Multi-agent Systems Design for Novices

Advanced approaches to the construction of software systems can present difficulties to learners. This is true for multi-agent systems (MAS) which exhibit concurrency, non-determinacy of structure and composition and sometimes emergent behavior characteristics. Additional barriers exist for learners because mainstream MAS technology is young and design methodologies are still evolving.

This paper considers the benefits and difficulties associated with teaching/learning agent technology and recommends an approach used by the authors. The paper examines Agent UML - a set of proposed extensions to UML to facilitate MAS design but suggests that simpler design tools are more appropriate for novice MAS programmers. A small suite of preferred tools are presented.     

Effect of an Animated Classroom Story Embedded in Online Discussion on Helping Mathematics Teachers Learn to Notice

Rich-media representations of teaching using animated cartoons can be effective at stimulating teachers' discussion about practice and hence help them learn productively from one another about their profession. Our research aims to design web-based interactive rich-media virtual settings for teachers to learn to do the practice of teaching. For that purpose, we seek a set of operational design principles that could be used to optimally exploit web-based interactive rich-media technologies. By operational design principles, we mean guidelines that facilitate decision making in the creation of learning conditions. In this article, we report on a study of the effect of embedded animated clips of instructional practice in online interactive forum/chat to support teachers in learning to notice and interpret critical events of classroom interactions. The study showed that both novice and experienced teachers actively participated in discussion and effectively noticed important events of teaching practice. The main findings include the following: (a) Embedding animated representations of teaching in forum/chat, by serving as a common point of reference, helps both novice and experienced teachers effectively notice and discuss noteworthy events in teaching practice; (b) forum suits novice teachers better than chat; and (c) both forum and chat suit experienced teachers in different ways. This study is a critical step in a design-based research agenda toward the building of more complex virtual settings for teacher education.     

An evaluation of APT: an Animated Program Tracer for novice Prolog programmers

This paper describes an approach to evaluating the usefulness of an Animated Program Tracer (APT) in communicating run-time information to novice Prolo programmers. The method used in the evaluation consists of a set of programs which have been specially designed to elicit how novices think Prolog programs are executed, and thus to reveal how accurate their model of program execution is. Two experiments are reported. The first determines the misconceptions that novices hold about the runtime actions of the Prolog interpreter, and produces six different categories of misconception. The second experiment investigates the ability of APT to communicate run-time information to novice Prolog programmers. A scoring technique was used to interpret subjects' answers, and shows that there was a significant improvement in the scores of the group who saw programs traced by APT when compared with a control group who saw no trace.     

Learning and Teaching Programming: A Review and Discussion

In this paper we review the literature relating to the psychological/educational study of programming. We identify general trends comparing novice and expert programmers, programming knowledge and strategies, program generation and comprehension, and object-oriented versus procedural programming. (We do not cover research relating specifically to other programming styles.) The main focus of the review is on novice programming and topics relating to novice teaching and learning. Various problems experienced by novices are identified, including issues relating to basic program design, to algorithmic complexity in certain language features, to the “fragility” of novice knowledge, and so on. We summarise this material and suggest some practical implications for teachers. We suggest that a key issue that emerges is the distinction between effective and ineffective novices. What characterises effective novices? Is it possible to identify the specific deficits of ineffective novices and help them to become effective learners of programming?     

String formatting considered harmful for novice programmers

In Java, System.out.printf and String.format consume a specialised kind of string commonly known as a format string. In our study of first-year students at the Ateneo de Manila University, we discovered that format strings present a substantial challenge for novice programmers. Focusing on their first laboratory we found that 8% of all the compilation errors and 100% of the exceptional, run-time behaviour they encountered were due to the improper construction of format strings. Format strings are a language unto themselves embedded within Java, and they are difficult for novice programmers to master when learning to program. In this article, we present exemplars of students' problematic interactions with the Java compiler and run-time environment when dealing with format strings, discuss these interactions, and recommend possible instructional interventions based on our observations.     

The effect of different usage of the educational programming language in programming education on the programming anxiety and achievement

Education and Information Technologies - The abstract structure, logic, negative perceptions, and anxiety of programming are seen as obstacles to novice programmers. The importance of educational...     

Rethinking of Teaching Objects-First

The issues surrounding teaching object-orientation to novice programmers from day one are revisited first. An analysis is then presented showing the harmfulness of teaching objects-first. The attention then is given to addressing the problems of the current textbooks. Furthermore, a remark is made in comparison between teaching objects-first and Reformed Calculus from a closed discipline. Finally, a new structure for introductory programming courses is suggested.     

