This paper systematically explores how Large Language Models (LLMs) generate explanations of code examples of the type used in intro-to-programming courses. As we show, the nature of code explanations generated by LLMs varies considerably based on the wording of the prompt, the target code examples being explained, the programming language, the…

This paper undertakes a thorough evaluation of ChatGPT's code generation capabilities, contrasting them with those of human programmers from both educational and software engineering standpoints. The emphasis is placed on elucidating its importance in these intertwined domains. To facilitate a robust analysis, we curated a novel dataset comprising…

Motivation: Students learning to program often reach states where they are stuck and can make no forward progress--but this may be outside the classroom where no instructor is available to help. In this situation, an automatically generated next-step hint can help them make forward progress and support their learning. It is important to know what…

Novice programmers often struggle on assignments, and timely help, such as a hint on what to do next, can help students continue to progress and learn, rather than giving up. However, in large programming classrooms, it is hard for instructors to provide such real-time support for every student. Researchers have, therefore, put tremendous effort…

In this study, an interactive programming learning environment was built with two types of error prompt functions: 1) the key prompt and 2) step-by-step prompt. A quasi-experimental study was conducted for five weeks, in which 75 sixth grade students from disadvantaged learning environments in Taipei, Taiwan, were divided into three groups: 1) the…

Worked examples, which present an explained code for solving typical programming problems are among the most popular types of learning content in programming classes. Most approaches and tools for presenting these examples to students are based on line-by-line explanations of the example code. However, instructors rarely have time to provide…

The rapid development of education informatization has accumulated a large amount of data for learning analytics, and adopting educational data mining to find new patterns of data, develop new algorithms and models, and apply known predictive models to the teaching system to improve learning is the challenge and vision of the education field in…

In computer science education, introductory computer programming courses tend to be the most challenging for novices, with higher dropout rates than other computer science courses. Recruitment and retention of students in computer science fields is an important area of focus in computer science education research, and previous research has…

Autograding systems are being increasingly deployed to meet the challenges of teaching programming at scale. Studies show that formative feedback can greatly help novices learn programming. This work extends an autograder, enabling it to provide formative feedback on programming assignment submissions. Our methodology starts with the design of a…

The current study explored the effect of sexual content in advertisements and the programme-advertisement congruence on the memory of sexual and nonsexual advertisements. Seventy participants (41 females and 29 males) were randomly allocated to one of four conditions. They viewed either "The Bachelorette" (sexual programme) or "I'm…

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effects of voice enthusiasm (enthusiastic voice vs calm voice) on social ratings of the speaker, cognitive load and transfer performance in multimedia learning. Design/methodology/approach: Two laboratory experiments were conducted in which learners learned from a multimedia presentation about computer…

Recent years have seen a growing interest in block-based programming environments for computer science education. While these environments hold significant potential for novice programmers, they lack the adaptive support necessary to accommodate students exhibiting a wide range of initial capabilities and dispositions toward computing. A promising…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which early adolescent programmers embed meaning in their digital media created within an online programming community called Scratch. Design/methodology/approach: The author completed an 18-month descriptive case study with 5 early adolescent participants. The research design included a…

Purpose: This study aims to examine if a pedagogical agent's expressed anger, when framed as a feedback cue, can enhance mental effort and learning performance in a multimedia learning environment than expressed happiness. Design/methodology/approach: A between-subjects experiment was conducted in which learners engaged with a multimedia learning…

Intelligent tutoring systems can support students in solving multi-step tasks by providing hints regarding what to do next. However, engineering such next-step hints manually or via an expert model becomes infeasible if the space of possible states is too large. Therefore, several approaches have emerged to infer next-step hints automatically,…