Phase II Expansion Project: The Next Generation of Practice Exercises for Computer Science I

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Computer Science (31)The project expands the use of Problets (www.problets.org) in Introductory Computer Science (CS1). Problets is an intelligent tutoring system providing simulative feedback and customizing the problems and feedback to the learning needs of the student. This project expands Problets in three ways: 1) Development: Problets are created for the advanced imperative and object-oriented topics typically covered in CS1 in C++/Java/C#. Additionally, infrastructure is developed to provide suspend-and-resume capability to students, cross-topic customization, and facility for instructors to adapt the suite of Problets to the specific approach they use to teach CS1. 2) Evaluation: The effectiveness of the newly developed Problets is formatively evaluated, and summatively evaluated through the effect of using the suite of Problets on the cumulative performance of students in CS1. 3) Dissemination: Workshops at regional and national conferences are offered, expanding the current community of Problet users and researchers. Intellectual Merit: This project: 1) applies the proven effectiveness of simulative feedback to help students learn programming; 2) proposes the next generation of practice systems for programming, whose goal is to maximize learning while minimizing the time and effort; 3) develops a practice system that covers all the imperative and object-oriented topics typically included in CS1; and 4) studies the effect of regular problem-solving practice on the cumulative performance of students in CS1.Broader Impact: The suite of Problets developed in this project has the potential to affect learning and teaching in CS1 in the schools that teach with C++, Java and C#. The results of evaluation impact educational practices on issues such as the most effective features of practice systems and the effect of regular problem-solving practice on learning.