Practicing the Process of Programming

计算机科学毕业生人数少是一个全国性的问题。离开计算机科学的一个经常被引用的原因是学生在编程方面的困难。这个项目的目标是建立一个软件导师，提供反馈，旨在指导学生通过开发一系列步骤来解决给定的问题，选择适合每个步骤的编程语言功能，然后使用这些功能编写代码的过程。学生将学习使用软件导师解决40个不同复杂性的问题。预计软件导师将有助于减少学生人数，特别是女性，他们通常会退出编程课程，并增加最终进入信息技术职业的毕业生人数。本研究开发项目将包括以下活动：1）创建实践软件，提供形成性反馈，帮助学生通过解决问题学习算法公式和程序设计。此外，学生将学习编写代码的问题，这将涵盖选择，循环和函数在Java和C++。2)使用教学模块的形成性评估和来自实践软件的反馈来评估学生在整个课程中的学习情况。总结性评价将审查软件对学生在计算机科学入门课程中取得成功的影响，衡量标准是成绩、保留率，特别是软件对妇女在编程入门课程中的不同影响。3)通过研究会议和期刊传播该项目的成果，并在教育工作者中分享实践软件，以便在其他计算机科学入门课程中采用和使用。

The low numbers of computer science graduates is a national concern. One of the frequently cited reasons for leaving computer science is students' difficulties with programming. The goal of this project is to build a software tutor that provides feedback designed to guide students through the process of developing a sequence of steps to solve a given problem, selecting the programming language features appropriate for each step, and then writing code using those features. Students will learn to solve 40 different problems of varying complexity using the software tutor. The software tutor is expected to help reduce the number of students, especially women, who typically drop out of programming courses and increase the number of graduates who eventually go on to careers in Information Technology. This research and development project will consist of the following activities: 1) Creation of practice software that provides formative feedback to help students learn algorithm formulation and program design by solving problems. In addition, students will learn to write code for the problems, which will cover selection, loops, and functions in both Java and C++. 2) Assessment of student learning throughout the course using a formative evaluation of the pedagogic modules and feedback from the practice software. Summative evaluation will examine the impact of the software on the success of students in an introductory Computer Science course, measured in terms of grades, retention, and specifically, the differential impact of the software on women in the introductory programming course. 3) Dissemination of the results of the project through research conferences and journals and by sharing the practice software among educators so it can be adopted and used in other introductory Computer Science courses.