- Title
- The impact of an in-depth code comprehension tool in an introductory programming module
- Creator
- Leppan, Ronald George
- Subject
- Algorithms
- Subject
- Computer programming
- Subject
- Algorithms -- Study and teaching -- South Africa
- Subject
- Visual perception
- Date Issued
- 2008
- Date
- 2008
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MSc
- Identifier
- vital:10471
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/847
- Identifier
- Algorithms
- Identifier
- Computer programming
- Identifier
- Algorithms -- Study and teaching -- South Africa
- Identifier
- Visual perception
- Description
- Reading and understanding algorithms is not an easy task and often neglected by educators in an introductory programming course. One proposed solution to this problem is the incorporation of a technological support tool to aid program comprehension in introductory programming. Many researchers advocate the identification of beacons and the use of chunking as support for code comprehension. Beacon recognition and chunking can also be used as support in the teaching model of introductory programming. Educators use a variety of different support tools to facilitate program comprehension in introductory programming. Review of a variety of support tools fails to deliver an existing tool to support a teaching model that incorporates chunking and the identification of beacons. The experimental support tool in this dissertation (BeReT) is primarily designed to encourage a student to correctly identify beacons within provided program extracts. BeReT can also be used to allow students to group together related statements and to learn about plans implemented in any semantically and syntactically correct algorithm uploaded by an instructor. While these requirements are evident in the design and implementation of BeReT, data is required to measure the effect BeReT has on the indepth comprehension of introductory programming algorithms. A between-groups experiment is described which compares the program comprehension of students that used BeReT to study various introductory algorithms, with students that relied solely on traditional lecturing materials. The use of an eye tracker was incorporated into the empirical study to visualise the results of controlled experiments. The results indicate that a technological support tool like BeReT can have a significantly positive effect on student comprehension of algorithms traditionally taught in introductory programming. This research provides educators with an alternative way for the incorporation of in-depth code comprehension skills in introductory programming.
- Format
- 180 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
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Collections
NMMU School of Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics
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