Learning to Program With Alice

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Increasing Student Interest in Computer Science
(CS) Careers
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Lower Enrollments in ITA

• Enrollment in our career centers Information
  Technology I classes have been decreasing since
  2001.
• 2001 - forty five students with eight girls
• 2005 - twenty four students with two girls
• BUT DEMAND FOR IT MAJORS INCREASES!

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Negative Headlines

• With the news stories about huge layoffs, the dot
  com bust, and the outsourcing of technical jobs,
  students and their parents are less interested in
  considering a career in computer science.

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The Shrinking CS Pool

• After peaking in 1999 and 2000, interest in CS as
  a college major has fallen in each of the past
  five years. All in all, interest has dropped 70
  percent over this period. (Vegso, 2005)
• CS enrollment plunges in bad economy. Offshoring
  makes tech careers look risky. (Schoenberger,
  2004)
• UCLA survey shows a 60 decline in freshman
  interest in CS from 2000-2004 (Vegso, 2006)
• The Taulbee survey shows a 40 decline in
  computing majors from 2000-2004 (Vegso, 2005)

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The Shrinking CS Pool (2)

• Enrollments in CS courses in Ivy League
  Universities in the Eastern US have dropped
  dramatically in the first years of this century.
  If you wont take a course in CS, you wont major
  in it. (Astrachan, 2006).

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Bureau of Labor Hecker, D. Occupational
employment projections to 2014. Monthly Labor
Review. November 2005.
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Gender Differences in CS

• Nationally in 1999-2000, there were 36,195
  computer and information systems bachelors
  degrees awarded.
• 72 of those degrees went to males and only 28
  went to females.
• This approximate 70 to 30 split has been about
  the same for more than a decade. (Hankins, et
  al., 2003)
• Alarmingly, the proportion of women who thought
  that they might major in CS has fallen to levels
  unseen since the early 1970s. (Vegso, 2005)

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Gender Differences in CS (2)

• Gender differences in several domains strongly
  suggest that females process information and
  solve problems in different ways than males do.
  If a female's early experience with software that
  is supposed to support her problem-solving
  efforts is negative and discouraging, how likely
  is she to eventually choose a career in
  information technology (IT)? (Beckwith et al.,
  2006)

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Alice Programming Language

• Object oriented language
• Animates 3D objects
• Enables storytelling
• Creates Movies or Games

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The Alice System (www.alice.org)

• Allows students to learn computer programming
  more easily
• Drag-and-Drop editor for creating programs
• Programs are 3D movies or games
• Alice has been formally shown to improve learning
  and retention
• Alice is highly motivating for students
• Provided free (open source) by Carnegie Mellon
• Runs on

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Alice Programming Environment

• 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)
• Not threatening Alice builds students
  confidence (Pausch, 2006)

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Alice Programming Language

• An objects-first strategy for teaching computer
  science courses is receiving increased attention
  from CS educators. (Cooper, et al., 2006)
• In an NSF (National Science Foundation) study,
  this exciting strategy proved effective with
  introductory college students in helping to
  maintain student enthusiasm for computer science
  and has been shown to improve the retention of
  computer science majors. (Cooper, 2006).

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Live Demo of Alice v2.0
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Alice has always been free.Alice will always
continue to be free.
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Pedagogically Why Alice Works

• No syntax-based frustration
• Data is visible changes are animated you can
  see what is happening
• Highly motivating

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Objects are suddenly obvious

• Makes objects something students can see and
  relate to

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Support Help Online Forums at www.alice.org
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Support Help In-system Tutorials
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Instructional Materials

• www.aliceprogramming.net
• syllabi/calendars
• lectures
• labs
• assignments
• sample worlds (programs)
• sample exams
• sample projects

Steve Cooper
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www.aliceprogramming.net

• Web pages
• a live demo was done here of the resources
  available at
• www.aliceprogramming.net

Steve Cooper
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Sample Lesson Rolling a ball

• We want a realistic motion rather than a slide.
• The ball must simultaneously move and roll.

Design
realisticRoll Do together move ball forward 1
meter, as seen by the ground turn ball forward
? revolutions
Wanda Dann
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Number of revolutions

• The number of revolutions depends on the size of
  the ball.

