1. Improving Pass Rates In Introductory Programming Tom Boyle, Claire Bradley, Peter Chalk, Ken Fisher, Ray Jones (LTRI, London Metropolitan University) & Poppy Pickard (Bolton Institute)

2. Summary Crisis in the teaching and learning of Programming. Major project initiated in February ‘02 In two higher education institutions. Substantial changes to the curriculum New online teaching & learning environment The project has involved over 700 students Improvements in pass rates 12-23%

3. Problem & Solution Early failure to understand key concepts in the first few weeks Create core development team (March ‘02) - module tutors, researcher, multimedia developer Focussing on: Curriculum development; Organization of the teaching environment; Online learning environment

4. Delivery Common curriculum = concentration of resources Improve module staffing & organisation Online element = VLE (WebCT) and web- based multimedia learning objects (LOs) Discrete LOs based on clear learning goals, & close attention to pedagogical quality

5. Accessing learning objects from the virtual learning environment

6. While loop learning object code animation

7. Learning object drag & drop quiz

8. Pedagogy & assessment Interactive visualization of topics students otherwise found very abstract (Object World library in other paper tomorrow) Small scale problems within a regime of continuous assessment Annotated in their log book and submitted using the VLE

9. Evaluation Track student use of LOs & VLE activity Evaluate student satisfaction – questionnaires & interviews Assessment of impact on success/fail rates All show positive results Satisfaction levels 80-90% Pass rates up by 12-23%

10. Student satisfaction (n=223) How useful are: Very usefulUseful Lectures37%48% Lab exercises42%44% Text book ?18%38% Text LOs29%64% Animation LOs 46%44% Quizzes in LOs 34%56%

11. Conclusions Pass rates improved, because of…? Student enjoyment of visualisation approach Constructivism improves learning Blending of face-to-face with virtual learning Management of learning using VLE Provision of scaffolded apprenticeship model Reduced student-staff ratio Online automatic assessment & feedback

12. Further Work How will students do at level 2/3? Approach modified this year (different text book) but LOs proving re-usable Learning Objects need national repository (LTSN?) standards (IMS) & support/ production skills