, as well as testing in Alpha and Betha. Alpha testing is done intranet on VPL-SCM, whereas on Betha testing done internet on VPL_SCM. Conclusion is an important aspect when designing IT artifacts is the dynamics between plan design and use context, The ADR interaction focuses on researchers, practitioners and end users during the design process and is strongly collaborative-oriented, The evaluation stage in ADR is a continuous stage, so the development of IT artefac can be continuously adjusted through repeatable processes, so virtual programming laboratory can be implemented properly as a supporter of existing e-learning system.

Automatic Assessment of Programming Projects in a Compiler Construction Course

Techniques for compiler construction are usually taught in companion of a capstone project that has the aim of build a mini-language. However, it seems that students will never build a real compiler during their professional life, but it is common the implementation of tools as interpreters, translators, code generators, among others. In this article, we describe how to introduce several programming projects as part of a traditional compiler construction course where a very simple compiler for a mini-language is used as the cornerstone for a capstone project. The complementary projects allow us to expose students to the practical application of techniques for compiler construction and encourage the development of programming and problem-solving skills. In addition, we discuss the implementation of a scheme for automatic assessment using the Virtual Programming Lab plugging of the Moodle project. Student evaluation of the course shows a strong agreement about high course preparation, high motivation for the development of projects, total impartiality for grading, and high connection with the subjects of other courses.

Automatic evaluation of computer programs using Moodle's virtual programming lab (VPL) plug-in

With the increased enrollment in CS courses and the growing interest in providing MOOCs, automated grading of student programs is becoming more of a need than an option. This paper describes the fi...

ViPLab: a virtual programming laboratory for mathematics and engineering

Purpose – In the process of the implementation of the eBologna program and the recent change of the university system, curricula at German universities have been redesigned; courses have been condensed and learning content has been re‐structured into modules, each of which requires an evaluation. Simultaneously, skills required for working in research and development changed; knowledge of mathematical or numerical algorithms and programming skills play an increasingly important role in the daily job routine of the working engineer. The purpose of this paper is to describe, implement and test a new course on numerical simulations along with a new software infrastructure, addressing this predicament.Design/methodology/approach – To support learning by practical exercises, engineering faculties, the faculties of mathematics and physics, and the Computing Center of the University of Stuttgart setup a project for implementing an online programming lab for teaching the required skills. The focus of this project...

A Virtual Laboratory Structure for Developing Programming Labs

Virtual Laboratories in a Virtual Learning Environment are indispensable spaces for developing practical activities. This paper proposes an integrated structure for Virtual Laboratories for undergraduate degree programmes in Computer Engineering and Software Engineering. The general structure proposed is based on the experience gained in designing and developing Virtual Laboratories during the past eleven years in a virtual university. Technological, pedagogical, strategic and academic staff resources are included in the Virtual Laboratories structure. The proposed structure has been applied to different computer areas and this paper presents the special case of a Virtual Programming Laboratory. Its effectiveness has been evaluated by the students using a web questionnaire.

VPL: An Online Distance Learning Platform for Virtual Programming Laboratory

The virtual programming lab (VPL) project described in this paper is designed to facilitate Internet access to application software. It emulates a real computing laboratory environment that promotes group learning and project management. The laboratory resources are situated at the university and are centrally controlled. Users of the virtual programming laboratory include students, tutors and administrators of the system. Users can be located at different geographical locations to remotely access applications through the Internet. The virtual programming lab design is based on a distance education concept. This paper focuses on the design and development of the runtime modules within the VPL framework. These runtime modules provide underlying services that drive the launching of applications, file management and communications services. In addition, this paper presents an evaluation of the performance of the system.

Using Java and JavaScript in the Virtual Programming Laboratory: a Web-based parallel programming environment

The Virtual Programming Laboratory (VPL) is a Web-based virtual programming environment built based on a client–server architecture. The system can be accessed on any platform (Unix, PC or Mac) using a standard Java-enabled browser. Software delivery over the Web imposes a novel set of constraints on design. We outline the tradeoffs in this design space, motivate the choices necessary to deliver an application, and detail the lessons learned in the process. We discuss the role of Java and other Web technologies in the realization of the design. VPL facilitates the development and execution of parallel programs. The initial prototype supports high-level parallel programming based on Fortran 90 and High Performance Fortran (HPF), as well as explicit low-level programming with the MPI message-passing interface. Supplementary Java-based platform-independent tools for data and performance visualization are an integral part of the VPL. Pablo SDDF trace files generated by the Pablo performance instrumentation system are used for post-mortem performance visualization. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Editorial: Java for computational science and engineering - simulation and modeling

