Supporting project-based learning of computer programming in an online environment

Abstract

Project-based learning (PjBL) has been increasingly prevalent in connecting abstract knowledge with practice by creating realistic artifacts or solutions to real-world problems. In computer programming education, PjBL has been embodied in performing authentic programming projects. However, completing an authentic programming project involves applying programming knowledge and strategies to design and develop computer programs; a complex process that is often implicit and hard to capture.

This study aimed to address the problem by proposing and examining the effects of a visualization-based PjBL environment that externalizes and scaffolds the complex process of applying programming knowledge and strategies to complete a realistic programming project in a progressive way. The approach aims to make the complex process accessible to learners for effective learning and reflection, and to teachers for tracking the learning process and providing individual feedback. As completing a realistic whole-task project might be too challenging for novices initially, a simple-to-complex progressive learning method was incorporated into the approach.

Based on the design-based research approach, an iterative study was conducted, involving two rounds of system design, implementation, and empirical evaluation to examine the effects of the proposed approach on participants completing a PjBL module on ASP.NET using the approach. In the first round, twenty-nine Year-3 computer science students participated in the study and used the visualization-based progressive learning environment. The results demonstrated the approach’s feasibility, based on learners’ positive perceptions and pre-post improvement in project performance and subject knowledge.

In the second round, a pre- and post-test control group design was adopted. Seventy-one Year-4 computer science students were randomly assigned to two conditions. Students in the experimental condition used the visualization-based progressive learning environment. Others in the control group used the visualization-based, but not progressive learning environment; they worked on a realistic whole-task (not deconstructed) project, similar to the traditional PjBL approach. The experimental group showed better project performance, subject knowledge, and motivation to learn programming at the end of the study, although both groups had positive perceptions of the learning experience and made significant pre-post improvement in project performance and subject knowledge.

The findings of the study may contribute to knowledge of how effective learning with complex realistic projects can be realized through a visualization-based learning environment and how the effects of the visualization-based learning environment can be more promising by incorporating a simple-to-complex progressive approach to learning with complex tasks. Specifically, it reveals how the complex process of completing an authentic project can be facilitated by deconstructing a complex realistic project into a set of simple-to-complex sub-projects, visualizing the complex process of completing a project, and providing individual feedback to learners during the project. By externalizing and scaffolding the complex process of applying knowledge and strategies to complete a realistic programming project in a progressive way, the proposed visualization-based progressive learning environment has shown promise in improving student knowledge, performance, and motivation in PjBL for computer programming.