What students find difficult in learning programming

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What students find difficult in learning
programming

• Ásrún Matthíasdóttir Associate Professor
• Reykjavik University
• Iceland

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Iceland - 290.570 inhabitants, 103.000 sq. km
(Irland is 70.273 sq. km)
Akureyri 18.000
Reykjavík Capital area 190.000
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The Icelandic school system

• Pre-school institutions
• Age between 1 and 5 years (fee-paid by the
  parents)
• Compulsory education, Grunnskoli
• Between 6 and 16 years
• Upper Secondary
• Menntaskóli/Fjölbrautarskóli (Grammar
  School/Comprehensive School)
• Length of program 4 years
• Between 16 and 20 years
• Preparation for University and/or specialized
  vocational study
• University
• 20 years and older

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Icelandic naming system

• Ásrún Matthíasdóttir
• First name Surname
• Daughter of Matthías Andrésson
• Husband Jón Friðrik Sigurðsson
• son of Sigurður Álfsson
• Children
• Ari Á. Jónsson (son of Jón)
• Ásrún Jónsdóttir (daughter of Jón)

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Computer Science situation

• Students success in mastering basic programming
  skills is not as good as would be expected in
  many universities
• At the same time the number of students enrolling
  in Computer Science is decreasing almost
  worldwide
• Application for Computer Science in RU were 351
  in the year 1998, 242 in 2001 and 74 in 2004

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Codewitz project

• The Codewitz project is developing and producing
  interactive web-based learning objects in order
  to help students and teachers in entry level
  programming courses
• Funded by the European Union Socrates program
  Minerva, ODL and ICT in education
• The participating universities are the University
  of Applied Sciences in Furtwangen in Germany
  (FHF), the Tampere Polytechnic in Finland, the
  Tampere University of Technology (TUT) in
  Finland, the Ventspils University Collage (VENTA)
  in Latvia, the Technical University of Civil
  Engineering (UTCB) in Bucharest, Romania and
  Reykjavik University (RU), Iceland
• Under the coordination of the Tampere Polytechnic
  in Finland

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Survey 2003

• To prepare the Codewitz project a need analysis
  was conducted using an online questionnaire for
  data collection
• A website for questionnaires was designed
• One for students and one for teachers
• Made available for Codewitz partners in November
  2003 by e-mail
• A total of 565 students and 35 teachers
  participated
• I will discuss some of the students and teachers
  answers

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Some results from the need analysa

• Two thirds (74) of the students described their
  computer use skills as good or expert before
  starting university
• Well over half (60) of the students claimed that
  they had some programming experience before they
  started their university study
• 59 of them claimed that their programming skills
  were low or very low.
• Just over half (52) of the students had been
  studying programming for more than a year when
  they participated in the research
• The most common programming language (75) used
  in the courses was C but 18 of the students
  said they used Java

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Students answer
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Students
Teachers

• Most of the teachers (81) claimed that dividing
  functionality into procedures,
• functions and/or classes was difficult or very
  difficult for the students
• 71 claimed that finding bug in their own program
  was difficult or very difficult for the
  students

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Students answer

• Gaining enough access to computers/networks was
  reported difficult or very difficult by only
  8 of the students
• 15 of them claimed that using a program
  development environment, compiler, editor etc.
  was difficult or very difficult
• Learning the programming language syntax was
  reported difficult or very difficult by 22
  of the students and 8 of the teachers
• Understanding programming structure was reported
  difficult or very difficult by 28 of the
  students and 46 of the teachers

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Students answer
13
Teachers answers
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Students answer
15
Students answer

• Only one third (29) of the students claimed that
  they learned issues about programming in lectures
  often or almost always and
• About half (51) of them in exercises and
  discussion sessions in small groups

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Students answer
17
Students answer

• Interactive visualizations of program language
  structures was claimed to be very useful or
  often useful in learning programming by less
  that half (42) of the students
• still pictures of programs and program language
  structure was claimed to be very useful or
  often useful by 36 of the students
• Only 30 of the students had used or seen
  visualization materials (e.g. Codewitz) in their
  courses

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Multimedia learning objects

• In the survey discussed here, student attitudes
  toward their skills in programming before
  university indicate that they understand that it
  takes time to learn programming and to become an
  expert
• Although students have learned some programming
  they realise that they are not experts when they
  start university

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• The student group in this research did not agree
  on what is difficult to learn in programming, as
  similar proportions rated the same thing as
  difficult and easy
• This could support Jenkins and Davys
  classification of the student group and show how
  heterogeneous the group is
• According to the students answers, between 8
  and 20 of the group could be classified as
  rocket scientists with an expertise in
  programming
• But it is more difficult to use this survey to
  say how many could be classified as copers,
  strugglers and competents

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Teachers

• The teachers agree on what they believe is
  difficult for the students, e.g. abstract data
  types and error handling
• The only subject, which more than half of the
  students agreed on as being difficult or very
  difficult, are pointers and references
• Teachers have to look closer at a topic that over
  20 of the student consider difficult to learn

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• This survey may give teachers some guidance of
  what subjects need more attention and can give an
  overview over what students find difficult
• The results indicate that students like to work
  by themselves and gives reason to belie that
  interactive learning object could be useful
• The results will be useful in the
  Codewitz/Minerva project and will help the
  participating universities to choose what
  learning objects to emphasise in order to help
  teachers and students in the struggle with
  programming

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Example from Codewitz
Input/Output area
Memory
Execution area
Conditions
Explanation area
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Codewitz material bank

• The learning objects are made available via an
  online material bank (data base) on the Internet
  at www.codewitz.net
• Teachers or their respective educational
  institutions can become partners in Codewitz and
  download learning objects
• All partners can develop their own learning
  objects and place them in the database and
  thereby becoming a part of the development
  process of Codewitz

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Codewitz partner

• Two types of partnership are offered, level 1 and
  level 2
• Partner of level 1 is both a tester and a
  developer which is primarily for high school
  institutions
• At level 2 the partner is also a Learning Object
  producer
• To become a partner it is best to go to
  www.codewitz.net choose How to join and get more
  information about the partnership before sending
  e-mail to tarja_at_codewitz.net or esa_at_codewitz.net

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Codewitz

• www.codewitz.net
• tarja_at_codewitz.net
• esa_at_codewitz.net
• asrun_at_ru.is