Nobuya Ishihara

A Proposal of Coding Rule Learning Function in Java Programming Learning Assistant System

Recently, Java has been educated in many universities and professional schools due to reliability, portability, and scalability. However, because of its limited time in Java programming courses, coding rules are rarely educated. As a result, codes made by students become far from readable codes. In this paper, we propose a coding rule learning function using static code analyzers in Java Programming Learning Assistant System (JPLAS), targeting students who have accomplished the grammar learning and are going to write practical codes for final projects. Coding rules for this function consist of naming rules, coding styles, and potential problems. We evaluate the improvement of readability in four codes refined by this function and the usability of this function through the questionnaires completed by five students. In future studies, we expect that this function will be employed in Java programming courses.

A Proposal of Test Code Generation Tool for Java Programming Learning Assistant System

To advance Java programming educations, we have developed the Java programming learning assistant system (JPLAS) that can verify the correctness of the code from a student automatically using the test-driven development (TDD) method. Then, to register a new assignment in JPLAS, teachers are required to write the test code in addition to the reference source code. Unfortunately, most teachers at schools are not accustomed to writing test codes. In this paper, we propose a test code generation tool that automatically generates the test cases from the reference source code by extracting the outputs for given inputs using functions in JUnit. As assignments for Java novice students, the code that contains standard inputs/outputs is emphasized. For evaluation, we collected 97 codes containing standard inputs/outputs from Java programming text books or Web sites. The experimental result has shown that the proposed tool correctly generated the test codes for them except for one code using a random generator.

Offline answering function for fill-in-blank problems in Java Programming Learning Assistant System

To assist Java programming educations, we have developed a Web-based Java Programming Learning Assistant System (JPLAS). JPLAS provides fill-in-blank problems to let students study the grammar and the code structure for Java by filling blank elements in a high-quality code that are composed of reserved words, identifiers, and control symbols. However, students can answer the problems only when connected with the Internet, which limits the time and place for them to use JPLAS. In this paper, we implement the offline answering function for fill-in-blank problems in JPLAS. To avoid cheating by students, we adopt the hash function and the message authentication technique. We confirm the effectiveness of our proposal through applications to the Java programming course in our department.

Practices of fill-in-blank problem s in Java programming course

To assist Java programming educations, we have developed a Web-based Java Programming Learning Assistant System (JPLAS). JPLAS provides fill-in-blank problems to study the Java grammar by filling blank elements in a high-quality code that are composed of reserved words, identifiers, and control symbols. A graph-based blank element selection algorithm has been proposed to automatically select as many blanks as possible that have grammatically correct unique answers. In this paper, we show and discuss their application results to a Java programming course in our department.

Correlation analysis of fill-in-blank problem solutions to final programming results in Java programming course

To assist Java programming educations, we have developed a Web-based Java Programming Learning Assistant System (JPLAS). JPLAS provides fill-in-blank problems to study the Java grammar and fundamental programming by filling blank elements that are composed of reserved words, identifiers, and control symbols in a high-quality code. During the last semester, we assigned 121 problems with 1,552 questions to 46 students taking our Java programming course. In this paper, we analyze correlations of problem solving results of students to their final programming results.

A Proposal of Software Architecture for Java Programming Learning Assistant System

To improve Java programming educations, we have developed a Web-based Java Programming Learning System (JPLAS). To deal with students at different levels, JPLAS provides three levels of problems, namely, element fill-in-blank problems, statement fill-in-blank problems, and code writing problems. Unfortunately, since JPLAS has been implemented by various students who studied in our group at different years, the code has become complex and redundant, which makes further extensions of JPLAS extremely hard. In this paper, we propose the software architecture for JPLAS to avoid redundancy to the utmost at implementations of new functions that will be continued with this JPLAS project. Following the MVC model, our proposal basically uses Java for the model (M), JavaScript/CSS for the view (V), and JSP for the controller (C). For the evaluation, we implement JPLAS by this architecture and compare the number of code files with the previous implementation.

A fill-in-blank problem workbook for Java programming learning assistant system

Purpose To advance Java programming educations, the authors have developed a Java Programming Learning Assistant System (JPLAS) as a web application system. JPLAS provides fill-in-blank problems for novices to study the grammar and basic programming skills through code reading. Design/methodology/approach To select the blank elements with grammatically correct and unique answers from a given Java code, the authors have proposed the graph-based blank element selection algorithm. Then, the code for this problem should be highly readable to encourage novice students to study it. Because code readability can be improved by proper names for identifiers, the authors have also proposed the naming rule testing algorithm to identify codes with correct names. Findings In this paper, the authors present a fill-in-blank problem workbook by collecting suitable Java codes from textbooks and Web sites and applying these algorithms with several extensions. The workbook consists of 16 categories with a considerable number of problems that follow the conventional learning order of Java programming. Originality/value The proper set of ready-made fill-in-blank problems is effective in enhancing the usability of JPLAS both for teachers and students. For the preliminary evaluation, the authors assign a few problems to students. In coming semesters, the authors will use this workbook in the course to verify the adequacy of the proposal for novices.

A Proposal of Statement Fill-in-Blank Problem in Java Programming Learning Assistant System

As a reliable, portable, and practical programming language, Java has been educated in many universities and professional schools. To assist Java educations, we have developed a Web-based Java Programming Learning Assistant System (JPLAS). JPLAS provides the element fill-in-blank problem and the code writing problem. The former problem is designed for novice students to study the grammar and writing style of Java by filling correct words to the blanks in a given Java code that are automatically marked by checking coincidences with correct ones. The latter problem is for students to study writing Java codes for specifications described in natural language that are automatically verified using the test-driven development (TDD) method. Unfortunately, the transition between two problems is not smooth due to the difference in difficulties. In this paper, we propose the statement fill-in-blank problem in JPLAS to fill the gap by asking students to write one whole statement in a code where the correctness is verified by the TDD method. The blank statement is selected by generating the Program Dependence Graph (PDG) of the code and finding the statement that has the largest dependence with other ones. We verify the effectiveness of our proposal through applications to the Java programming course in our department.

An extension of statement fill-in-blank problem in Java programming learning assistant system

To assist Java programming studies, we have developed a Web-based Java Programming Learning Assistant System (JPLAS). As one function in JPLAS, it provides a statement fill-in-blank problem that asks students to fill in proper statements to blanked ones in a Java code, so as to cultivate simultaneous code reading and writing abilities. Previously, we blanked only the core statement in a code with one class using the Program Dependence Graph (PDG), where we do not consider the features of object-oriented programming in Java that uses multiple classes and collaborations with other systems such as database. In this paper, we extend the statement fill-in-blank problem to deal with these features. We verify the effectiveness of our proposal through the Java programming course at our department.

Analysis of fill-in-blank problem solution results in Java programming course

For advancing the educational quality of Java programming, we have proposed and implemented the Java Programming Learning Assistant System (JPLAS) as a Web application system. JPLAS offers fill-in-blank problems that request students to fill in the blank elements in a given Java code to study Java grammar and basic programming skills. In past years, we have utilized fill-in-blank problems at our Java programming courses. In this paper, we analyze solution results of students taking the course in 2015, and confirm the relatively high correlation between solution performances and course grades.