Digital learning resources for programming in higher education – a multimodal perspective

• Digital technology is developing rapidly, and educators are currently in the process of exploring what opportunities new technology can have for learning and teaching. This applies not least to the field of education in programming, as   learning to program is a great challenge for many students. Therefore, educators and researchers have sought to find educationally effective digital learning resources to facilitate the programming learning process. In this thesis, multimodal online learning environments, providing accessible and learner-focused learning activities, and multimodal software visualizations, striving at concretizing the abstract building blocks in programming languages, were exploratory investigated. The aim was to expand the understanding of how digital learning resources can be used to support students’ understanding of basic programming concepts and dynamics.Empirical studies were conducted at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) at Stockholm University, Sweden. The data were collected during introductory programming courses in which the author had an active role as designer of the software visualizations, teacher and researcher. In these courses, the digital learning resources were explored as additional course resources. The research was conducted both through field experiments and case studies and data was collected using questionnaires, interviews and group discussions.Results strengthened the claims that abstract phenomena like programming can be made visible and understandable through visualization, in particular program dynamics.  When visualizations illustrated more conceptual elements, further guidance was required, to facilitate students’ interpretation and understanding. Regarding the online learning environments, guiding to the right learning pathways was the most critical factor found from the results. When adequate instructions and feedback were lacking in the learning environments, users became cognitively overloaded and disoriented. Finally, findings in all compiled studies indicate that teacher planning and orchestration of the learning situations should be conducted with more reflection.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Programming education

Digital learning resources

Software visualization

Online learning environment

Multimodality

LDS

Computer and Systems Sciences

data- och systemvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

lic (ämneskategori)