Description
Teachers face several challenges when presenting fundamental concepts of programming in the classroom. Several tools are introduced to give a visual dimension to support the learning process. They rely on code blocks, easily manipulated in a plug and play fashion, to build a program. These block-based tools intend to familiarize students with programming logic, before diving into text-based programming languages such as Java, Python, etc. However; when transitioning from block-based to text-based programming, students often encounter a gap in their learning. The student may not be able to apply block-based foundations in a text-based environment. To bridge the gap between both environments, we developed a hybrid-based learning approach. We found that on average a hybrid-based approach increases the students understanding of programming foundations, memorization, and ease of transition by more than 30% when compared to a block-based to text-based learning approach. Finally, we provide the community with an open source, hybrid-based learning tool that can be used by students when learning programming concepts or for future studies.
Date of creation, presentation, or exhibit
4-1-2019
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Department, Program, or Center
Software Engineering (GCCIS)
Recommended Citation
Hussein Alrubaye, Stephanie Ludi, and Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer. 2019. Comparison of block-based and hybrid-based environments in transferring programming skills to text-based environments. In Proceedings of the 29th Annual International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering (CASCON '19). IBM Corp., USA, 100–109.
Campus
RIT – Main Campus
Comments
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