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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. 

Mindfulness has been shown in prior studies to be an effective device to help students develop self-regulatory skills, including executive functions. However, these effects have been rarely tested at scale in technology-assisted learning systems such as digital learning games. In this work, we investigate the effects of mindfulness in the context of playing and learning with Decimal Point, a digital learning game for mathematics. We conducted a study with 5th and 6th grade students in which three conditions were compared - the game with short mindfulness meditations integrated, the game with similar-length, age-appropriate stories integrated, and the game in its original form. From the study results, we found no differences in time spent on the game, error rates while playing, or learning outcomes across the three conditions. Embedding mindfulness prompts within the game did not enhance learning or change students’ gameplay behaviors, which suggests that we may not have successfully induced a state of mindfulness or that mindfulness is not beneficial for learning within digital learning games. We discuss the challenges of incorporating individual mindfulness meditations in elementary and middle school classrooms.