studygroup.com

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Presented by Matt Gleeson

Senior Educational Designer

Study Group Australia

Teaching and Assessing

Programming Languages

Online via Moodle

Introduction

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Teaching Programming: The Challenges…

• It is widely accepted that teaching programming is not easy

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Teaching Programming: What makes it difficult?

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How do we overcome the challenges?

– A change in approach

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“Directly encouraging experimentation,

exploration, and creativity as a direct gateway to

deeper learning.” – John Resig on the process devised for Khan Academy

Computer Science Program

How do we implement it?

– We have the technology…

• Virtual Programming Lab

• JSBin

• Server-side language REPL

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Maximising positive learning outcomes

• Making sure learning is happening

• Maximising engagement

• They might even start to have fun!

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Managing Cognitive Load

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Using Constructivism

• Linking and extending – avoid the

abstract concepts to start with

• Steer clear of trying to promote rote

mastery

• Assign programming tasks that

learners can relate to using in the real

world

• Encourage experimentation!

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Scratch Snap!

• Demonstrating programming

and computational concepts

in a concrete way

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• Before moving on to more

abstract concepts

Improving Assessment Strategies

• Reduce/discourage plagiarism via

automated checking of assessment

submissions

• Learners can be more clear about what

they are doing because they can see it

happening

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Virtual Programming Lab • Easing teacher load through semi/automation of assessment marking

• Plagiarism checking

• Instant and direct feedback to the learner

• Enable the learner to

undertake summative or

formative activities right

in Moodle without

leaving the environment

• No setup for the learner

- ready to go

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REPL: Read, Eval, Print, Loop

• Enhanced engagement

• Experimental and experiential learning

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Children of the

REPLution…

• Anyone recognise any of

these?

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REPL with a cause…

• Allow learners to experiment without fear

of failure!

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JS Bin

• Embedding JSBin in your Moodle

course

• Setting up your own in-house instance

of JSBin

• Extending

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Other external tools

• Java REPL: http://www.javarepl.com/console.html

• <iframe src="http://www.javarepl.com/embed.html" style="width: 720px; height: 350px; border: 0px"> </iframe>

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Questions?

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