1. Two Techniques for Teaching Programming
J. Philip East
University of Northern Iowa 1

2. The Two Things, etc. Students do self-assessments of their programs
I use in-person grading
Goal (as always) is to enhance student learning (and for me to enjoy life more)
I am (now) using the two techniques in conjunction

3. Student Self Assessment
Students complete their programming assignment
Then they complete an assessment of their program
We do this because
they should be able to tell if/when a program is good (and that requires practice)
I think this might make students attend more to learning and quality and less to “points”

4. The/An Assessment Sheet

5. Using the Assessment Sheet
Early in the semester we discuss the characteristics of “good” programs
Students assess the quality of components of their assignment and select a “quality”
abysmal, poor, okay, good, or excellent
It has to work correctly to be “okay”
We do in-person grading

6. The In-person Grading Process
I announce that students must do it and post a sign-up schedule
Students choose a grading appointment time
program & results are due the day before
meeting may occur in the lab (to verify correctness)
appointment times are minutes each
Grading runs before and after the due date
I try to do style stuff for everyone on 1st program
In-person grading becomes optional later on

7. Some Comments
This was hard for me—I am not a touchy-feely kind of teacher and I was/am nervous about being in a position of authority up close & personal
Two semesters experience—one program 1st time and two “required” programs 2nd time
Mostly fumbled along blindly (have to do things my way) but Doug Cooper (Oh Pascal! Instructor’s Manual) and my wife said it was do-able and worth doing

8. Turns out I like it! So did a most of the students
several were very vocal in their positive statements
25-50% signed up when it was optional
In the meetings with students, I noticed that
I felt like a teacher!
In-person grading provides an opportunity for me to see inside student heads
classroom activity does not
doing so is necessary (according to my educational philosophy) if I am to teach well

9. Turns out I like it! (continued)
It takes more time to do in-person grading, but I enjoy most of the time spent
Previously: find 6-8 hour blocks of time to grade programs all at once. Now: grade a handful each night of the week (maybe in front of the TV)
I try to come up with questions (RE correctness, logic, layout, etc.) to ask students—much nicer than cryptic evaluative comments on paper
I think (but don’t know) students attend better to the feedback

10. So
I am going to continue using (and trying to improve my use of) student self-assessment and in-person grading
I encourage you to do the same
Happy Teaching!
:-)

11. ? east@cs.uni.edu www.cns.uni.edu/~east/ Questions? Reactions?
Suggestions?