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Developing a source code reading tutorial system and analyzing its learning log data with multiple classification analysis

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Abstract

To efficiently support novice programming learners who are feeling the programming difficult, clarifying the cause of preventing programming comprehension, and developing a new instruction method appropriate for their comprehension would be necessary. The objective of this paper is to develop a learning support system to facilitate the programming instruction through source code reading, which is also available for self-study and mini-examination. In addition, this paper aims to discover the unit of knowledge (knowledge module) which will obstruct an understanding for programming beginners. The developed system can automatically generate a source code of C programming language in which there is no particular meaning because the source codes as learning materials are generated randomly. The developed system was utilized in a programming class for novices. This paper obtained student answer log, after the students had completed one semester of the instruction, and analyzed the data. From the analysis result, the description which may make program reading comprehension difficult for a beginner was clarified.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by Furukawa Technology Promotion Foundation 2016, and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research(C), No. 16K01147 and No. 17K01164.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Applied Information Science, Hiroshima Institute of Technology, 2-1-1, Miyake, Saeki-ku, Hiroshima-shi, Hiroshima, 731-5193, Japan

    Koki Okimoto, Shimpei Matsumoto & Shuichi Yamagishi

  2. Faculty of Engineering, Kinki University, 1 Takaya Umenobe, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, 739-2116, Japan

    Tomoko Kashima

Authors
  1. Koki Okimoto
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  2. Shimpei Matsumoto
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  3. Shuichi Yamagishi
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  4. Tomoko Kashima
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shimpei Matsumoto.

Additional information

This work was presented in part at the 21st International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Beppu, Oita, January 20–22, 2016.

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Okimoto, K., Matsumoto, S., Yamagishi, S. et al. Developing a source code reading tutorial system and analyzing its learning log data with multiple classification analysis. Artif Life Robotics 22, 227–237 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-017-0357-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-017-0357-2

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