introductory programming meets the martial arts stephan jamieson university of durham

Introductory Programming Meets The Martial Arts

Stephan Jamieson

University of Durham

Stephan Jamieson University Of Durham

Introductory Programming 2000/2001

Part 1: Core Skills and Knowledge Dr Maria Fox11 Weeks

Part 2: Java APIs, GUIs, IDEs (and many other TLAs)Professor Keith Bennett11 Weeks


Organising Principles

Teaching does not simply helping students acquire concepts of the syllabus.

Aim to encourage independent self directed learning and thus high quality learning.


Course Structure

Week n Week n+1 Week n+2

Lecture Lecture Lecture

Practical Practical Practical


Feedback for 2000/2001

“If you fall behind it is very difficult to catch up”

“I can’t believe you expect us to know so little after a year’s teaching”

“What I understand least is how much I’m required to know and should be able to do”


Benchtest Mark Distribution for ’00/’01

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

≤ 10 ≤ 20 ≤ 30 ≤ 40 ≤ 50 ≤ 60 ≤ 70 ≤ 80 ≤ 90 ≤ 100

Mark Range

Mar

ks I

n R

ang

e


Practical Completion for ’00/’01

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

100.00%

Practical

Perc

en

tag

e O

f S

tud

en

ts C

om

ple

tin

g


Changes for 2001/2002

Applyed ideas from training for martial arts: Adjustments made to content and rate of

delivery. Scrapped benchtests in favour of gradings

based on belts.


Feedback for 2000/2001

“If you fall behind it is very difficult to catch up”

“I can’t believe you expect us to know so little after a years teaching”

“What I understand least is how much I’m required to know and should be able to do”


Java Belts

Red - ungraded

White - variables, statement sequences, procedural abstraction…

Yellow - choice and iteration…

Orange - Problem solving with simple data collections (arrays)…

Green - Type definition, parameterised procedural abstractions…

Blue - Problem solving with type definitions…

Brown - Modular design with interfaces…

Black - Demonstrate ability to solve a complex search problem…


Evaluation

With respect to: Better quality learning Encouraging self-directed independent

learning Running costs


Evaluation: quality of learning

0.00%10.00%20.00%30.00%40.00%50.00%60.00%70.00%80.00%90.00%

100.00%

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Gre

en G

radi

ng 13 14 15 16 17 18

Pro

ject

Practical

Per

cen

tag

e o

f S

tud

ents

Co

mp

leti

ng

W

ork

Practical Completion ’01/’02



Mark Distribution For Green Grading First Attempts

0

5

10

15

20

25

≤ 10 ≤ 20 ≤ 30 ≤ 40 ≤ 50 ≤ 60 ≤ 70 ≤ 80 ≤ 90 ≤ 100

Mark Range

Mar

ks I

n R

ang

e



Final Mark Distribution for Belt Gradings

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

≤ 10 ≤ 20 ≤ 30 ≤ 40 ≤ 50 ≤ 60 ≤ 70 ≤ 80 ≤ 90 ≤ 100

Mark Range

Mar

ks i

n R

ang

e



Collections results:

Average Std Dev Min Max

’00/’01:

IP 53.54 14.45 23 90

PDS 55.44 17.2 17 97

’01/’02:

IP 56.26 15.87 30 90

PDS 60.43 14.27 20 90


Evaluation: encouraging self-directed, independent learning

Grade Completion

0.00

20.00

40.00

60.00

80.00

100.00

120.00

140.00

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Week

Nu

mb

er o

f S

tud

ents

Wh

o H

ave

Co

mp

lete

d T

he

Gra

de

White

Yellow

Orange


Evaluation: running costs

Number of Assessments Per Belt

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

White Yellow Orange Green

Java Belt

Nu

mb

er o

f A

sses

smen

ts

Three Attempts

Two Attempts

One Attempt


Conclusions

Some evidence that course was more effective.

However grading system largely viewed as a burden– Believe problem that not well integrated into the

existing practical class system.


The next iteration…

Provide pools of material for each grade level: for formative experiences, self-assessment and summative assessment

Provide better cross indexing between lecture content and grading levels

Bound the periods for which formal assessments will be provided for each level

introductory programming meets the martial arts stephan jamieson university of durham

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