RoboProf and first year Programming

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RoboProf and first year Programming
Charlie Daly Problem Introduction to Computer
Programming. (50 Students) Maths students (not
motivated)
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Talk Outline

• The problem of teaching programming
• Ideas for a solution

• Demo
• Results

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Problem of teaching Programming

• Learning to program is difficult.
• Problem Solving
• Program Design
• Programming language concepts

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First year Programming

• Start with programming language concepts (design
  and problem solving left til later)
• Use simple programs to build up
• confidence
• knowledge of programming language
• programming idioms

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Advantages of the WWW

• User Friendly
• Easy to add graphics, sound, video
• Easy to extend (scalable)
• Automatically networked
• Free software (e.g. browsers)
• Links easily with email and newsgroups

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But ...

• There is no clear direction.
• It does not focus attention. It is too easy to
  click away from difficult material.
• There is no feeling of progress.

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Computer Games and Motivation

• Ideas from the computer games world (E.g. Quake,
  Doom)
• make progress visible
• set small but possible challenges
• Instant reward (fast feedback) (gratification)
• Don't punish efforts Allow repeat attempts.

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WWWQuakeRoboProf

• The game idea provides the structure
• conquer challenges to proceed
• make progress visible.
• RoboProf generates each HTML page dynamically
  based on progress so far.

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The Challenges

• Programming problems and tests
• Problem is to make them easy but useful with fast
  feedback.
• Remove any drudgery
• fast feedback (automatically marked)
• no punishment
• easy (adapt an example)

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Implementation
WWW server Running Java Servlet

• Browser

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RoboProf in action

• Student start with an overview which indicates
  progress.
• On-line tests ensure students they understand
  material before they can proceed.
• Tests are student friendly (self-paced, immediate
  feedback, no deadlines, no punishment).

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Assessment

• Questions with randomised parameters. (i.e. each
  student gets a different question.)
• Programming problems. Executed by a Java Applet
  on local machine. (Important for security
  reasons.)
• Can be extended to other domains.

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Results

• Students used the system continuously throughout
  semester.
• Students liked the feedback and the self-paced
  aspect. They didn't like the precise marking
  system.
• We needed more lab assistants. Students faced
  with a task were less shy and demanded attention.

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Lecturer has full control

• Observe student progress.
• Detect problems early (with whole class or
  individual students).
• Links easily with email to aid feedback.

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The end