Teaching Programming in a Collaborative Environment

• Eduardo Rosalém Marcelino FTT / UNISANTOS
• Marta Costa Rosatelli UNISANTOS

Abstract

Students of introductory programming courses usually face great difficulties. The number of students who fail to complete these courses is high and most part of them report that they are not able to create the set of inferences to solve a problem without the support of the teacher. The objective of this work is to present an Intelligent Tutoring System that is capable to assist the teacher in the teaching process of computer programming. As a way to motivate the students, the system relies on collaborative learning environment and presents exercises in the form of a game, in which the students compete in order to verify which student or students managed to better assimilate the concepts presented by the system.

References

Al-Imamy, S., Alizadeh, J., Nour, M.A.: “On the Development of a Programming Teaching Tool: The Effect of Teaching by Templates on the Learning Process”. In: Journal of Information Technology Education 5 (2006).

Brusilovsky, P., Calabrese, E., Hvorecky, J., Kouchnirenko, A., Miller, P.: “Mini-languages: A Way to Learn Programming Principles”. In: Education and Information Technologies 2 (1), 65--83 (1997).

Jermann, P., Soller, A., Muehlenbrock, M.: “From Mirroring to Guiding: A Review of State of the Art Technology for Supporting Collaborative Learning”. In: Proc. of Euro-CSCL (2001)..

Lawrence, R.: “Teaching Data Structures using Competitive Games”. In: IEEE Transactions on Education 9 (3), 205--260,(2004).

Panitz, T., Panitz, P.: “Encoraging the Use of Collaborative Learning in Higher Education”. In: Forest, J.J.F. (ed.). University Teaching: International Perspectives. Garland Publishing, New York, pp. 161-202 (1998).

Papert, S.: “Mindstorms, Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas”. Basic Books, New York (1980).

Pattis, R.E.: “Karel - The Robot, A Gentle Introduction to the Art of Programming”. Wiley, London (1981).

Pimentel, E. P.; França, V. F.; Omar, N. A.: “Caminho de um Ambiente de Avaliação e Acompanhamento Contínuo da Aprendizagem em Programação de Computadores”. In: II Workshop de Educação em Computação e Informática do Estado de Minas Gerais, (2003).

Reichert, R., Nievergelt, J., Hartmann, W.: “Programming in Schools - Why, and How”. In: Pellegrini, C., Jacquesson, A. (eds.) Enseigner l'informatique, pp. 143-152. Georg Editeur Verlag (2001).

Rosatelli, M.C., Self, J.A., Thiry, M.: “LeCS: A Collaborative Case Study System”. In: Frasson, C., Gauthier, G., VanLenh, K. (eds.) Intelligent Tutoring Systems, pp. 242-251. Springer Verlag, Berlin (2000).

Santos, C., Frozza, R., Paschoal, L.: Dahmer, A., “Dóris - Pedagogical Agents for Intelligent Tutoring System”. In: 6th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring System. Springer Verlag, Berlin (2002).

Vizcaíno, A., Contreras, J., Favela, J., Prieto, M.: “An Adaptive Collaborative Environment to Develop Good Habits in Programming”. In: Frasson, C., Gauthier, G., VanLenh, K. (eds.) 5th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, pp. 262-271. Springer Verlag, Berlin (2000).

Vladan, D., Harrer, A.: “Architectural Patterns in Pedagogical Agents”. In: 6th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, pp. 649-657. Springer Verlag, Berlin (2002).