Interactive teaching aid to facilitate the transistion from block-based to text-based programming
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | HELLO WORLD! IDEELL FÖRENING |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 100 000 |
| Project duration | November 2016 - February 2017 |
| Status | Completed |
Important results from the project
The project has succeeded in creating a teaching material that will aid students forming a more correct representation of the notional machine. This has been achieved through components such as a display where all declared variables are displayed and changed in real time, active code (a visualization of which command the computer is reading at the moment) and error messages in Swedish. We are also promoting the project outside of Hello World!. E.g. we have contacted more than 2 000 school personnel all over the country. The material is now being tested in different schools in Sweden.
Expected long term effects
In our teaching situations at Hello World!, we have noted that the students are much more independent and focused when working in our coding modules, compared to situations when we used traditional teaching materials using "bare" Python code. We have also noted that one teacher can handle more students, compared to before when a higher "teacher density" was required. These advantages can be expected in traditional school settings as well. With the positive response that we have received so far from teachers, we expect that the product will be well received.
Approach and implementation
The initial timetable for the project had to be restructured early in the process as we realized that the code base demanded much more time than expected. We also employed more personnel to work with the different game modules. Having finished the project, there are clear potential paths of development that could be envisioned. We could, for example, add adaptive interactive support so that the programme gives help individually depending on where the student gets stuck.