Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly emerged as a powerful tool with the potential to enhance learning environments. However, effective use of new technologies in education requires a good understanding of the technology and good design for its use. Generative AI such as ChatGPT requires particularly well-designed instructions due to its ease…

Purpose: This study investigates the impact of AI-assisted pair programming on undergraduate students' intrinsic motivation, programming anxiety, and performance, relative to both human-human pair programming and individual programming approaches. Methods: A quasi-experimental design was conducted over two academic years (2023-2024) with 234…

Programming education often imposes a high cognitive burden on novice programmers, requiring them to master syntax, logic, and problem-solving while simultaneously managing debugging tasks. Prior knowledge is a critical factor influencing programming learning performance. A lack of foundational knowledge limits students' self-regulated learning…

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a significant increase in the utilization of video-based e-learning platforms for programming education. These platforms never considered the essential attributes of student characteristics and learning preferences while designing such a problematic subject having high dropout and failure rates. The traditional…

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…

Generative AI is a disruptive technology that has the potential to transform many aspects of how computer science is taught. Like previous innovations such as high-level programming languages and block-based programming languages, generative AI lowers the technical expertise necessary to create working programs, bringing the power of computation…

We conducted a systematic literature review on automated grading and feedback tools for programming education. We analysed 121 research papers from 2017 to 2021 inclusive and categorised them based on skills assessed, approach, language paradigm, degree of automation, and evaluation techniques. Most papers assess the correctness of assignments in…

Hour of Code is a widely recognized global event that aims to introduce programming to novice users and integrate computer science into education. This paper presents an analysis of the effectiveness of the support system and user interface of Minecraft Adventurer, a serious game designed for the Hour of Code global event. Although previous…

In this case study, we present our findings regarding a massive open online Scratch programming course. The course, which followed a project-based learning approach, was delivered from July 4 to 30, 2022 to 186 students in Brazil. The students were challenged to develop individual coding projects. Our research goal was to investigate teaching and…

Generative AI has recently gained the ability to generate computer code. This development is bound to affect how computer programming is taught in higher education. We used past programming assignments and solutions for textbook exercises in our introductory programming class to analyze how accurately one of the leading models, ChatGPT, generates…

Pair Programming is considered an effective approach to programming education, but the synchronous collaboration of two programmers involves complex coordination, making this method difficult to be widely adopted in educational settings. Artificial Intelligence (AI) code-generation tools have outstanding capabilities in program generation and…

Background: Many studies have highlighted the positive effects of visual programming instruction (VPI) on students' learning experiences, programming self-efficacy and flow experience. However, there is a notable gap in the research on how these factors specifically impact programming achievement and learning intentions. Our study addresses this…

Advancements in computation and machine learning have revolutionized science, enabling researchers to address once insurmountable challenges. Bioinformatics, a field that heavily relies on computer-driven analysis of biological data, has greatly benefited from these developments. However, traditional bioinformatics instruction frequently lacks the…

In the dynamic educational context of Malaysia, this study examines the impact of integrating Unplugged Activities (UA) with Block-Based Programming (BBP) on improving the computational thinking (CT) skills of secondary students in full boarding schools in Northern Peninsular Malaysia. Using a quasi-experimental design and mixed-methods analysis,…

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…