Lessons learned from use of web conference in teaching programming

Abstract

This paper analyses the use of web conference enabled lectures for programming courses within Engineering Informatics study programme, for two different groups of students: regular face-to-face students and blended learning students. Web conference offers the opportunity for the participants in the distance learning environment to be brought into a joint virtual environment regardless of their location, and also offers interactive and collaborative possibilities which facilitate the process of acquiring collective knowledge. The paper presents the comparison of mostly used web conferencing tools nowadays, based on several criteria: functionality, security, software installation, meeting setup and usability. Main aim of this paper was to evaluate the effectiveness of using web conference in teaching programming, for face-to-face and blended learning students. Web conference lectures were applied in the class on four out of ten courses in total, in the second year of the studies. The summative analysis of the pass rate and the average mark for both groups of students has been carried out in these courses. Then the results that the students achieved in the courses where the web conference was used were compared to the results that they achieved in the courses where the web conference was not used. Based on students' evaluation, the paper also presents formative analysis of efficiency and usefulness in using web conference in the class. Finally, guidelines for the efficient use of web conference in delivering programming courses have been proposed.