AABC: A Tool for Assessing Arduino Basic Coding Skills

Abstract

In recent years, coding has become a useful component of education at all levels, leading to the emergence of various programmable devices and platforms, such as Arduino. These tools offer students opportunities to enhance their coding skills through hands-on experiences or graphical simulations. However, the literature lacks a comprehensive instrument for evaluating code skills via such technologies. To address this gap, this study introduces the “Assessing Arduino Basics in Coding” (AABC) tool. This tool was validated and refined with 151 university students, who completed three experimental exercises followed by coding-related questions. Students were divided into two groups. The first group implemented the experiments with physical–tangible boards, while the second used graphical interfaces in a virtual environment. The analysis of questionnaire scores underwent four steps. Initially, Item Response Theory was employed to discard questions resulting in unscaled scores. Subsequently, Exploratory Factor Analysis identified three factors corresponding to the three exercises. Additionally, Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirmed the questionnaire's structure, indicating high reliability (χ²[74] = 74.5, p = 0.463, CFI = 0.995, TLI = 0.994, RMSEA = 0.00612, SRMR = 0.0625). Lastly, measurement invariance testing demonstrated that AABC is unaffected by the user interface, suggesting its usability for evaluating Arduino coding skills regardless of the interface used. Overall, the AABC tool provides a reliable method for evaluating coding skills in basic Arduino circuits, contributing to advancements in coding education.