I Scratch and Sense But Can I Program?: An Investigation of Learning with a Block Based Programming Language

This article reports an investigation into undergraduate student experiences and views of a visual or ‘blocks' based programming language and its environment. An additional and central aspect of this enquiry is to substantiate the perceived degree of transferability of programming skills learnt...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of information and communication technology education Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 87 - 116
Main Author: Simpkins, N K
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Hershey IGI Global 01.07.2014
Subjects:
Activity programs in education
Analysis
Blocking
College students
Computer Science Education
Distance Education
Distance learning
Education
Educational technology
Equivalence
Foreign Countries
Language
Learning
Online Surveys
Open Universities
Polls & surveys
Programming
Programming Languages
Student Experience
Students
Syntax
Teaching methods
Technology Uses in Education
Transferability
Undergraduate Students
Undergraduate study
Visual
United Kingdom
United States
ISSN:1550-1876, 1550-1337
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This article reports an investigation into undergraduate student experiences and views of a visual or ‘blocks' based programming language and its environment. An additional and central aspect of this enquiry is to substantiate the perceived degree of transferability of programming skills learnt within the visual environment to a typical mainstream textual language. Undergraduate students were given programming activities and examples covering four basic programming concepts based on the Sense programming language which is intended to simplify programming. Sense programming statements are represented by blocks which only fit together in ways that produce a meaningful syntactic outcome, which may lower the cognitive barrier to learning. Students were also presented with concepts represented using an equivalent textual construct and asked to consider their understanding of these based on the graphical cases. They were finally asked to complete a short online survey. This paper presents the programming activities, the survey and an analysis of the results.
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ISSN:1550-1876
1550-1337
DOI:10.4018/ijicte.2014070107