Evaluation of a Frame-based Programming Editor

Price, Thomas W.; Brown, Neil C. C.; Lipovac, Dragan; Barnes, Tiffany; Kölling, Michael

doi:10.1145/2960310.2960319

Cited by 22 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…However, we found no effect on task performance in terms of correctness or speed. This matches the result of an observational study that looked at Java vs Stride in a school setting with teenagers and found no difference in performance on a series of code writing task across multiple lessons [11], although a prior study had found some differences in task completion rate [32]. Overall, it seems that high-level behavioral measures are often invariant to the way in which the code is presented, presumably because any high-level effect of presentation differences is small.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…Stride has been compared to Java in two existing studies of code writing. Price et al [32] examined the differences in a US school setting and found some differences in the rate of task completion, with Stride being faster. Brown et al [11] conducted a study involving multiple different UK schools and found no interface effect in a set of code writing tasks, either in task completion time or understanding of object orientation.…”

Section: Role Of Scope Highlighting In Code Understandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An eye tracking study assessing the impact of background styling in code editors on novice programmers’ code understanding

Park,

Weill-Tessier,

Brown

et al. 2023

Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research V.1

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Background and Context: The designers of programming editors aimed at learners have long experimented with different styles of code presentation. The idea of syntax highlighting -coloring specific words -is very old. More recently, some editors (including text-, frame-and block-based editors) have added forms of scope highlighting -colored rectangles to represent programming scope -but there have been few studies to investigate whether this is beneficial for novices when reading and understanding program code.Objectives: We investigated whether the use of scope highlighting during code comprehension tasks (a) has an impact on where users focus their gaze, (b) affects the accuracy of user's responses to tasks, and/or (c) affects the speed of user's correct responses to the tasks. Method: We conducted a controlled trial with a crossover design, where all participants completed the same twelve code comprehension tasks, each performed in one of three scope highlighting conditions. The conditions were (a) "plain" Java with no scope highlighting, (b) Java with BlueJ's scope highlighting, and (c) Stride, a frame-based language very similar to Java. We used a combination of eye-tracking hardware and video observation to record where users were looking in the code, the time it took them to answer the task, and the graded correctness of their answer. The data comes from students at two institutions in different countries. Findings: We found that there was no difference between plain Java, highlighted Java or Stride in terms of correctness, or speed to produce correct answers -and this was unaffected by whether users had seen the latter two interfaces before. There was a difference in eye gaze behavior, especially between Stride and the two Java interfaces. Participants' gaze moved around less, they had shorter saccade lengths, longer fixation durations, fewer regressions, and less line coverage in Stride, which could imply a

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Role Of Scope Highlighting In Code Understandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An eye tracking study assessing the impact of background styling in code editors on novice programmers’ code understanding

Park,

Weill-Tessier,

Brown

et al. 2023

Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research V.1

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Early work on graphical (but not block-based) programming [24] found little evidence of successful transfer of basic programming tasks in novices when moving to text-based programming languages despite prior programming success with graphical tools. Similar outcomes have been documented using contemporary block-based environments, with case studies documenting challenges associated with the transition [9,13,21]. On the contrary, there are studies showing that programming skill and knowledge gains made in block-based tools do prepare learners for later text-based programming.…”

Section: Transitioning From Blocks To Textmentioning

confidence: 56%

Scaffolding Progress

Kazemitabaar

Viktar

Weintrop

et al. 2023

Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education v. 1

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Transitioning from block-based programming to text-based programming environments can be challenging as it requires students to learn new programming language concepts. In this paper, we identify and classify the issues encountered when transitioning from block-based to text-based programming. In particular, we investigate differences that emerge in learners when using a structured editor compared to an unstructured editor. We followed 26 high school students (ages 12-16; M=14 years) as they transitioned from Scratch to Python in three phases: (i) learning Scratch, (ii) transitioning from Scratch to Python using either a structured or unstructured editor, and (iii) evaluating Python coding skills using an unstructured editor. We identify 27 distinct types of issues and show that learners who used a structured editor during the transition phase had 4.6x less syntax issues and 1.9x less data-type issues compared to those who did not. When these learners switched to an unstructured editor for evaluation, they kept a lower rate on data-type issues but faced 4x more syntax errors. CCS CONCEPTS• Social and professional topics → Computing education.

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“…Some changes are at the user interface level while other accommodations are deeper in terms of new or redesigned features. An example of this is the Stride frame-based editor used in tools such as Greenfoot [12]. This editor enables users to work with operations and constructs at an abstract level.…”

Section: Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%