Mass Production of Individual Feedback

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Mass Production of Individual Feedback

• Presenting a Paper
• by
• David Heaney
• Dublin City University

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Mass Production of Individual Feedback

• Programming is difficult to learn
• Why is programming difficult
• Our Solution
• Future Ideas

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Programming is difficult to learn
source Higher Education Authority of Ireland
report 2002
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Programming is difficult to learn
Multi-national study asked the question Do
students in introductory programming courses know
how to program at the expected skill level? Unive
rsities from USA, Australia, Israel, Poland the
UK were involved.
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Programming is difficult to learn
Instructors at 4 Universities administered a
trial assessment designed to test that a student
could

• Abstract a problem from its description
• Generate sub-problems
• Transform sub-problems into sub-solutions
• Re-compose the sub-solutions into a working
  program
• Evaluate and iterate

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Programming is difficult to learn
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Why is programming difficult
Jenkins talks about increased student diversity.
Introductory students have vastly different
prior experience and future aspirations. The
enthusiastic student that has already used
computers at home, and is hoping for a career as
a software engineer will be strongly motivated.
But what about the rest of the class?!
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Why is programming difficult
Individualised instruction is lacking. Socrates
sought
"very carefully to discover what each of his
companions knew. Whatever was appropriate for a
gentleman to know he taught most eagerly"
- Xenophon on Socrates
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Why is programming difficult
Large class sizes means the lecturer has less and
less time to give individual instruction.
Large class sizes also means that students get
less feedback on their assignments.
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Why is programming difficult
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Our Solution
To combat these problems we developed
a comprehensive online feedback system to give
the students the individual attention they needed
to learn successfully.
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Our Solution
Divide and conquer to manage large class sizes
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Our Solution
Tutors check assignment works
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Our Solution
Tools developed to assist tutors give
individualised feedback.
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Our Solution
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Our Solution
200 plus students got feedback within two days
of the assignment deadline every week
- Lecturer
it was easy to write over code and show
exactly where the errors occurred
- Tutor
getting a pat on the back, we all like the
praise we can get
- Student
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Future Ideas

• Peer-assessment
• Self-assessment
• Mentoring programme
• Feedback more individualised and personalised

• Real time playback
• Better/more redlining tools

• Extend for redlining other files, not
• just .java files eg .doc, .pdf etc.