CER: Collaborative Research: Computing Education through Collaborative Debugging

华盛顿大学和俄勒冈州立大学将研究如何在个性化的社交在线学习环境中教授调试和计算技能。研究人员将创建一个互动网站，向学习者提供一系列调试谜题，使他们能够以自定进度的方式并与同行合作学习诊断策略和计算概念。该网站还将允许学习者创建自己的调试谜题，与朋友、家人和世界分享，从而形成一个社交学习的在线社区。使用这一设计，该项目将调查调试策略的显性教学对学习者学习基本编程概念的能力的影响，以及社会学习特征对学习结果和参与度的影响。该项目还将在如何教授调试以及如何将这种教学整合到计算的其他方面的教学中做出基本发现。评估将包括受控实验室实验，200多名美国青少年参加的年度夏令营，以及在全球范围内部署该网站。该项目是提高美国青少年计算机素养和对计算机职业兴趣的更大努力的一部分。该项目对社交学习的关注对于扩大对计算的参与尤为重要，使青少年能够在支持性和协作性的环境中学习计算，而不是在当今往往阻碍许多青少年的竞争激烈的环境中学习计算。此外，由于该网站将只需要互联网连接和网络浏览器，而不需要安装软件或特殊设备，该项目还将改善有效的、以证据为基础的计算机教育的机会，接触到只有在公共图书馆或学校才能上网的学习者。这些努力不仅将提高美国公民对信息技术工作的全球竞争力，还将帮助更广泛的公民更好地了解和调试他们周围日益以软件为基础的世界。

The University of Washington and Oregon State University will investigate how to teach debugging and computing skills in personalized, social, online learning settings. The investigators will create an interactive website that presents a series of debugging puzzles to learners, allowing them learn diagnostic strategies and computing concepts in a self-paced manner and in collaboration with their peers. The website will also allow learners to create their own debugging puzzles to share with friends, family, and the world, resulting in an online community of social learning. Using this design, the project will investigate the effect of explicit instruction on debugging strategies on learners' ability to learn basic programming concepts and the effect of social learning features on learning outcomes and engagement. The project will also contribute basic discoveries on how to teach debugging and how such teaching can be integrated into instruction on other aspects of computing. Evaluations will include both controlled laboratory experiments, annual summer camps involving over 200 U.S. teens, and a worldwide deployment of the website.This project is part of a larger effort to increase both computing literacy and interest in computing careers on the part of U.S. teens. This project's focus on social learning is particularly important for broadening participation in computing, allowing teens to learn computing in supportive and collaborative settings, rather than the highly competitive settings that tend to deter many teens today. Moreover, because the website will only require an Internet connection and a web browser, and not software installations or special devices, the project will also improve access to effective, evidence-based computing education, reaching learners who only have Internet access at public libraries or at school. These efforts will not only improve U.S. citizens' global competitiveness for information technology jobs, but also help the broader citizenry better understand and debug the increasingly software-based world around them.