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Animated examples as practice content in a Java programming course

Hosseini, R and Sirkiä, T and Guerra, J and Brusilovsky, P and Malmi, L (2016) Animated examples as practice content in a Java programming course. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

Code examples are commonly used learning resources that help students grasp various programming structures and concepts. However, example code usually requires explanations about what each line or part of the code does. Otherwise, students may find it difficult to follow an example. In this paper, we compare two types of code examples that use different techniques to describe important concepts in the code: annotated and animated examples. The former displays an explanation for a subset of lines in plain text, whereas the latter visualizes code execution. We studied the use and impact of these enhanced examples, provided as non-mandatory practice content, in three introductory Java courses. Our results suggest that animated examples are more engaging and have a positive impact on students' learning. As compared to annotated examples, students spent more time with animated examples and more likely completed them. Also, a positive relationship was found between the number of explored animated examples and the overall course grade.


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Details

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Status: Published
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Hosseini, Rroh38@pitt.eduROH38
Sirkiä, T
Guerra, Jjdg60@pitt.eduJDG60
Brusilovsky, Ppeterb@pitt.eduPETERB0000-0002-1902-1464
Malmi, L
Date: 17 February 2016
Date Type: Publication
Access Restriction: No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately.
Journal or Publication Title: SIGCSE 2016 - Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education
Page Range: 540 - 545
Event Type: Conference
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.1145/2839509.2844639
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs: Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Intelligent Systems
School of Information Sciences > Information Science
Refereed: No
ISBN: 9781450338561
Date Deposited: 22 Mar 2016 16:30
Last Modified: 30 Mar 2021 15:55
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/27083

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