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This article highlights an innovative take on the jigsaw format, an inclusive and cooperative active learning strategy, implemented in an upper-level engineering elective course. After students complete the usual two steps of the jigsaw method—first gaining mastery in “expert groups” and then collaboratively teaching their peers in “jigsaw groups”—they then complete a third step in their jigsaw groups, in which they work together on an authentic design problem, offering a practical take on applying course content. This activity was implemented in three courses offered both in person and remotely (online only). We share how this innovation can promote learning, problem-solving, perspective sharing, and teamwork in contexts with students from different backgrounds and levels of experience.
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Jigsaw: A Tool for Decomposing and Planning Programming Problems
Many students struggle with decomposition and planning despite the necessity of these skills in computing education. Hence, more tools are needed to scaffold these processes. In this paper, we present Jigsaw, a standalone visual planning tool to help students practice decomposition and planning before writing code. Jigsaw allows students to compose a solution to a new problem based on previously seen “patterns,” such as the accumulator pattern for summing values or the filter pattern for conditional input selection. Students can connect these patterns together to see how data flows between them and define a solution plan. Jigsaw’s goal is to scaffold students’ planning processes by presenting relevant patterns for a given problem. Using a within-subjects design, we evaluated Jigsaw by observing 17 undergraduate students as they planned for and implemented two programming assignments. The experimental task included Jigsaw, and the control task did not. This design aimed to understand how the tool impacted students’ planning and programming process. Subsequently, we conducted interviews with these students regarding their planning and programming experiences with and without Jigsaw. Many students explicitly mentioned they would employ Jigsaw for planning and appreciated the scaffolding it provided. Students also admired the Jigsaw’s novelty in visualizing programming problems. We conclude with our design takeaways and recommendations for future work.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1917885
- PAR ID:
- 10644058
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE
- Date Published:
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 236 to 247
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/VL/HCC60511.2024.00034