Wanda Dann
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A function

• The number of revolutions can be computed using
• distance/(P diameter)
• Two values are needed
• the balls diameter
• the ball object has a built-in width function
• the distance the ball is to travel
• can be sent to the function using a parameter

Wanda Dann
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Coding the function
Two values are needed.
Wanda Dann
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How Alice is being used

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

Wanda Dann
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Other texts based on Alice are appearing
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A lot of colleges are using Alice

• How many is a lot?
• Lower bound 243 are teaching with PH texts
• There are roughly 3,000 U.S. colleges
• 8 of US colleges are teaching with Alice/PH
  books
• Many others are teaching with other or no texts
• Many High Schools are using for pre-AP or AP

• http//www.utexas.edu/world/univ/ says 3,176

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Alice helps at-risk CS majors
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Alice helps at-risk CS majors
M. Moskal, D. Lurie, and S. Cooper, Evaluating
the Effectiveness of a New Instructional
Approach. In Proceedings of 2004 SIGCSE
Conference, (Norfolk, VA).
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Alice is real coding

• Alice Code Java
  Code

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The Future Alice v3.0

• Been in development for almost a year will
  release in 2008.
• Goal Alice as the system to teach introductory
  programming.
• Driven by Caitlin Kellehers findings about
  storytelling
• Students are motivated to make movies (or
  videogames)
• Real Java
• Alice v3.0 is a Java IDE, based on eclipse
• Your students will see real Java (if you choose)
• Drag Drop or type -gt its up to you!
• Insanely high production values as good as real
  video games
• We are developing a textbook along with the
  system
• Just as we did with Alice v2.0
• Wanda Dann, Steve Cooper, Randy Pausch and Don
  Slater

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Electronic Arts (EA)

• Worlds largest video game company
• EA has given us 300,000 and permission to use
  the characters and animations from The SimsTM 2
  in Alice v3.0
• We graciously thank them.
• EA is doing this because they care about getting
  more students, especially girls/women, interested
  in computing.

From the EA foundation
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Best Selling PC Games of all time

• The Sims (16 million)
• Myst (9 million)
• Starcraft (9 million)
• Half-Life (8 million)
• Age of Empires II (7 million)
• World of Warcraft (5 million)
• The Sims 2 (4.5 million)
• Diablo II (4 million)
• Doom (3 million)
• Half-Life 2 (3 million)
• StarCraft Brood War (3 million)
• Warcraft II (3 million)
• Warcraft III (3 million)
• Age of Empires (3 million)
• Diablo (2.5 million)
• Civilization III (2.5 million)
• Quake (1.8 million)
• Battlefield 1942 (1.5 million)
• Civilization IV (1.2 million)

And the Sims has more female than male players!
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Setting expectations

• Our first demo this is an early proof of
  concept.
• Alice v3.0 is still in early phase development,
  and will not be publicly available until 2008
• Our goals for this demo
• Prove that this is not vaporware
• Show you Alice v3.0 is really Java code
• Prove that we are using the SimsTM assets

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Many (fun!) challenges

• The objected-oriented model and semantics
• classes, inheritance, overriding, polymorphism,
  etc.
• semantically, Alice v3.0 is Java
• how we express via UI and textbook is a wonderful
  challenge
• 3D objects (people) as objects is still the huge
  win of Alice
• Transition from Drag-and-Drop to Typing
• Training wheels that slowly fade away
• Visibility of Data
• variable is a term for invisible data
• Developing Custom Curricula
• from the user/teaching community
• we expect more of this, since its Java at the
  bottom
• DoTogether
• Still there, but a little ugly when you see the
  Java code

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Summary

• Lowered enrollment in CS courses since 2001 is a
  national phenomena.
• Several colleges and universities have found
  success in increasing the numbers of students
  (especially females) enrolled in CS courses with
  the use of the Alice Programming Language.

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Delaware Area Career Center Students Joi
Doug Roy Bobby Instructor Suzanne
Maclean
Questions?
www.alice.org
www.aliceprogramming.net