Comparing the collaborative and independent viewing of program visualizations

In this paper, we report a study on the differences of using a program visualization tool collaboratively or independently. We conducted a study, where students were divided randomly into two groups: the treatment group used a visualization tool called ViLLE in collaboration with another student, while the control group used the tool alone. During the study, we recorded screen captures and students' conversations. Our previous results confirmed that the treatment group outperformed the control group in the post-test in questions related to functions and in total score. Thus, we now annotated and tagged students' actions in answering the exercises, trying to find out an explanation for the difference in learning results. The results show, that the students working in collaboration spent more time answering the difficult exercises than the students working alone, and moreover, spent more time in higher level of engagement, both relatively and absolutely measured. Furthermore, we found out that the students working in pairs discussed the most when in the higher level of engagement and that almost all discussion was related to the exercise they were doing.

Introduction

Several multinational studies conducted in recent years show that learning to program is very difficult. One method that has been tested as a mean to help novice students in learning basic programming concepts is program visualization. There are very few studies on the effectiveness of such tools and the results of the studies are mixed. Thus, it is important to study how visualizations can be utilized as effectively as possible.