IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i13p8084-d854150.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Visualizing Source-Code Evolution for Understanding Class-Wide Programming Processes

Author

Listed:
  • Yuta Taniguchi

    (Research Institute for Information Technology, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan)

  • Tsubasa Minematsu

    (Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan)

  • Fumiya Okubo

    (Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan)

  • Atsushi Shimada

    (Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in online classes, and programming classes are no exception. In such a learning environment, understanding every student’s programming process is mostly impractical for teachers, despite its significance in supporting students. Giving teachers feedback on programming processes is a typical approach to the problem. However, few studies have focused on visual representations of the evolution process of source-code contents; it remains unclear what visual representation would be effective to this end and how teachers value such feedback. We propose two feedback tools for teachers. These tools visualize the temporal evolution of source-code contents at different granularities. An experiment was conducted in which several university teachers performed a user evaluation of the tools, particularly with regard to their usefulness for reviewing past programming classes taught by another teacher. Questionnaire results showed that these tools are helpful for understanding programming processes. The tools were also found to be complementary, with different aspects being highly evaluated. We successfully presented concrete visual representations of programming processes as well as their relative strengths and weaknesses for reviewing classes; this contribution may serve as a basis for future real-time use of these tools in class.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuta Taniguchi & Tsubasa Minematsu & Fumiya Okubo & Atsushi Shimada, 2022. "Visualizing Source-Code Evolution for Understanding Class-Wide Programming Processes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-17, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:8084-:d:854150
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/8084/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/8084/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sonsoles López-Pernas & Mohammed Saqr & Olga Viberg, 2021. "Putting It All Together: Combining Learning Analytics Methods and Data Sources to Understand Students’ Approaches to Learning Programming," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-18, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:8084-:d:854150. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.