Approaches to learning

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research.

/pdf/introductory-programming-a-systematic-literature-review-3yllvt7k18.pdf

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

The impact of flipped classrooms on student achievement in engineering education: A meta‐analysis of 10 years of research

This study focuses on the individual and joint contributions of two nonverbal channels (i.e., face and upper body) in avatar mediated-virtual environments. 140 dyads were randomly assigned to communicate with each other via platforms that differentially activated or deactivated facial and bodily nonverbal cues. The availability of facial expressions had a positive effect on interpersonal outcomes. More specifically, dyads that were able to see their partner's facial movements mapped onto their avatars liked each other more, formed more accurate impressions about their partners, and described their interaction experiences more positively compared to those unable to see facial movements. However, the latter was only true when their partner's bodily gestures were also available and not when only facial movements were available. Dyads showed greater nonverbal synchrony when they could see their partner's bodily and facial movements. This study also employed machine learning to explore whether nonverbal cues could predict interpersonal attraction. These classifiers predicted high and low interpersonal attraction at an accuracy rate of 65%. These findings highlight the relative significance of facial cues compared to bodily cues on interpersonal outcomes in virtual environments and lend insight into the potential of automatically tracked nonverbal cues to predict interpersonal attitudes.

/pdf/facial-expressions-contribute-more-than-body-movements-to-240x5xt565.pdf

Facial expressions contribute more than body movements to conversational outcomes in avatar-mediated virtual environments.

In this paper we report our study on the impact of implementing a flipped classroom model on student learning in an undergraduate introductory programming course. We use three components to measure student learning namely, final exam scores, competency acquisition and feedback levels. We compare a traditional offering with a flipped offering delivered the following year to a comparable student population, and with no change in the course content and assessments. We observed that in comparison to the traditional, the flipped model increased pass rates in the final exam and also enhanced competency acquisition. In terms of feedback levels, the flipped classroom provided more time for one-to-one in-class personalized feedback. Our approach is unique in the sense that we use a competency framework to be able to pin point the competencies that were improved as a result of the flipped model.

https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4881&context=sis_research

Improving student learning in an introductory programming course using flipped classroom and competency framework

The use of online videos and flipped classrooms is a natural fit for many CS courses, especially in the introductory sequence, and the use of these techniques is growing. However, the benefits of these techniques depend heavily on student preparation before class meetings. This paper presents tests of the effectiveness of basic multiple choice quizzes as gateway checks in a flipped classroom by looking at the impact they have on student grades. Programming aptitude and learning approaches were considered as additional factors. Ignoring aptitude and learning approaches, statistical analysis of the student grades did not support our hypothesis that the gate-check video quizzes would be beneficial. Nor did it support our hypothesis that the benefit of quizzes would be greatest for students who had lower aptitudes entering the class. However, there was some evidence that it might have helped raise the grades of students who have a propensity toward surface learning.

The Effectiveness of Video Quizzes in a Flipped Class

In an effort to improve student performance in a flipped classroom environment, this paper explores the impact of including auto-graded coding questions in gate check quizzes associated with videos for a flipped CS1 course. Previous work showed that having students complete multiple choice questions that were intended to verify that they had done the preparation work did not have a statistically significant impact on outcomes as measured through written quizzes and exams. In an attempt to engage higher-level processing of learned information, this work builds on top of that by adding questions that require students to write short segments of code for most of the quizzes in addition to doing some multiple choice questions. We found that students who were given these coding video quizzes performed better on written assessments, especially for the final exam.

Including Coding Questions in Video Quizzes for a Flipped CS1

This lightning talk describes our current effort to implement and use Discord - a new tool to facilitate group work that an instructor can use to moderate the level of group participation of students. By utilizing Discord's features to their full extent, an instructor can actively moderate the group's interactions, keep track of who is/isn't participating, and even send messages to student groups. Instructors have the ability to create a Discord server, which acts as a virtual classroom, and then use the server to store student accounts, sort students into groups, and enable group chatrooms. Within these chatrooms, the instructor can observe for language, how well teams are keeping on task, and most importantly, level of participation. This tool keeps students accountable for how often they collaborate with the team by using a chat log with timestamps that the instructor can audit. A goal of implementing Discord is to introduce a user-friendly tool that instructors can use to moderate group interactions and hold students accountable for their level of participation within their groups. A second goal of this project is to utilize the ability to programmatically access the communications in an effort to automate content and sentiment analysis to determine team effectiveness.

Using Discord to Understand and Moderate Collaboration and Teamwork: (Abstract Only)

Managers recognize that software development project teams need to be developed and guided. Although technical skills are necessary, non-technical (NT) skills are equally, if not more, necessary for project success. Currently, there are no proven tools to measure the NT skills of software developers or software development teams. Behavioral markers (observable behaviors that have positive or negative impacts on individual or team performance) are beginning to be successfully used by airline and medical industries to measure NT skill performance. The purpose of this research is to develop and validate the behavior marker system tool that can be used by different managers or coaches to measure the NT skills of software development individuals and teams. This paper presents an empirical study conducted at the Software Factory where users of the behavior marker tool rated video clips of software development teams. The initial results show that the behavior marker tool can be reliably used with minimal training. Keywords-Non-technical Skills; behavior marker; performance.

/pdf/a-behavior-marker-tool-for-measurement-of-the-non-technical-msbms31i5h.pdf

A Behavior Marker tool for measurement of the Non-Technical Skills of Software Professionals: An Empirical Investigation

Working effectively as part of a team is an incredibly important skill to learn. Most jobs require interacting and working with others and the outcome of a team project relies on the processes of the group members. Naturally, a positive team experience yields better results than a negative experience. The biggest indicators of a positive team experience are communication and collaboration, which are both soft skills associated with the social sensitivity of the group members. Previous research has found that social sensitivity influences the amount of communication and the ultimate performance of traditional face-to-face teams. However, virtual teamwork is becoming more common. Does social sensitivity have a similar influence in virtual teams? Virtual teams have different interactions than face-to-face teams because they use communication technologies, which can hinder certain human cognitive processes. Our current research focuses on the influence of social sensitivity on the amount of communication and the performance of students who work as a virtual team using text-based communication in Discord. We find that teams with higher average levels of social sensitivity communicate more and perform better, even if they work in a virtual environment using only text messaging.

Lisa L. Lacher

Papers

The Effectiveness of Video Quizzes in a Flipped Class

Including Coding Questions in Video Quizzes for a Flipped CS1

Using Discord to Understand and Moderate Collaboration and Teamwork: (Abstract Only)

A Behavior Marker tool for measurement of the Non-Technical Skills of Software Professionals: An Empirical Investigation

Does Social Sensitivity Impact Virtual Teams