Elizabeth V. Howard

Criteria for Evaluation of Visual Programming Languages

Interest in visual programming languages has increased as graphic support in hardware and software has made display and manipulation of visual images, icons, diagrams, and forms reasonable to consider. In this paper, we present a set of evaluation criteria and associated metrics to judge visual programming languages. The five criteria, visual nature, functionality, ease of comprehension, paradigm support, and scalability, are intended to capture the essence of a general purpose visual programming language. These criteria are supplemented with a set of subjective metrics, resulting in an evaluation method that can be used to assess the quality of an individual visual programming language, or to compare among elements of a set of such languages.

Formation of and Adherence to a Self-Disclosure Norm in an Online Chat

To understand how a norm of self-disclosure forms and is adhered to in a synchronous computer-mediated discussion, participants discussed the stigma of mental illness. The transcripts of the discussion were coded for the number of self-disclosures, the number of statements supportive of self-disclosure, and the number of statements supportive of non-self-disclosure. The results showed that the number of self-disclosing statements increased over time, although not in a linear fashion, as did the number of statements supportive of self-disclosure. However, the number of statements supportive of non-self-disclosures decreased over time. These results suggest that once a norm of self-disclosure forms, it is reinforced by statements supportive of self-disclosures but not of non-self-disclosures. The results are discussed in the context of self-disclosure reciprocity and the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE).

Programming in Pairs with Alice to Improve Confidence, Enjoyment, and Achievement

Students in an introductory computing class participated in a study investigating the impact of using a graphics programming environment (Alice) and pair-programming on confidence, enjoyment and achievement. Sixty-four participants completed a short questionnaire and a content pre-test about computer programming concepts. Students were then assigned to one of two groups: individual or paired. The pairs completed a tutorial on Alice and then completed a short assignment over a period of one week working as a team of two. The individuals completed the same tutorial and assignment but completed it alone. Lastly, all participants took the same questionnaire and content post-test. The results showed that all students experienced increased confidence in programming, that students in pairs enjoyed programming more than students who worked individually, and that all students performed significantly better on the content post-test.