Teaching and Learning Tools for Introductory Programming in University Courses

Abstract

Difficulties in teaching and learning introductory programming have been studied over the years. The students’ difficulties lead to failure, lack of motivation, and abandonment of courses. The problem is more significant in computer courses, where learning programming is essential. Programming is difficult and requires a lot of work from teachers and students. Programming is a process of transforming a mental plan into a computer program. The main goal of teaching programming is for students to develop their skills to create computer programs that solve real problems. There are several factors that can be at the origin of the problem, such as the abstract concepts that programming implies; the skills needed to solve problems; the mental skills needed to decompose problems; many of the students never had the opportunity to practice computational thinking or programming; students must know the syntax, semantics, and structure of a new unnatural language in a short period of time. In this work, we present a set of strategies, included in an application, with the objective of helping teachers and students. Early identification of potential problems and prompt response is critical to preventing student failure and reducing dropout rates. This work also describes a predictive machine learning (neural network) model of student failure based on the student profile, which is built over the course of programming lessons by continuously monitoring and evaluating student activities.