We present the results of an interview study investigating student experiences in two online introductory computer science courses. Our theoretical approach is situated at the intersection of two research traditions: "distance and adult education research," which tends to be sociologically oriented, and "computer science education…

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of reflective thinking effects in the process of designing software on students' learning performances. The study contends that reflective thinking is a useful teaching strategy to improve learning performance among lower achieving students. Participants were students from two groups: Higher…

Although previous research has demonstrated learning benefits for both instructors and students in the web-based collaborative learning environments, one of them major difficulties is the lack of a practical approach to assist teachers in evaluating the knowledge contribution of learners. A novel method of merging multi-modes of assessment and…

Contributing student pedagogy (CSP) builds upon social constructivist and community-based learning principles to create engaging and productive learning experiences. What makes CSP different from other, related, learning approaches is that it involves students both learning from and also explicitly valuing the contributions of other students. The…

This paper discusses the proposed model of the collaborative virtual learning system for the introductory computer programming course which uses one of the collaborative learning techniques known as the "Think-Pair-Share". The main objective of this study is to design a model for an online learning system that facilitates the…

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of middle school students' perceptions of the ideal science student to their problem solving activity and conceptual understanding in the applied science area of robotics. Twenty-six 11 and 12 year-olds (22 boys) attending a summer camp for academically advanced students participated in the…

Students often find that learning to program is hard. Introductory programming courses have high drop-out rates and students do not learn to program well. This paper presents experiences from three educational institutions where introductory programming courses were improved by adopting Python as the first programming language and roles of…

This report describes DVI (Digital Video Interactive) technology, current authoring languages and tools, and the reasons for developing new tools and applications. The work described was performed by Betac Corporation as part of a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research project. Section I provides background information on DVI. DVI technology…

Describes a tutorial tool which allows the execution of a C program to be graphically displayed. VINCE (Visual Instruction for Novices in a C Environment) is written in Java, allowing it to be used on the Web. Students can enter their own C code, or select from a menu of pre-written tutorials, each illustrating a particular aspect of programming.…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate student understanding and application of computational thinking patterns to novel situations. Over 500 students, who had just designed and programmed a Frogger-style game using the AgentSheets platform, responded to a newly developed video-prompt survey instrument administered in the Fall 2010 semester.…

Previous studies indicate that the use of pair programming has beneficial effects on student learning. In this article, we present a controlled study that directly measured students' acquisition of individual programming skills using laboratory practice (in which students programmed individually under exam conditions). Additionally, we analyzed…

This paper presents an advanced variant of learning programming by the use of the Internet and multimedia. It describes the development of a blended learning environment, which, in addition to classroom (face-to-face) lessons, introduces lessons delivered over the Internet: the use of multimedia teaching material with completely dynamic…

Presence of a teacher appraisal system plays a major role in deciding the level of professionalism of an educational institution. In addition to this it also plays a major role in improvement in quality of education imparted by the teacher. Recently assessment of the teaching fraternity has become indispensable measure and thus it is necessary to…

Many learners find the study of introductory computer programming difficult. This is also true of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and, in order to support them, we need an improved understanding of how they learn programming. This study explored strategies for constructive learning of introductory programming by…

The popularity of intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) is increasing rapidly. In order to make learning environments more efficient, researchers have been exploring the possibility of an automatic adaptation of the learning environment to the learner or the context. One of the possible adaptation techniques is adaptive item sequencing by matching…