This thesis documents the research; development methodology and evaluation of „Progranimate‟, a visual programming environment and associated pedagogy that helps novices overcome their difficulties in learning programming via an imperatives first (non object oriented) approach. In particular it focuses on problem solving and its prerequisite skills, these are known to be particularly troublesome for novice programmers. Progranimate is a unique, web deliverable, simplified development environment that utilises dynamic structured flowchart program construction, generated code in several selectable languages and animated execution. Progranimate uses a structured flowchart visualisation to convey the key concepts and underlying abstractions of programming, whilst allowing the novice to focus on the development of problem solving skills. Progranimate utilises an easy to use, uncluttered development environment and removes the necessity of writing complex code. This allows the user to focus solely on problem solving and on conceptualising the underlying abstractions and semantics of programming. In Progranimate, programs are constructed and executed visually via dynamic flowchart and code based representations. The visual synchronisation between the flowchart and code representations allow the user to draw an effective correlation between the flowchart and the logical code structure that it represents. Program animation features provide the user with an accurate mental model of program execution by emphasising the interaction and behaviour of the key structures and components used in programming. A variable inspection feature is also provided, allowing the user to observe the changes in data as a program is executed. Coupled to Progranimate is a scaffolding pedagogy designed to assist novice programmers in the development of problem solving skill. The pedagogy is underpinned by the theories of scaffolding support and the zone of proximal development. This pedagogy has been utilised within a range of contextual, fun, and gender neutral programming activities designed for use with Progranimate. This thesis hypothesises that using Progranimate on its own or with the scaffolding pedagogy for the creation of simple programs, will help novices strengthen their conceptual understanding of programming and problem solving skills. Evaluations of Progranimate with secondary schoolpupils, their teachers and first year university students support this hypothesis. The evaluations also show that Progranimate coupled to the scaffolding pedagogy and associated programming problems is a very motivating way to introduce secondary school pupils to programming.

The purpose of this project was to try to investigate one approach to the problem of automatically generating programs from some specification. Rather than following the approach which requires the user to define his problem using some formulation, it was decided to look at a class of problems that have similar solutions, but have many variations, and to try to design a system capable of obtaining user requirements and generating solutions tailored to these requirements. The aim was to design the system in such a way that it could be extended to cater for other classes of problems, so that eventually a system which could automatically generate program solutions for a range of problems might be developed. Intro. p. 1.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-152). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-152). Also available on the Internet.

Students often use the web as a source of help for problems that they encounter on programming assignments.In this work, we seek to understand how students use the web to search for help on their assignments.We used a mixed methods approach with 344 students who complete a survey and 41 students who participate in a focus group meetings and helped in recording data about their search habits.The survey reveals data about student reported search habits while the focus group uses a web browser plug-in to record actual search patterns.We examine the results collectively and as broken down by class year.Survey results show that at least 2/3 of the students from each class year rely on search engines to locate resources for help with their programming bugs in at least half of their assignments;search habits vary by class year;and the value of different types of resources such as tutorials and forums varies by class year.Focus group results exposes the high frequency web sites used by the students in solving their programming assignments.

Abstract not available

Programming is a difficult activity because it requires thinking in a way that ordinary people are not familiar with. It becomes more complex considering the unusual and sometimes contradictory (with daily life usage) symbols when designing programming languages. This thesis introduces an experimental programming language called TPD, which is designed to reduce the syntax- and semantics-oriented difficulties to a minimum and provide a head start in programming to high school students and novice programmers who are native speakers of Turkish. TPD mimics Turkish syntax in order to obtain a better learning curve by making use of the user&#039 / s native language competence in learning the essentials of programming. TPD supports both imperative (procedural) and functional paradigms. General lists are provided as a built-in data type. Given the educational concerns, the design of the programming language goes hand in hand with the design of the development environment. Diagnostic features of the compiler are emphasized. Generated target code is in Java. The development environment features a graphical interface and a language-based editor.

The high failure rates of students in the introductory programming course within the universities worldwide have alarmed and worried many educators. Those rates can lead to losses of various types and interests. Thus, there are important reasons to try to clarify the main factors that possibly influence such failures. Furthermore, one of the major challenges is on how to early identify the students likely to in the introductory programming course, eventually allowing effective pedagogical interventions. Thus, in this study we aim to explore educational data mining techniques, in order to compare the effectiveness of prediction algorithms capable of identifying students likely to fail, in a timely manner suitable for pedagogical intervention. This study evaluated the efficacy of prediction algorithms in two different and independent data sources one in the classroom teaching mode and the other in the distance education mode in the disciplines in the introductory programming. The results showed that the techniques discussed in this study are effective in this task of prediction. In addition, it was shown also that after the completion of the pre-processing and adjustments to the parameters of the algorithms analyzed had an improvement in their results. At the end of the process, the Supported Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm showed the best results, both in the classroom teaching mode as in the distance, reaching an f-measure rate of 83% and 93% respectively. / As altas taxas de insucesso nas universidades nos cursos que contemplam a disciplina de programação introdutória na sua grade curricular tem alarmado e preocupado muitos educadores, pois o insucesso dos estudantes podem gerar prejuízos dos mais diversos tipos e interesses. Assim, há relevantes motivos para se tentar esclarecer eventuais fatores que afetam tal insucesso. Ainda neste contexto, um dos desafios importantes é o de identificar antecipadamente os estudantes propensos ao insucessos na disciplina de programação introdutória, assumindo-se em tempo hábil para permitir intervenção pedagógica eficaz. Deste modo, buscou-se neste trabalho um estudo em técnicas de mineração de dados educacionais , objetivando-se comparar a eficácia dos algoritmos de predição capazes de identificar, em tempo hábil para intervenção pedagógica, os estudantes propensos ao insucesso. Neste estudo, avaliou-se a eficácia de algoritmos de predição em duas fontes de dados diferentes e independentes, uma na modalidade presencial e outra na modalidade de ensino a distância sobre as disciplinas de programação introdutória. Os resultados mostraram que as técnicas analisadas no estudo são eficazes na identificação dos estudantes propensos ao insucesso no início da disciplina. Além disso, mostrou-se também que após a realização das etapas de pré-processamento e ajustes nos parâmetros de algoritmos, tais algoritmos analisados tiveram uma melhora em seus resultados. Ao fim do processo, o algoritmo máquina de vetor de suporte (SVM: Support Vector Machine) apresentou os melhores resultados, tanto na modalidade de ensino presencial quanto na modalidade a distância, alcançando uma taxa de f-measure de 83% e 92%, respectivamente.

