Dianne Hagan

A multi-national, multi-institutional study of assessment of programming skills of first-year CS students

In computer science, an expected outcome of a students education is programming skill. This working group investigated the programming competency students have as they complete their first one or two courses in computer science. In order to explore options for assessing students, the working group developed a trial assessment of whether students can program. The underlying goal of this work was to initiate dialog in the Computer Science community on how to develop these types of assessments. Several universities participated in our trial assessment and the disappointing results suggest that many students do not know how to program at the conclusion of their introductory courses. For a combined sample of 216 students from four universities, the average score was 22.89 out of 110 points on the general evaluation criteria developed for this study. From this trial assessment we developed a framework of expectations for first-year courses and suggestions for further work to develop more comprehensive assessments.

Does it help to have some programming experience before beginning a computing degree program

There is an intuitive perception that students with prior programming experience have an initial advantage in an introductory programming course, but that this advantage may decrease over the duration of the course if the style of programming is different from what the student has learnt previously. This paper reports on a study that indicates that students who have experience in at least one programming language at the beginning of an introductory programming course perform significantly better in the assessment than those with none, and that the more languages with which a student has experience, the better the performance tends to be.

Teaching and Learning with BlueJ: An Evaluation of a Pedagogical Tool

Introduction The BlueJ programming environment (Kolling & Rosenberg, 1996) was designed and implemented by Michael Kolling and John Rosenberg in order to improve the teaching and learning of introductory programming in an object-oriented style using Java as the implementation language. BlueJ gives students a graphical picture of the classes and objects in a system, allows students to interact with them directly, simplifies testing of methods and classes, and removes the necessity for much difficult and confusing Java code such as the main method in a class. An earlier paper (Hagan & Markham, 2000b) described the advantages of using BlueJ to teach Java to novice programmers, and the kinds of help offered to students, and reported on the results of an initial evaluation of the effectiveness of BlueJ. This evaluation was done during the first semester of the use of BlueJ, in 1999, when it was still a comparatively unstable Beta version and many students found its installation procedure complicated. That study found that, of the one-third of students who participated in the study, most warmed to BlueJ during the semester after an initial period of frustration, and felt by the end of semester that BlueJ had been a help to them in learning Java. However, these self-selected students had significantly better results in the unit than students who did not participate in the study, and therefore it was felt that more evaluation was needed. This is a follow-up study to that first one. It examines the perceptions of students in the second of the two consecutive first year programming units, when they have become more experienced in programming and in using BlueJ. It was hoped that, by this time, students would no longer confuse BlueJ and Java and would be able to appreciate the benefits that BlueJ offers. The Two First Year Programming Units The first of these two units focuses on the basics of object-oriented programming. It covers classes and objects; message passing; sequence, selection, and repetition; basic data types and some library classes; arrays of basic data types and objects; objects as attributes of other classes; and testing of classes and methods. As part of their assessment, students are required individually to write a program that uses six to eight interacting classes, including at least one that is supplied by the teaching staff. Examples of assignments that have been used include a board game, a video shop, a gift registry system and an online cinema ticketing system. Most students find this unit difficult and time consuming. This is partly because there is a great deal to learn, but also because it is their first semester at university. Many of them are disoriented for weeks, learning how the university system works, and not used to being expected to motivate themselves to work consistently on several different units. International students are adjusting to a different language and culture, finding accommodation, and generally concentrating on many other things besides learning to program. For these reasons, we offer a great deal of help with their programming units, as documented in Hagan & Markham (2000b). Student resources include lectures, discussion classes and lab sessions, a helpdesk staffed by tutors in the unit, availability of lecturers and tutors for personal contact by email and in person, and a unit website including an anonymous feedback facility. The unit assessment consists of two unit tests during the semester, three stages of the assignment, and a final examination. At the end of the first semester, students are expected to be able to design and write small programs in Java, debug them, and test them properly. There is an emphasis on software engineering principles such as coding standards, test strategies and maintainability of programs. By the time students reach the second programming unit, they are expected to have settled into university life and know how to learn and motivate themselves. …

Our failing students: a study of a repeat group

The high failure and low retention rates of students in introductory programming courses are of growing concern.This study looks at a group of students who are repeating an introductory programing subject, exploring issues which may affect their learning and ultimate success. Comparisons are made with a group of new students undertaking the same subject.The students were surveyed in the middle and at the end of one semester. A profile of the students, focussing on their motivation for their course selection and commitment to this course, was established. Their opinions on the usefulness of their classes, various resources, tutorial work and assignment work were sought. The needs and concerns of these students, highlighted in the surveys, are discussed and suggestions are made for the establishment of a special learning environment for failing students.

