Comparing the Effectiveness of Online Learning Approaches on CS1 Learning Outcomes
Comparing the Effectiveness of Online Learning Approaches on CS1 Learning Outcomes
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比较在线学习方法对 CS1 学习成果的有效性
DOI：
10.1145/2787622.2787709
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发表时间：
2015
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Amy J. Ko
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
M. Lee;Amy J. Ko
人们越来越多地转向在线资源来学习编程。然而，尽管它们很流行，但这些资源在教授CS 1编程概念方面的成功程度仍不清楚。使用前测-后测研究设计，我们测量了60名新手在使用以下随机分配的学习活动之前和之后的表现：1）在名为Codecademy的网站上完成Python课程，2）玩并完成名为Gidget的调试游戏，或3）使用Gidget的谜题设计器从头开始编写程序。测试前和测试后的考试包括24个选择题，这些选择题是根据1,494名众包受访者的数据选择和验证的。在这三种情况下，我们所有的60名新手在前测和后测中的考试成绩都很差（例如，最好的中位后测试分数是50%正确）。然而，那些完成Codecademy课程的人和那些玩Gidget游戏的人在比较他们的测试后考试成绩和测试前考试成绩时，正确答案的增加超过100%。然而，那些玩Gidget的人在一半的时间内获得了同样的学习收益。这与使用拼图设计师的新手形成了鲜明对比，他们没有表现出任何可衡量的学习收益。所有参与者在自己的条件下表现相似，不分性别、年龄或教育程度。这些研究结果表明，自由裁量的在线教育技术可以在几个小时内成功地教新手入门编程概念（到一定程度）时，明确指导的课程。
People are increasingly turning to online resources to learn to code. However, despite their prevalence, it is still unclear how successful these resources are at teaching CS1 programming concepts. Using a pretest-posttest study design, we measured the performance of 60 novices before and after they used one of the following, randomly assigned learning activities: 1) complete a Python course on a website called Codecademy, 2) play through and finish a debugging game called Gidget, or 3) use Gidget's puzzle designer to write programs from scratch. The pre- and post-test exams consisted of 24 multiple choice questions that were selected and validated based on data from 1,494 crowdsourced respondents. All 60 of our novices across the three conditions did poorly on the exams overall in both the pre-tests and post-tests (e.g., the best median post-test score was 50% correct). However, those completing the Codecademy course and those playing through the Gidget game showed over a 100% increase in correct answers when comparing their post-test exam scores to their pre-test exam scores. Those playing Gidget, however, achieved these same learning gains in half the time. This was in contrast to novices that used the puzzle designer, who did not show any measurable learning gains. All participants performed similarly within their own conditions, regardless of gender, age, or education. These findings suggest that discretionary online educational technologies can successfully teach novices introductory programming concepts (to a degree) within a few hours when explicitly guided by a curriculum.