We are pleased to present a set of papers discussing the role of Java in Science and Engineering Simulation. These were presented at a small workshop with 45 participants at Syracuse on 16-17 December 1996. This was very successful, and a follow-up event will be sponsored by ACM in Las Vegas on 21 June 1997. The growing interest in this field is also supported by an email discussion list and other materials collected at the web site http://www.npac.syr.edu/projects/javaforcse. Java and Web technology can be used in many areas of science and engineering computation. These include sophisticated user interfaces and coarse-grain integration of different modules in complex meta-applications. However, also interesting (and controversial) is perhaps the use of Java as the language used for the computationally intense parts of a scientific code. All these areas were discussed at the workshop, with promising initial results and studies reported in each case. Again applications were described both for large-scale event-driven and time-stepped simulations and also for smaller client-side applets aimed at education. The appeal of Java as a simulation language includes its object-oriented characteristics, elegant applet software distribution model and natural support of graphical user interfaces. There are also non-technical reasons to think Java will be very important. In particular, one expects children to learn Java naturally as part of their Web experiences. On entering University, I find it hard to believe that many will be willing to switch from Java to Fortran77 or Fortran90. The papers in this issue fall into five areas. The first paper (‘Java for parallel computing and as a general language for scientific and engineering simulation and modeling’ by Geoffrey C. Fox and Wojtek Furmanski) is a general overview and the next three (‘Optimizing Java bytecodes’ by Michal Cierniak an Wei Li; ‘Optimizing Java: theory and practice’ by Zoran Budimlic and Ken Kennedy; ‘Technologies for ubiquitous supercomputing: a Java interface to the Nexus communication system’ by Ian Foster, George K. Thiruvathukal and Steven Tuecke) describe base Java technology from optimized compilation to linkage with communication infrastructure. The next two papers (‘Java simulations for physics education’ by Simeon Warner, Simon Catterall and Edward Lipson; ‘Using Java and JavaScript in the Virtual Programming Laboratory: a Web-based parallel programming environment’ by Kivanc Dincer and Geoffrey C. Fox) describe uses of Java in both science and computer science education. Then we have two papers (‘Java's role in distributed collaboration by Marina Chen and James Cowie’; ‘Java enabling collaborative education, health care, and computing’ by Lukasz Beca, Gang Cheng, Geoffrey C. Fox, Tomasz Jurga, Konrad Olszewski, Marek Podgorny, Piotr Sokolowski and Krzysztof Walczak) centred on the fascinating field of collaboration. The last six papers study the critical area of parallel and distributed computing in Java. These discuss world-wide computing (‘SuperWeb: research issues in Java-based global computing’ by Albert D. Alexandrov, Maximilian Ibel, Klaus E. Schauser and Chris J. Scheiman), large-scale software integration with Java servers (‘WebFlow – a visual programming paradigm for Web/Java based coarse grain distributed computing’ by Dimple Bhatia, Vanco Burzevski, Maja Camuseva, Geoffrey Fox, Wojtek Furmanski and Girish Premchandran) and mobility (‘Resource-aware metacomputing’ by Anurag Acharya, M. Ranganathan and Joel Saltz). These three distributed computing studies are contrasted with three on parallel computing: ‘Automatically exploiting implicit parallelism in Java’ by Aart J. C. Bik and Dennis B. Gannon on shared memory; ‘SPMD programming in Java’ by Susan Flynn Hummel, Ton Ngo and Harini Srinivasan on the SPMD style, and ‘Experiments with “HP Java”’ by Bryan Carpenter, Yuh-Jye Chang, Geoffrey Fox, Donald Leskiw and Xiaoming Li on classic distributed memory data parallelism. Currently, it appears that Java promises the computational scientist programming environments which have both attractive user interfaces and high-performance execution. An important purpose of the first workshop and the follow-up events is to get a broad input and study of the issues in this field so that we can guide the rapidly moving Java juggernaut to be maximally effective for scientific and engineering computation. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Using Java and JavaScript in the Virtual Programming Laboratory: a Web‐based parallel programming environment

Using Java and JavaScript in the Virtual Programming Laboratory: a Web‐based parallel programming environment

Using Java and JavaScript in the Virtual Programming Laboratory: a Web‐based parallel programming environment

Using Java and JavaScript in the Virtual Programming Laboratory: a Web‐based parallel programming environment