Monitoring and evaluating a redesigned first year programming course

A collaborative project between the Computing faculty and the Education faculty of Monash University was aimed at improving the teaching and learning of first year programming. After initial research had identified the problems, some improvements were attempted during 1996. One department was willing and able to make major changes to its subjects immediately. The sequence of two first year programming subjects was restructured and redesigned. The progress of the project was monitored via direct observation, email and the World Wide Web. An improvement in the percentage of students who achieved very good results marked the project as a success.

Industrial Experience Projects: A Balance of Process and Product

Students in the final year of the Bachelor of Computing degree at Monash University must do a full year group project as a capstone subject. Each group of five or six builds a real system which is normally for a client outside the university. The project usually necessitates learning some skills that have not been taught in the course. Each group works on a different project. The emphasis is on management issues and the software development process as much as on the product, with a set of deliverables and deadlines throughout the year, and an assessment strategy reflecting this.

Experiences with teaching object-oriented concepts to introductory programming students using C++

With the growth in popularity of the object-oriented paradigm, the Department of Software Development at Monash University decided to teach object-oriented programming to the introductory programming students. The first year programming subjects were completely restructured and rewritten. It was decided to introduce the object-oriented paradigm after the students have had one semester of procedural programming experience in C++. Teaching object oriented principles in C++ has presented many challenges. The students find the complicated language syntax difficult. They also show a reluctance to move from the procedural to the object-oriented paradigm. However, with support and advice from education experts we have successfully addressed these problems. Different teaching approaches and techniques have been used. Small discussion classes were introduced to provide a forum for the consolidation of ideas presented in lectures, away from the distraction of computers. Extra support was given to the students in the form of a special World Wide Web page and a help desk. A concurrent research project has enabled close monitoring of the effectiveness of our teaching programme. In spite of the difficulties we have faced, the student results for 1995 and 1996 show an improvement in student performance over previous years.

A collaborative strategy for developing shared Java teaching resources to support first year programming

This paper discusses a strategy for developing shared teaching resources to support Java programming subjects taught using a variety of educational approaches (lectures and tutorials, problem-based learning, distance education) with differing computing focii (computer science, commercial computing, network computing).The strategy is a group process involving six distinct stages: selecting the topic areas considered integral to all subjects for which the resources will be used; defining the details and identifying areas / concepts of a topic; determining basic, intermediate and advanced levels of information; determining appropriate educational techniques that support the desired learning objectives for the concept; investigating existing resources and building new resources, both with and without the use of computer technology.

Web-based student feedback to improve learning

A Web-based anonymous feedback facility has been used for three years to give students a voice and some ownership of the subjects they are studying, and to allow staff to make adjustments to the teaching program in time to help the current student group. Improvements have been made to the system, e.g. the ability for students to identify themselves, extensions to staff e-mail copies, discussion threads to delineate topic areas, and automatic generation of statistics on usage. These statistics show how the need for anonymity decreases as the level of maturity of the students increases. Other planned or recently added improvements are described..

Consolidate, preserve and build: a tutor training program for a new school

In 1994, a collaborative research project began between the Faculty of Education and the Departments of Sojiware Development and Computer Science. The research was aimed at improving the teaching and learning of introductory programming. Results shwed that ~lze ~jor learning of students took place in a tutorial setting. One of the outcomes of the project was a tutor training program to foster teaching skills in mostly untrained teaching staff. The maining program continued with education faculty members’ invoh’ement until 1997, being run separately and modified independently by the two departinents. At the beginning of 1996’, a new School wasforrned, amalgamating the Departments of Sofivare Development, Computer Science and two orher departments. The tutor training program at Ibis time was revised and delivered, independently of education facuhy assistance. It was a consolidation of the two separate programs, preserving the best featuresfiom both, to promote teaching skills within those at the j70nt line of student contact. The purpose of this paper is to describe the revised training course, evaluate it and suggest improvements to build upon its strengths.