Assignment Presentation Framework for CS1 Programming Problems

A Computer Science programming assignment is a core assessment tool used by educators to measure students' understanding of programming concepts. A well-structured programming assignment can assist students in comprehending a problem and help them develop problem-solving skills. This research focuses on the presentation of well-structured programming assignments to help with students' understanding of the problem, supporting educators in the development of these assignments. To create well-structured programming assignments, we performed a literature review to identify design treatments that help students better understand introductory programming (CS1) assignments. An illustration study was then used to test the assignments from the identified design treatments. The illustration study collected students' perspectives on how the design treatments improved the understanding of the assignment design. From this work, we developed a framework from the identified design treatments. The results for the illustration study showed the design treatments helped students identify the problem's requirements and realise what is required to solve the problem. Though our work was examined within the CS1 context, our findings may be useful to similar assignment contexts, such as helping students identify requirements for solving problems.