用创新思维培养动画角色设计人才

动画角色是动画片的精神与灵魂,是动画片成功与否的关键。动画角色设计人才的培养,除了需要掌握造型的基础技法外,创新能力的培养在不断发展的动画产业与市场需求中更是刻不容缓。     

An empirical study of formal procedure specification

Programming a computer is a problem-solving activity which can be categorized as formal procedure specification.It is a useful vehicle for the study of this aspect of problem-solving because the procedures can be automatically tested for correctness.The reported study focuses on the incidence and severity of errors committed during program development by novice programmers.The observations are summarized in tabular form, to permit insights into the sorts of errors virtually untrained students make when specifying procedures, and the problems they have eliminating them.     

An Evaluation of Primary School Children Coding Using a Text-Based Language (Java)

All primary school children in England are required to write computer programs and learn about computational thinking. There are moves in other countries to this effect such as the U.S. K-12 Computer Science Framework (CSF) for development. Debates on how to program and what constitutes computational thinking are ongoing. Here we report on a study of programing by children aged 7 – 11 using Java and elements of computational thinking they experience. Our platform comprises a novel Story-Writing-Coding engine we have developed. We compare novice (children’s) processes of coding an animated story with that of experts (college students) and evaluate the differences using four measures based on the progressive coding of a complete program. We also analyze the use of novice (children’s) computational thinking in this coding process. This research is set against a backdrop of approaches to teaching programing and concepts of computational thinking in recent educational literature.     

Learning Prolog in a schema-based environment

A set of basic construct Prolog schemata are presented as the basic constructs of a structured Prolog for recursive list processing. Prolog schema hierarchies are given that group classes of Prolog programs within each of the basic construct Prolog schemata via most-specific schemata which high-light their similarities and differences. A schema-based instructional approach based upon this classification of Prolog programs is provided as a method of introducing recursion to novice Prolog programmers. The incorporation of this approach to teaching recursive Prolog programming in an intelligent tutoring system is presented. Finally, a schema-based Prolog programming environment embedding this tutoring system in addition to a standard Prolog development system is proposed which promotes the acquisition and use of structured programming constructs in Prolog.     

Evolution of Novice Programming Environments: The Structure Editors of Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract

Beginning in the early 1980s, the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University developed and used three generations of novice programming environments. The focus of these systems was to apply, advance and tune structure editor technology in support of the teaching and learning of computer programming. The use of these pedagogical systems in Carnegie Mellon's introductory programming courses provided feedback and inspiration to guide the projects. This paper tracks the evolution of the programming environments and courses, documenting important lessons and discoveries about novice programmers and the environments that support them.     

Using mimicking gestures to improve observational learning from instructional videos

Abstract

This study, generated from considerations of embodied cognition, observational learning, and cognitive load theory, investigated the effect of mimicking gestures on learning to play piano tasks. Fifty university students from an Australian University, with two different levels of piano-playing experience, were randomly assigned to one of the two different gesturing conditions in a 2 (gestures vs. no-gestures) × 2 (novice vs. more expertise) design. All groups viewed an animated video presentation of four musical scores being played on a piano with the hand motions visible, accompanied by the sounds of the notes played. Participants in the gesturing condition were required to gesture while watching the presentations, but in the no-gesturing condition, gesturing was prohibited. Test results indicated a significant learning advantage to gesturing with reduced cognitive load. It was also evident that the efficacy of gesturing was influenced by learner expertise and task complexity.     

Instructor perspectives of multiple-choice questions in summative assessment for novice programmers

Learning to program is known to be difficult for novices. High attrition and high failure rates in foundation-level programming courses undertaken at tertiary level in Computer Science programs, are commonly reported. A common approach to evaluating novice programming ability is through a combination of formative and summative assessments, with the latter typically represented by a final examination. Preparation of such assessment is driven by instructor perceptions of student learning of programming concepts. This in turn may yield instructor perspectives of summative assessment that do not necessarily correlate with student expectations or abilities. In this article, we present results of our study around instructor perspectives of summative assessment for novice programmers. Both quantitative and qualitative data have been obtained via survey responses from programming instructors with varying teaching experience, and from novice student responses to targeted examination questions. Our findings highlight that most of the instructors believed that summative assessment is, and is meant to be, a valid measure of a student's ability to program. Most instructors further believed that Multiple-choice Questions (MCQs) provide a means of testing a low level of understanding, and a few added qualitative comments to suggest that MCQs are easy questions, and others refused to use them at all. There was no agreement around the proposition that if a question was designed to test a low level of skill, or a low level in a hierarchy of a body of knowledge, that such a question should or would be found to be easy by the student. To aid our analysis of assessment questions, we introduced four measures: Syntax Knowledge; Semantic Knowledge; Problem Solving Skill and the Level of Difficulty of the Problem. We applied these measures to selected examination questions, and have identified gaps between the instructor perspectives of what is considered to be an easy question and also in what is required to be assessed to determine whether students have achieved the goals of their course.     

