How novices write code: discovering best practices and how they can be adopted

该项目旨在通过了解计算机科学学生在编写计算机编程代码时的思维过程来服务于国家利益。计算机程序设计入门课程是计算机科学和其他科学技术、工程和数学专业的入门课程。因此，对于新手程序员来说，提高学生在这些课程中的成功度是很重要的。虽然学生经常在计算机科学入门课程中学习完整的计算机代码示例，但学生没有被展示或教授代码如何演变成完整解决方案的过程。实际上，在指导学生时，教育者不会量化编程过程或代码在开发过程中如何演变。该项目团队计划通过分析学生和专家的击键日志来构建学生思维、解决问题和解决问题的模型。该项目旨在了解教育工作者如何最好地量化和教学生如何有效地编写计算机编程代码。所提议的工作有可能成为基于第一原理的方法，为学生提供对代码开发过程的更深入理解，提高计算机科学毕业生的质量，并为多样化的计算劳动力做出贡献。这个项目的目标是1)通过击键分析发现编写计算机编程代码过程的描述符，2)调查编程过程是什么，以及3)演示学生如何采用最佳实践。三个研究，围绕击键分析和向学生介绍编程作业的击键回放的结果，将被设计来满足这些目标。项目组计划开发数据分析软件和公开的击键日志数据集。这三项研究旨在确定新手程序员的最佳实践。项目结果将在网站上发布，该网站将链接到KeystrokeExplorer， GitHub KeystrokeExplorer存储库和ShowYourWork插件。项目团队打算在计算教育会议和计算教育事务上展示结果。NSF IUSE: EDU项目支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过其参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by understanding the thought processes of computer science students when writing computer programming codes. Introductory computer programming courses are a gateway for computer science and other science technology engineering and mathematics majors. As such it is important to improve student success in these courses for novice programmers. While students frequently study examples of completed computer code in introductory computer science courses, the students are not shown or taught the process of how code evolves into a complete solution. Indeed, when instructing students, educators do not quantify the programming process or how the code evolves during the development process. This project team plans to use analysis of keystroke logs of students and experts to construct models of student thinking, problem solving, and trouble shooting. The project intends to understand how educators can best quantify and teach students how to effectively write computer programming code. The proposed work has the potential to be a first principles-based approach to provide a deeper understanding of the code development process for students, improve the quality of computer science graduates, and contribute to a diverse computing workforce.The objectives of this project are to 1) discover through keystroke analysis descriptors for the process of writing a computer programming code, 2) investigate what the programming processes are, and 3) demonstrate how students can adopt best practices. Three studies, centered around keystroke analysis and outcomes of introducing students to keystroke playbacks of programming assignments, will be designed to meet these objectives. The project team plans to produce data analysis software and public keystroke log datasets. The three studies are designed to identify best practices for novice programmers. The project results will be disseminated on the website which will be linked to KeystrokeExplorer, GitHub repositories of KeystrokeExplorer, and the ShowYourWork plugin. The project team intends to present the results at computing education conferences and in Transactions on Computing Education. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.