Orientador: Paulo Vatavuk / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T09:08:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ArandaSaldana_EdwinAntonio_D.pdf: 3905557 bytes, checksum: d00eb707af3e32709401a2fbbcc42709 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de um modelo computacional, baseado no Método da Teoria Linear Modificado (MTLM) proposto por WOOD (1981) e a implementação do algoritmo do Gradiente proposto por TODINI e PILATI (1988). Além disso, apresentam-se comparações entre ambos para a análise de redes de abastecimento de água de grande porte. De acordo com a proposta deste trabalho, para criar um modelo baseado no MTLM tornou-se indispensável a definição prévia de um algoritmo para a seleção automática de circuitos. Para essa finalidade, adotou-se o algoritmo de Breadth First Search (BFS), baseado na teoria dos grafos e utilizado satisfatoriamente na seleção automática dos circuitos nas redes hidráulicas. A formulação adotada na implementação dos modelos estabelece as equações de continuidade nos nós e as equações de conservação de carga nas malhas em termos da vazão para cada elemento do sistema, apresentando um conjunto de equações não lineares que relacionam vazão com perda de carga. Uma vez linearizado o sistema de equações, o uso da biblioteca numérica de programação e otimização (KLU) na resolução de sistemas lineares mostrou-se eficiente para ambos os métodos analisados neste trabalho. A validade e a consistência dos resultados fornecidos pelo modelo proposto foram confirmadas através de sua comparação com o software Epanet 2.0. Os resultados obtidos através de simulações com a finalidade de comparar os resultados obtidos pelo MTLM e pelo método que utiliza o algoritmo do gradiente mostraram a eficiência de processamento e do tempo computacional de ambos os métodos. As comparações foram feitas utilizando redes de até 1000 tubos, fornecendo resultados inéditos, pois os trabalhos encontrados, conforme a revisão bibliográfica, utilizaram redes pequenas com número de tubos em torno de 10% do tamanho das redes estudadas neste trabalho / Abstract: This thesis presents for the first time the development of two computational models, one model is based on the Modified linear theory method (MTLM) that was initially proposed by WOOD in 1981 and the other model is based on the implementation of the Gradient algorithm that was early proposed by TODINI and PILATI in 1987. In addition, this thesis presents comparisons between both methods for the analysis of large pipe networks. In order to develop a model based on the MTLM method was first necessary to define an algorithm for the automatic selection of circuits. For this reason, the algorithm of Breadth First Search (BFS) was used which is based on the theory of graphs. This algorithm was successfully used for the automatic selection of circuits in hydraulic pipe networks. The methods adopted for the implementation of these models used continuity equations in the junctions as well as equations of conservation of energy in the loops in terms of flow for each element of the system that resulted in a set of non-linear equations, relating flow with head lose. Once the systems of equations were linearized, the use of the KLU library for the solution of linear systems showed promising results for both methods investigated in this thesis. The validity and consistency of the results obtained herein by the proposed models were also confirmed through comparisons with results obtained by the software Epanet version 2.0. The results obtained through simulations with the goal to compare with results obtained in this thesis with the MTLM method and the method that uses a gradient algorithm showed satisfactory results with an efficient processing and computational time by both methods. The comparisons were performed with up to 1000 tubes, gathering new and robust data when compared to available literature that used only a small network with a number of tubes of less than 10% / Doutorado / Recursos Hidricos, Energeticos e Ambientais / Doutor em Engenharia Civil

It is a fundamental Human-Computer Interaction problem to design a tangible programming environment for use by multiple persons that can also be individualised. This problem has its origin in the phenomenon that the meaning an object holds can vary across individuals. The Semiotics Research Domain studies the meaning objects hold. This research investigated a solution based on the user designing aspects of the environment at a time after it has been made operational and when the development team is no longer available to implement the user’s design requirements. Also considered is how objects can be positioned so that the collection of objects is interpreted as a program. I therefore explored how some of the principles of relative positioning of objects, as researched in the domains of Psychology and Art, could be applied to tangible programming environments. This study applied the Gestalt principle of perceptual grouping by proximity to the design of tangible programming environments to determine if a tangible programming environment is possible in which the relative positions of personally meaningful objects define the program. I did this by applying the Design Science Research methodology with five iterations and evaluations involving children. The outcome is a model of a Tangible Programming Environment that includes Gestalt principles and Semiotic theory; Semiotic theory explains that the user can choose a physical representation of the program element that carries personal meaning whereas the Gestalt principle of grouping by proximity predicts that objects can be arranged to appear as if linked to each other. / School of Computing / Ph. D. (Computer Science)