Value Trace Problems for Code Reading Study in C Programming

Abstract

and understand their behaviors to be familiar to the programming paradigm. Unfortunately, effective tools to support independent code reading study at home have not been well designed. Heretofore, we have proposed the value trace problem (VTP) for Java programming. A VTP instance consists of one source code, several questions, and the correct answers to them. Each question asks the value of a critical variable or output message in the source code. The correctness of any student answer is checked instantly by string matching at the answer interface for self-study. In this paper, we present the value trace problem (VTP) for code reading self-study of C programming. 42 VTP instances are generated using simple C source codes on basic grammar concepts and fundamental data structures & algorithms in textbooks and websites. In addition, for hard instances on pointer and algorithms, the devices of hints, multiple choice questions, and references are provided to improve their solution performances. For evaluations, we requested 49 undergraduate students in Japan, China, and Myanmar to independently solve them at home. Their average correct answer rate reached 94.29%, where our devices for hard instances improved it by 33.26%. Thus, the effectiveness of our proposal is confirmed in motivating self-study of C programming to novice students.

A Proposal of Mistake Correction Problem for Debugging Study in C Programming Learning Assistant System

“…To enhance C programming studies, we have developed a web-based C programming learning assistance system (CPLAS). CPLAS offers a variety of programming exercise problems at different levels, including the grammar-concept understanding problem (GUP) [3], the value trace problem (VTP) [4], the element fill-in-blank problem (EFP) [5], the code completion problem (CCP) [6], and the phrase fill-inblank problem (PFP) [7]. In any problem type, the answer from a student is instantly marked through string matching with the stored correct one at the offered answer interface using a web browser [8].…”

An Implementation of Element Fill-in-Blank Problems for Code Understanding Study of JavaScript-Based Web-Client Programming

“…PLAS provides several types of programming problems that have diverse solving difficulties and learning goals, so that a student can gradually advance the learning stage of PLAS. They include the grammar-concept understanding problem (GUP) [2], the value trace problem (VTP) [3]- [5], the code modification problem (CMP) [6], the element fill-in-blank problem (EFP) [7], [8], the code completion problem (CCP) [9], and the code writing problem (CWP) [10]. For any problem type, the correctness of an answer from a student is checked automatically by unit testing in CWP or string matching with the stored correct answer in the others.…”

[Paper] A Study of Grammar-Concept Understanding Problem in C Programming Learning Assistant System

“…To assist self-studies of C programming, we have studied C programming learning assistant system (CPLAS) [1] by extending the previous works for Java programming learning assistant system (JPLAS) [2]. To learn programming effectively, we have suggested that students should solve simple grammar concepts problems while reading simple source codes first.…”