Learning to Program With Alice

1
Learning to Program With Alice

• Wanda Dann
• Stephen Cooper, scooper_at_sju.edu
• Randy Pausch

2
Overview

• Background the problem of declining CS
  enrollments
• Our solution Alice
• Program Visualization
• Description of Alice
• Demo
• Results from NSF studies
• How Alice is being used
• Future plans
• QA

3
Research Collaborators

• Wanda Dann, Ithaca College
• Curriculum development
• Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon University
• Alice design and development
• Barb Moskal, Colorado School of Mines
• Evaluation

4
Support

• NSF 0126833 CCLI EMD Proof of Concept
• NSF 0302542 ATE
• NSF 0339734 CCLI Project
• NSF 0511940 ASA
• PACMACS
• Foundation Support
• NSF 0220409 CSEMS

5
The Shrinking CS pool
6
The Shrinking CS pool
7
The Shrinking CS pool

• Dropout rate in first year
• Informal surveys 35 70
• Typically 40 50
• Percentage of women in CS is abysmal (less than
  20 of BS degrees are awarded to women)

8
Why?

• Adding object-oriented concepts to first year
  courses has increased the number of topics to be
  covered.
• increased teacher prep time
• increased student frustration
• The way we teach programming has not really
  changed in the past 25 years

9
Game Plan

• Develop an innovative instructional approach to
  develop intuitive understanding of
• Fundamental programming concepts
• Sequence
• Decisions
• Repetition
• Methods and parameters
• OOP concepts
• objects and classes
• encapsulation
• methods and parameters
• inheritance

10
Visualization in CS

• The use of graphics in teaching CS concepts has
  taken three major forms
• Algorithm Animation
• Simulation
• Program Visualization

11
Program Visualization

• Program visualization allows a student to write a
  program and view a visual representation of
  execution
• Primary use has been for introducing math and
  programming concepts
• Examples Logo, Karel the Robot

12
Alice issoftware an approach
13
The Alice Software

• A 3D interactive animation environment
• A program visualization tool
• The program state is visible to the student
• State changes are animated
• A tool for teaching fundamental programming
  concepts
• object oriented
• System developed at Carnegie Mellon

14
Alice features

• Uses 3D graphics to engage students
• Has a smart drag-and-drop editor that prevents
  syntax errors
• Appeals to wide audience
• Storytelling
• (young women, minority students)
• Interactive computer games
• (young men)

15
Alice Features

• Makes objects something students can see and
  relate to
• Has a java syntax mode to ease the transition to
  C/Java/VB.net

16
Our textbooks features

• Emphasizes design using storyboards
• Supports varying instructional approaches
• objects-early
• objects-first"
• Allows an (optional) early introduction to
  events

17
Alice Demo

18
NSF study High Risk Students

• We examined historical data at IC and SJU for 5
  years
• Found that
• Percentage of women in CS classes is typically
  low
• Students at high risk of DWF
• Have little or no previous programming experience
• Are not ready for calculus

19
Results of Proof of Concept study

• As used towards retention of CS majors
• GPA in CS1 improved
• Grades went from C to B
• at-risk students (students with little to no
  prior programming experience and/or weak
  mathematics background)
• Increased retention into CS2 from 47 to 88
• Improved attitudes towards computing

20
NSF-sponsored Projects

• Proof-of-concept
• study of the use of 3D animated program
  visualization to introduce programming concepts
  to high risk students
• CCLI Project
• Extend study to other colleges universities
  with varying student backgrounds, demographics,
  courses
• ATE
• Modify approach for community college environment
  students

21
How Alice is being used

• In pre-CS1
• course for majors and students considering a CS
  major
• As conceptual introduction in CS1
• Introduction to programming course
• non-majors
• attract students to become CS majors
• Computer literacy
• problem-solving component
• Pre-AP in high schools

22
Schools using Alice 2005-06

• San Diego State University
• Saint Bonaventure University
• Saint Joseph's University
• Saint Petersburg College
• Saint Philips College
• Salisbury University
• Santa Monica College
• SUNY Canton
• SUNY Tompkins Cortland CC
• Temple University
• Tennessee Tech
• Texas Tech University
• Texas Womans University
• The College of New Jersey
• Tomball College
• Tufts University
• Union College
• Union County College
• University of Colorado Boulder

• Hagerstown Business College
• Haverford College
• Illinois State University
• Immaculata University
• Indiana University
• Inver Hills Community College
• ITESM, Mexico
• Ithaca College
• John Carroll University
• JS Reynolds CC
• Kalamazoo College
• La Roche College
• Lee College
• Lenoir Rhyne College
• Los Medanos College
• Luzerne County CC
• Manor College
• McMaster University
• Miami University

• Amarillo College
• Anne Arundel CC
• Arizona State University West
• Auburn University
• Ball State University
• Belmont Abbey College
• Beloit College
• BGSU at Firelands
• Blue Ridge CC
• Broome CC
• Bryn Mawr College
• Bucknell University
• BYU Idaho
• California State University Sacramento
• California University of Pennsylvania
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Clark College
• Camden County College
• Coastal Carolina University

23
Future Alice

• Alice 3.0 will
• Include (EA) SIMS 3D models
• have a switch to generate Java code
• The next Alice books
• A brief version of our current book
• Available for fall!
• Perfect for 3-4 weeks of Alice usage in a
  literacy course
• Alice Java

24
Learning to Program Using Alice (BRIEF) version

• ISBN 0132397757
• Publication date June 2006
• Table of Contents
• Preface to the Instructor
• Part I Introduction to Alice
• Chapter1 Getting Started with Alice
• 1-1 Introduction to Alice
• 1-2 Alice Concepts
• Tips Techniques 1 Special Effects Text and
  2DGraphic Images
• Chapter 2 Program Design and Implementation
• 2-1 Scenarios and Storyboards
• 2-2 A First Program
• Exercises
• Summary
• Chapter 3 Programming Putting Together the
  Pieces
• 3-1 Built-in Functions and Expressions

• Part II Object-oriented and Event-driven
  Programming Concepts
• Chapter 4 Classes, Objects, Methods, and
  Parameters
• Section 4-3 Class-level Methods and Inheritance
• Tips Techniques 4 Visible and Invisible
  Objects
• Chapter 5 section 1 Interaction Events and Event
  Handling
• Tips Techniques 5 Events
• Appendix
• Appendix A Using Alice
• Part 1 Running virtual worlds in Alice
• Part 2 Using Popup Menus to Create an Initial
  Scene
• Appendix B Managing the Alice Interface
• Alice software in book.

25
URLs

• The software http//www.alice.org
• Supplementary instructional materials
  www.aliceprogramming.net
• lectures
• labs
• assignments
• sample worlds (programs)
• To sign up for Alice email list/monthly
  newsletter, email me or bconover_at_sju.edu
• Summer workshops
• http//www.macs.sju.edu/alice/
• http//www.intro.cs.cmu.edu/alice-institute/

26
Questions?

• Stephen Cooper
• scooper_at_sju.edu

27
The top 6 questions

• How do I convince my department chair?
• Doesnt Alice look like a toy?
• Wont students be bored when we later teach them
  VB.NET/C/C/Java?
• How do I transition to VB/C/C/Java?
• How do I become competent in Alice?
• Is Alice only appropriate for CS?