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Does Hedy, the Gradual Programming Language Help Computing Undergraduates to Learn Programming?

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Towards a Hybrid, Flexible and Socially Engaged Higher Education (ICL 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 901))

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Abstract

Novices sometimes have difficulty in understanding programming syntax. In response to that, Hedy was developed. It is a text-based programming language that gradually imposes syntax rules from human language to Python, a common programming language. Children with Hedy appreciate the use of it and find it easy to learn. Given the benefits, we are interested to see whether Hedy can also help computing undergraduate students to learn programming. A two-year experiment involving two batches of such students (87) was conducted with three questionnaire surveys and one quasi-experiment. Our study shows that although students with Hedy have comparable programming performance to those without it, they appreciate the use of Hedy and understand some Python concepts.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm#tab-6.

  2. 2.

    https://blockly.games/.

  3. 3.

    Anonymised for review.

  4. 4.

    The currency and the amount are anonymised for review purpose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maranatha Christian University, Surya Sumantri Street No.65, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia

    Oscar Karnalim, Mewati Ayub & Maresha Caroline Wijanto

  2. Ewha Womans University, 52 Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea

    Maresha Caroline Wijanto

  3. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Felienne Hermans

Authors
  1. Oscar Karnalim
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  2. Mewati Ayub
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  3. Maresha Caroline Wijanto
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  4. Felienne Hermans
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Oscar Karnalim .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. CTI Global, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

    Michael E. Auer

  2. UTN – FRBA, Mozart, Argentina

    Uriel R. Cukierman

  3. DISA, Technical University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Eduardo Vendrell Vidal

  4. UPM, ETSII, Madrid, Spain

    Edmundo Tovar Caro

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Karnalim, O., Ayub, M., Wijanto, M.C., Hermans, F. (2024). Does Hedy, the Gradual Programming Language Help Computing Undergraduates to Learn Programming?. In: Auer, M.E., Cukierman, U.R., Vendrell Vidal, E., Tovar Caro, E. (eds) Towards a Hybrid, Flexible and Socially Engaged Higher Education. ICL 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 901. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53022-7_19

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