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An Experience with Adaptive Formative Assessment for Motivating Novices in Introductory Programming Learning

Authors Jagadeeswaran Thangaraj , Monica Ward , Fiona O’Riordan

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Author Details

Jagadeeswaran Thangaraj
  • School of Computing, Dublin City University, Ireland
Monica Ward
  • School of Computing, Dublin City University, Ireland
Fiona O’Riordan
  • CCT College, Dublin, Ireland

Funding

I want to thank the research committee of School of Computing at Dublin City University (DCU) for funding this research project.

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Jagadeeswaran Thangaraj, Monica Ward, and Fiona O’Riordan. An Experience with Adaptive Formative Assessment for Motivating Novices in Introductory Programming Learning. In 5th International Computer Programming Education Conference (ICPEC 2024). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 122, pp. 6:1-6:12, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024) https://doi.org/10.4230/OASIcs.ICPEC.2024.6

Abstract

This study presents empirical research that uses adaptive formative assessment framework in addition to traditional lectures to motivate novice students in an introductory programming course. The primary goal of this work is to provide guidance for the creation of adaptive formative assessments in Python programming language to inspire novice students. The experiment is based on lessons learned from the literature and pedagogical theories that support learning through assessment and scaffolding. This study investigates how the experiment helped the novices, whether it increased their confidence, whether it assisted in identifying and correcting common errors, and whether it covered the material on learning modular programming components. It report on extensive survey results of over 265 attempts of 90 students taking CS1 (introductory programming) that included five quizzes covering fundamental concepts. The students responded favorably to the experiment, and results are also included.

Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Applied computing → Education
  • Social and professional topics → Computing education
  • Social and professional topics → Student assessment
Keywords
  • Assessment and feedback
  • Computer programming
  • CS1
  • Formative assessment
  • Introductory programming
  • Novice students

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