Personifying programming tool feedback improves novice programmers' learning

M. Lee, Amy J. Ko
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引用次数: 137

Abstract

Many novice programmers view programming tools as all-knowing, infallible authorities about what is right and wrong about code. This misconception is particularly detrimental to beginners, who may view the cold, terse, and often judgmental errors from compilers as a sign of personal failure. It is possible, however, that attributing this failure to the computer, rather than the learner, may improve learners' motivation to program. To test this hypothesis, we present Gidget, a game where the eponymous robot protagonist is cast as a fallible character that blames itself for not being able to correctly write code to complete its missions. Players learn programming by working with Gidget to debug its problematic code. In a two-condition controlled experiment, we manipulated Gidget's level of personification in: communication style, sound effects, and image. We tested our game with 116 self-described novice programmers recruited on Amazon's Mechanical Turk and found that, when given the option to quit at any time, those in the experimental condition (with a personable Gidget) completed significantly more levels in a similar amount of time. Participants in the control and experimental groups played the game for an average time of 39.4 minutes (SD=34.3) and 50.1 minutes (SD=42.6) respectively. These finding suggest that how programming tool feedback is portrayed to learners can have a significant impact on motivation to program and learning success.
拟人化编程工具反馈可以提高新手程序员的学习
许多编程新手将编程工具视为无所不知、绝对可靠的权威,可以判断代码的对错。这种误解对初学者来说尤其有害,他们可能会将编译器的冷漠、简洁和经常是判断性的错误视为个人失败的标志。然而,将这种失败归咎于计算机而不是学习者可能会提高学习者编程的动机。为了验证这一假设,我们呈现了一款名为《Gidget》的游戏,在这款游戏中,同名机器人主角被塑造成一个易犯错的角色,因为不能正确地编写代码来完成任务而自责。玩家通过使用Gidget调试有问题的代码来学习编程。在一个双条件控制实验中,我们在沟通方式、声音效果和图像方面操纵了小吉特的拟人化水平。我们在亚马逊的Mechanical Turk上招募了116名自称新手的程序员,测试了我们的游戏,发现当他们可以选择随时退出时,那些在实验条件下(拥有一个可爱的小傻瓜)在相同的时间内完成了更多的关卡。对照组和实验组的参与者平均游戏时间分别为39.4分钟(SD=34.3)和50.1分钟(SD=42.6)。这些发现表明,如何向学习者描述编程工具反馈可以对编程动机和学习成功产生重大影响。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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