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Creator |
2482a533b100c51b082644502f2b86e0 |
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Creator |
2883e0045d6fe2c5a450db1258ad9e7f |
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Date |
1997-04-08 |
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Is Part Of |
p1365893X |
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Is Part Of |
repository |
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abstract |
This paper describes recent developments in our approach to teaching computer programming
in the context of a part-time Masters course taught at a distance. Within our course,
students are sent a pack which contains integrated text, software and video course
material, using a uniform graphical representation to tell a consistent story of how
the programming language works. The students communicate with their tutors over the
phone and through surface mail.
Through our empirical studies and experience teaching the course we have identified
four current problems: (i) students' difficulty mapping between the graphical representations
used in the course and the programs to which they relate, (ii) the lack of a conversational
context for tutor help provided over the telephone, (iii) helping students who due
to their other commitments tend to study at 'unsociable' hours, and (iv) providing
software for the constantly changing and expanding range of platforms and operating
systems used by students.
We hope to alleviate these problems through our Internet Software Visualization Laboratory
(ISVL), which supports individual exploration, and both synchronous and asynchronous
communication. As a single user, students are aided by the extra mappings provided
between the graphical representations used in the course and their computer programs,
overcoming the problems of the original notation. ISVL can also be used as a synchronous
communication medium whereby one of the users (generally the tutor) can provide an
annotated demonstration of a program and its execution, a far richer alternative to
technical discussions over the telephone. Finally, ISVL can be used to support asynchronous
communication, helping students who work at unsociable hours by allowing the tutor
to prepare short educational movies for them to view when convenient. The ISVL environment
runs on a conventional web browser and is therefore platform independent, has modest
hardware and bandwidth requirements, and is easy to distribute and maintain. Our planned
experiments with ISVL will allow us to investigate ways in which new technology can
be most appropriately applied in the service of distance education. |
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authorList |
authors |
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status |
peerReviewed |
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uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/1451 |
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uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/20513 |
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uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/20789 |
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volume |
1 |
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type |
AcademicArticle |
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type |
Article |
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label |
Domingue, John and Mulholland, Paul (1997). Teaching programming at a distance:
the Internet software visualization laboratory. Journal of Interactive Media in Education,
1 |
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label |
Domingue, John and Mulholland, Paul (1997). Teaching programming at a distance:
the Internet software visualization laboratory. Journal of Interactive Media in Education,
1 |
| 53 |
Title |
Teaching programming at a distance: the Internet software visualization laboratory |
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in dataset |
oro |