Dr. Carlos Argelio Arévalo Mercado M. en C. Lizeth Itziguery Solano Romo TUCEB, Bucharest, Romania.

May, 2012

The use of Verbal Protocols as Learning Materials for Introductory Programming

Core Cognitive aspects of programming

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Verbal Protocols

 Given that empirical evidence in cognitive literature suggests that these three cognitive components (valid mental models, effective strategies and metacognitive abilities) are essential to acquire and develop the ability to program,

we argue that an effective learning mechanism would have to include aspects of these cognitive elements

.

   verbal protocols were developed

to study a person’s short term memory

contents (Ericsson & Simon, 1993; Newell & Simon, 1972; Russo, et al, 1989). Verbal protocols are especially suited to show the cognitive actions that a problem solver takes

and the strategies he or she employs

. A verbal protocol can provide

direct data of the ongoing thinking processes while working on a design

. It can show how the problem solver arrives at its designs, what he thinks, what is difficult or easy for him and how does he reconciles conflicting demands.

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Hypothesis

 Visualizing and studying programming verbal protocols, helps novice students to identify and acquire problem solving and metacognitive strategies

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Verbal Protocols editing and recording process

Select and Categorize a problem (instructor) Transcribe and Edit the protocol in the system As a Worked Example (Instructor) Visualize and Study the Problem Solving Protocol (Student) Record the problem solving protocol for the selected problem (Programmer & Interviewer) Add Visual Aids (Animated Code) (Instructor) Add notes to the protocol (metacognitive behaviors) (Instructor) 5

Protocol Visualizer

http://dsi.ccbas.uaa.mx/Protocolos3/ 109 Registered users LTI 2nd Semester UAA (Programming I) ISC 4º Semestre UAA (Programming III, Java) ISC 1er Semestre ITSG (Programming I, Java 35 Protocolos verbales cargados en el sistema

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Protocol Visualizer

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Search

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Protocol Editor

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Usage Reports

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Some lessons learned

  Some interesting circumstances emerged when recording the protocols with participating professors :  Sometimes they interpreted the recording sessions

as being a lecture

They behaved as explaining the procedure to a student audience.

.  They asked for

time to rehearse

the presented problem, even though they were previously instructed that the nature of a protocol was such that rehearsing a specific problem was not desirable. This could be motived by the fact that, as teachers, they

would not want to be seen as “making mistakes”.

 Some selected problems where

too simple

(for example, calculation of the area of a circle using Pi) for them

to include identifiable strategies

, or

too complex

(like a Java GUI calculator) for a student to stay focused on.

These situations were later corrected, but can serve as warnings if future research is to be done with this approach.

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Recorded use of the system

System Usage

4:48:00 4:19:12 3:50:24 3:21:36 2:52:48 2:24:00 1:55:12 1:26:24 0:57:36 0:28:48 0:00:00 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57

Student

Viewing Time tiempo promedio maximo minimo desviación estándar 0:37:16 4:41:48 0:00:29 0:50:37

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Current State.

 A Parallel Pilot Study with cuasi-experimental design (intact groups, no random selection) is currently being undertaken. Three independent blocks: G 1 0 1 X 1 0 2 Programming I. LTI, 2nd Semester UAA (n=30) G 2 G 3 0 1 0 3 X 1 0 2 0 4 Java III. ISC, 4th Semester A UAA (n=35) Java III. ISC, 4th Semester B UAA (n=37).

G 4 0 1 X 1 0 2 Programming I. ISC, 1st Semester ITSG (n=11)   Currently in data collection phase. No data analysis and results yet

This same study will be adjusted and replicated during 2nd semester of 2012 13

Future Features: completion problems

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Social Sharing and Recommendation of Learning M aterials – Design Draft (v. 0.1)

o All the ratings of a user given the user identifier · The repository recommend: o Learning materials based on the user identifier o Learning materials based on an object identifier or metadata o Learning materials based on the current sequence of learning objects (with objects identifier, metadata or full text of the object) o Learning activities based on the current sequence of learning activities o Similar users based on the user identifier The system will be related to the other solutions according to the following diagram: 6

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Local Team Aknowledgements

 Development  Francisco Javier García (UAA-LTI)  Julio René López Guerrero (UAA-MITC-CONACYT)  Edgar Alan Calvillo (UAA-MC-CCOMP)   Teaching Staff (Protocol Recording)      M. en C. Georgina Salazar Partida (UAA) Dr. Juan Muñoz López (UAA) Ing . Rubén Figueroa Zepeda (ITSG) Dra. Lizbeth Muñoz Andrade (UAA) M. en C. Claudia Escareño (UAA) Editing and production  Rodrigo González Villareal (UAA-MITC-CONACYT)   Berta Alicia Villalpando (UAA-LTI) Sergio Durón Macías (UAA-LTI)

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