A theory of instruction for introductory programming skills

ABSTRACT

Background and Context: Current introductory instruction fails to identify, structure, and sequence the many skills involved in programming.

Objective: We proposed a theory which identifies four distinct skills that novices learn incrementally. These skills are tracing, writing syntax, comprehending templates (reusable abstractions of programming knowledge), and writing code with templates. We theorized that explicit instruction of these skills decreases cognitive demand.

Method: We conducted an exploratory mixed-methods study and compared students’ exercise completion rates, error rates, ability to explain code, and engagement when learning to program. We compared material that reflects this theory to more traditional material that does not distinguish between skills.

Findings: Teaching skills incrementally resulted in improved completion rate on practice exercises, and decreased error rate and improved understanding of the post-test.

Implications: By structuring programming skills such that they can be taught explicitly and incrementally, we can inform instructional design and improve future research on understanding how novice programmers develop understanding.     

Equipping novice teachers with a learning map to enhance teaching practice

Using tools to support learning design has been proven feasible in improving the integration of technology into the curriculum. However, novice teachers are faced with two major issues, including their limited experience in learning design and limited ability in using new technologies. Learning map is explored and developed in e-Textbooks to serves as a scaffolding for novice teachers during their development into expert teachers. This paper presents a case study in which learning map is integrated into learning design with associated resources in an e-Textbook authoring environment. The participants were instructed to complete a learning design task for an e-Textbook during a one-hour session and then complete a questionnaire afterward. The results indicate that novice teachers value the learning map for learning design in e-Textbooks regardless of their background in ICT teaching and learning design. Novice teachers adopt positive attitudes toward the use of templates because of their numerous benefits. The teachers also suggested that better quality templates should be integrated into the authoring tool to distinguish the advantage of e-Textbook learning design from that of a traditional book and to provide them with additional options.     

Cognitive Activity‐Based Design Methodology for Novice Visual Communication Designers

The notion of design thinking is becoming more concrete nowadays, as design researchers and practitioners study the thinking processes involved in design and employ the concept of design thinking to foster better solutions to complex and ill‐defined problems. The goal of the present research is to develop a cognitive activity‐based design methodology for novice visual communication designers, which will be achieved by mapping the findings from a comparative analysis of novice and expert visual communication designers' thinking processes onto the prospective methodology. Under the proposed methodology, activity modes take place in a chronological flow under specific guidelines involving various forms of design cognition. The guidelines correlate to design phases from problem structuring to detailed design and to the cognitive processes of divergent and convergent thinking. The methodology gives open‐ended instruction to novices endeavouring to proceed with the design process, solve complex design problems and make better design decisions. This research has value for its unique approach to methodology development. Furthermore, the proposed methodology provides guidance for more effective cognitive activities during the design process and holds potential for implementation in design education due to its focus on the needs of novice designers.     

动画角色造型的塑造问题研究

动画角色的造型设计,在动画创作中是极为重要的一部分,是动画创作的基础。它直接影响到动画创作的成败。好的动画角色造型设计,能给一部动画片带来不可估量的影响,使动画创作的生命力更强,使动画创作更加感人。一个成功角色造型的塑造对于动画来说具有非常重要的意义。一个动画角色造型塑造的成功,不仅意味者一部动画片的成功,更预示这无穷的商业和文化价值。在动画片中,无论是对人物或动物作怎样的风格设计,其最终目的都是为了完成动画角色的塑造。在一部优秀的动画片中,每个动画角色的塑造同样也是片中的灵魂和基础,是决定整个动画片的风格和动画作品成败的关键。     

Animated agent immediacy and news services with handheld computers

The present study considers the design and implementation of immediacy behaviors for an animated agent and the influence of such an agent on viewers. Immediacy, a widely studied construct in human communication research, is defined as the verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors that enhance physical and psychological closeness between people. In this study, the use of animated agent immediacy with new technology, a handheld computer, was studied as a form of affective computing. The purpose of the study was first to find out whether users perceive the communication behaviors of the agent that were intended to enhance immediacy, second, what effects animated agent immediacy has on evaluations of a news service, and third whether affective learning or recall of news content is related to agent immediacy. The results revealed that communication behaviors that enhance immediacy were perceived by the users. Those behaviors were also related to their perception of immediacy. However, the animated agent immediacy did not have a significant effect on evaluation of the news service. Additionally, agent immediacy had no effect on affective or cognitive learning from the news. The results show that it is possible to construct immediacy behaviors for the animated agents, but in this context the influences differed from those reported in human‐to‐human communication. The possibilities for and consequences of agent immediacy are also discussed, as are the reasons why the effects of immediacy on evaluations and learning were not found in the present study.