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Evaluation of Learner Engagement in Program Visualization

Erkki Kaila, Mikko-Jussi Laakso, Teemu Rajala, Tapio Salakoski, Evaluation of Learner Engagement in Program Visualization. In: 12th IASTED International Conference on Computers and Advanced Technology in Education (CATE 2009), 2009.

Abstract:

Engagement taxonomy is used in categorizing learner’s involvement in an education
situation including visualization. We conducted a research on the effects of engagement
level in program visualization. The students attended a two hour lab session where they
learned basic programming concepts using a programming tutorial. The results were
analyzed based on the engagement level: the no-viewing group used only the tutorial, while
the viewing and responding groups were able to utilize a program visualization tool called
ViLLE. The results show that each group performed significantly better at the end of the
session. Moreover, when taking previous programming experience into account, the novices
in the responding group improved their results more than novices in other groups. The
statistically significant difference between them and more experienced students
disappeared at the end of the session, while in the other groups the difference remained.
This seems to support the hypothesis by Naps et al. [1]: the higher the level of
engagement, the better the learning.

BibTeX entry:

@INPROCEEDINGS{inpKaLaRaSa09a,
  title = {Evaluation of Learner Engagement in Program Visualization},
  booktitle = {12th IASTED International Conference on Computers and Advanced Technology in Education (CATE 2009)},
  author = {Kaila, Erkki and Laakso, Mikko-Jussi and Rajala, Teemu and Salakoski, Tapio},
  year = {2009},
}

Belongs to TUCS Research Unit(s): Learning and Reasoning Lab

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