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  • Examining the Trade-Offs Between Simplified and Realistic Coding Environments in an Introductory Python Programming Class
Title: Examining the Trade-Offs Between Simplified and Realistic Coding Environments in an Introductory Python Programming Class
Instructors in computer science classes often need to decide between having students use real programming tools to provide practical experience and presenting them with simpler educational interfaces to reduce their cognitive load. Our work investigates the trade-offs between these approaches, by comparing student learning from two offerings of an introductory Python class across several community colleges in the U.S. In the first offering ($N = 219$), students used a real IDE (Visual Studio Code) throughout the entire course. In the second offering ($N = 166$), students used a simplified in-browser code editor, with no setup, for the first three modules and transitioned to Visual Studio Code in the subsequent modules. Our results showed that the second offering led to better learning than the first offering in the first three modules with the in-browser code editor. Moreover, students in both offerings performed similarly in a subsequent module in which they performed local development with Visual Studio Code, suggesting that the ability to use a real IDE was not harmed by the initial use of the in-browser code editor. In addition, we found that students in both offerings improved in their levels of self-efficacy with the course's learning objectives at the end of the class. Finally, we identified that the revisions made in the second offering benefited full-time students more than part-time students. We conclude with a discussion of the trade-offs between employing realistic programming tools and simplified coding environments, as well as suggestions for making introductory computer science classes more effective and accessible.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2111305
PAR ID:
10621601
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Springer Nature Switzerland
Date Published:
Page Range / eLocation ID:
315 to 329
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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