Learning Programming in Social Media: An NLP-powered Reddit Study

Reddit is a popular social media platform that is used for various purposes. In this study, we explore how Reddit has been utilized by online learners to learn programming. Our research questions are: 1) how is Reddit generally used as an alternative resource for learning programming? 2) what progra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:2022 Fourth International Conference on Transdisciplinary AI (TransAI) pp. 55 - 58
Main Authors: Liu, Yang, Anwar, Mohd
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Published: IEEE 01.09.2022
Subjects:
Codes
Natural language processing
Online Learning
Pandemics
Programming
Reddit
Social Media
Social networking (online)
Springs
Writing
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Summary:Reddit is a popular social media platform that is used for various purposes. In this study, we explore how Reddit has been utilized by online learners to learn programming. Our research questions are: 1) how is Reddit generally used as an alternative resource for learning programming? 2) what programming topics are popularly discussed in Reddit communities? 3) what are the concerns and experiences of these learners in subreddit communities? Using Natural Language Processing techniques (e.g., topic modeling), we have studied the four largest programming-related subreddit communities, namely r/learnprogramming, r/javascript, r/Python, and r/learnpython during January 1 st , 2019, through April 30 th , 2022. Our study finds that learners discussed various programming constructs, participated in code sharing activities, and expressed their feelings/emotions about learning programming and writing working codes. Generally, we have observed that learners' participations during summertime are focused on mastering general programming concepts. However, during fall and spring, the learners seek help on very specific programming problems and get engaged in lot more code sharing. Outside of the learning-related discussions, at the beginning of the pandemic, the learners' concerns on the pandemic were expressed. Overall, Reddit platform is used to supplement textbooks for learning programming.
DOI:10.1109/TransAI54797.2022.00015