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dc.contributor.authorHijón-Neira, Raquel
dc.contributor.authorConnolly, Cornelia
dc.contributor.authorPalacios-Alonso, Daniel
dc.contributor.authorBorrás-Gené, Oriol
dc.date.accessioned2021-09-17T14:01:58Z
dc.date.available2021-09-17T14:01:58Z
dc.date.issued2021-09-17
dc.identifier.citationHijón-Neira, Raquel, Connolly, Cornelia, Palacios-Alonso, Daniel, & Borrás-Gené, Oriol. (2021). A Guided Scratch Visual Execution Environment to Introduce Programming Concepts to CS1 Students. Information, 12(9), 378. doi:10.3390/info12090378en_IE
dc.identifier.issn2078-2489
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10379/16963
dc.description.abstractFirst-year computer science (CS1) university students traditionally have difficulties understanding how to program. This paper describes research introducing CS1 students to programming concepts using a Scratch programming language guided visual execution environment (VEE). The concepts addressed are those from an introductory programming course (sequences, variables, operators, conditionals, loops, and events and parallelism). The VEE guides novice students through programming concepts, explaining and guiding interactive exercises executed in Scratch by using metaphors and serious games. The objective of this study is, firstly, to investigate if a cohort of 124 CS1 students, from three distinct groups, studying at the same university, are able to improve their programming skills guided by the VEE. Secondly, is the improvement different for various programming concepts? All the CS1 students were taught the module by the same tutor in four 2-h sessions (8 h), and a qualitative research approach was adopted. The results show students significantly improved their programming knowledge, and this improvement is significant for all the programming concepts, although greater for certain concepts such as operators, conditionals, and loops than others. It also shows that students lacked initial knowledge of events and parallelism, though most had used Scratch during their high school years. The sequence concept was the most popular concept known to them. A collateral finding in this study is how the students’ previous knowledge and learning gaps affected grades they required to access and begin study at the university level.en_IE
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research was funded by in part by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under Grant TIN2015-66731-C2-1-R, in part by the Rey Juan Carlos University under Grant 30VCPIGI15, in part by the Madrid Regional Government, through the project e-Madrid-CM, under Grant P2018/TCS-4307, and in part by the Structural Funds (FSE and FEDER).en_IE
dc.formatapplication/pdfen_IE
dc.language.isoenen_IE
dc.publisherMDPIen_IE
dc.relation.ispartofMDPI Informationen
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectprogrammingen_IE
dc.subjectvisual execution environmenten_IE
dc.subjectCS1en_IE
dc.subjectmetaphorsen_IE
dc.titleA guided scratch visual execution environment to introduce programming concepts to CS1 studentsen_IE
dc.typeArticleen_IE
dc.date.updated2021-09-17T13:51:02Z
dc.identifier.doi10.3390/info12090378
dc.local.publishedsourcehttps://doi.org/10.3390/info12090378en_IE
dc.description.peer-reviewedpeer-reviewed
dc.contributor.funderMinisterio de Economía y Competitividaden_IE
dc.contributor.funderUniversidad Rey Juan Carlosen_IE
dc.contributor.funderMadrid Regional Governmenten_IE
dc.internal.rssid26737743
dc.local.contactCornelia Connolly, Edu-G011, Nuns Island, Education Building, National University Of Ireland, Galway. +353 (0)91 492369 Email: cornelia.connolly@nuigalway.ie
dc.local.copyrightcheckedYes
dc.local.versionACCEPTED
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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)