Blogs (1) >>
VL/HCC 2020
Tue 11 - Fri 14 August 2020 Dunedin, New Zealand
Wed 12 Aug 2020 13:30 - 13:38 at Zoom Room - Supporting Learners with Technology Chair(s): Alexander Repenning

With the large demand for technology workers in the world, more people are increasingly learning to code. Many of these learners use turning to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) due to their low cost and accessibility, especially compared to attending in-person courses. However, little is known about who these users are, and what they think about the instruction provided by these systems. In this study, we conducted a qualitative analysis on 218 responses (stemming from 62 questions) on Quora about a popular MOOC called Codecademy. We found that 1) learners are primarily composed of beginners, 2) Codecademy is good at delivering web development/front end courses, 3) an interactive environment increases engagement, and 4) learners largely criticize courses as not being practical and too rigid. Based on these findings, we discuss the importance of interactive computer tutors as programming instructors and propose design features that can potentially improve the experience learning with MOOCs.

Wed 12 Aug

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13:15 - 14:00
Supporting Learners with TechnologyResearch Papers at Zoom Room
Chair(s): Alexander Repenning University of Colorado, Boulder
13:15
15m
Talk
Exploring Programmers’ API Learning Processes: Collecting Web Resources as External MemoryFull paper
Research Papers
Gao Gao University of Massachusetts Lowell, Finn Voichick Washington University in St. Louis, Michelle Brachman University of Massachusetts Lowell, Caitlin Kelleher Washington University in St. Louis
Authorizer link
13:30
8m
Talk
Learners' Perspectives on Learning Programming from Interactive Computer Tutors in a MOOCShort paper
Research Papers
Ruiqi Shen New Jersey Institute of Technology, Michael Lee New Jersey Institute of Technology
Authorizer link
13:38
7m
Talk
Convo: What does conversational programming need?Short paper
Research Papers
Jessica Van Brummelen MIT, Kevin Weng MIT-CSAIL, Phoebe Lin Harvard Graduate School of Design, Catherine Yeo Harvard University
Authorizer link
13:45
15m
Talk
Supporting Code Comprehension via Annotations: Right Information at the Right Time and PlaceFull paper
Research Papers
Marjan Adeli Oregon State University, Nicholas Nelson Oregon State University, Souti Chattopadhyay Oregon State University, Hayden Coffey University of Tennessee Knoxville, Austin Henley University of Tennessee, Anita Sarma Oregon State University
Authorizer link Pre-print File Attached