Supporting Introductory Test-Driven Labs with WebIDE

<p>WebIDE is a new web-based development environment for entry-level programmers with two primary goals: minimize tool barriers to writing computer programs and introduce software engineering best practices early in a student's educational career. Currently, WebIDE focuses on Test-Driven Learning (TDL) by using small iterative examples and introducing lock-step labs, which prevent the student from moving forward until they finish the current step. An initial set of labs and evaluators were created as examples of how to use WebIDE and were used in a pilot study in a CS0 course where students were split into two groups, one that used WebIDE and one that didn't. The WebIDE group showed a significant improvement in performance when writing a simple Android application. Additionally, among students with some programming experience, the WebIDE group was more proficient in writing unit tests.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

MS in Computer Science

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Year dc:date.available

2011

Author dc:creator

• Dvornik, Thomas C

Contributors dc:contributor

• David Janzen

• Integrated Development Environment
• Test Driven Learning
• WebIDE
• CS0
• Learning to Program
• Curriculum and Instruction
• Other Computer Sciences
• Software Engineering

Identifier

10.15368/theses.2011.2

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.calpoly.edu:theses-1468