2018/02/21 by Amruth N. Kumar · 2 citations
Computer Science · #Teaching and Learning Programming #Software Engineering Research #Software Testing and Debugging Techniques
paper · doi:10.1145/3159450.3159576
openalex publication_date 2018/02/21 · openalex created_date 2018/03/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Performance on Parsons puzzles has been found to correlate with that on code-writing exercises. Parsons puzzles are preferred by students over alternative programming tasks. In order to make Parsons puzzles widely available to students in the introductory programming course, we developed a tool that administers the puzzles in C++, Java and C#, called epplets. Our design of the tool improves upon the work done by earlier researchers in several ways: students rearrange lines of code rather than program fragments; they get credit based on the number of actions they take to reassemble the code; they get feedback that helps them fix their incorrect answer; and the tool adapts to the needs of the student. The tool runs as a Java Web application. We describe our experience using the tool for two years: how it benefited the students; the revisions made to address the feedback provided by the users; and our plans for future work. We found that practicing with the tool helped reduce the time and actions with which students solved successive puzzles.