Teacher-Guided Project-Based Coding Practice Enhance High Level Programming Language Learning

Chaohui Ren; Cheryl Seals; Karen Nix

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Conference: 2025 ASEE Southeast Conference
Location: Mississippi State University, Mississippi
Publication Date: March 9, 2025
Start Date: March 9, 2025
End Date: March 11, 2025
Conference Session: Professional Papers
Tagged Topic: Professional Papers
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--54194
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/54194
Download Count: 22

Dr. Cheryl Denise Seals is a professor in Auburn University's Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. She graduated with a B.S. C.S. from Grambling State University, M.S. C.S. from North Carolina A&T State University and a Ph.D

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biography

Karen Nix Auburn University orcid.org/0009-0003-5852-3330

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Karen Nix is a PhD candidate at Auburn University, Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. She received a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from LaGrange College and a master’s degree in Computer Science with a concentration of Software Development from Columbus State University. She works as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Auburn University and recently began work for the City of Opelika, AL in the IT department as Assistant CIO. Her research interests include digital learning, UI/UX, web development, cybersecurity, web accessibility.

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Abstract

Learning programming languages has become very common in modern daily life. For many university computer science undergraduates, learning an intermediate to advanced programming language like Java has naturally become a required course. Java has its own unique advantages, such as the efficient reusability of code, and it is one of the essential skills for students who wish to secure a good job in the industry or develop high-level enterprise software in the future. However, learning Java can also be highly challenging. Its abstraction makes theoretical concepts difficult to understand, and the complexity of concepts like interfaces and multithreading means mastering Java takes a longer learning curve, which adds further obstacles to students’ learning progress. For undergraduates of computer science and software engineering at Auburn University, Java I (Fundamental Computing I) and Java II (Fundamental Computing II) are required courses. Learning Java can indeed be a significant challenge for these students, even with some prior programming knowledge, and during the studying process, students often encounter many problems.

Teacher-Guided Project-Based Coding Practice can enhance and facilitate students’ high-level programming language learning and solve the Java learning barriers mentioned above. Teacher-Guided Project-Based learning can effectively bridge the gap between abstract theory and practice. Typically, projects demand a much higher level of integration of knowledge points and seamless application of them than ordinary exercises or exams. These knowledge points often span a long period and cover a wide range, making it even more challenging to integrate and apply theoretical knowledge to practical projects. However, project-based coding practice with teacher guidance can effectively overcome this obstacle, enabling students to benefit more from project-based learning than single assignment/exam and eliminating the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, thus optimizing students' advanced programming language learning outcomes.

This new version lab design is aligned with lecture materials, we design new learning cycle: guided learning; self-paced review; flipped model; guided learning; self-paced review; flipped model; and quiz. This learning circle mechanism can maintain the continuity of student engagement, motivate students, and balance the learning stress of students. For the Teacher-Guided part of this design, we apply a line-by-line coding lecturing style which can maximize reducing students’ inabilities to understand the comprehensive code of the project due to skipping explanations. If the student can not understand the code of the whole project well because jumping lecture, then the project-based coding assignment will lose its meaning. Because the core purpose of this project-based coding project is aimed to cultivate students’ structural thinking ability and causally logical thinking ability. When the teacher demonstrates the code line by line and explains the meaning of the code at the same time, as well as the relationship between the current line of code and the context, it can promote the development of the above two abilities of students. Therefore, line-by-line coding lecturing on a large project plays an irreplaceable role in cultivating students’ architectural thinking and causally logical thinking skills.

Citation
Format

Ren, C., & Seals, C., & Nix, K. (2025, March), Teacher-Guided Project-Based Coding Practice Enhance High Level Programming Language Learning Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Southeast Conference , Mississippi State University, Mississippi. 10.18260/1-2--54194

TY - CPAPER
AB - Learning programming languages has become very common in modern daily life. For many university computer science undergraduates, learning an intermediate to advanced programming language like Java has naturally become a required course. Java has its own unique advantages, such as the efficient reusability of code, and it is one of the essential skills for students who wish to secure a good job in the industry or develop high-level enterprise software in the future. However, learning Java can also be highly challenging. Its abstraction makes theoretical concepts difficult to understand, and the complexity of concepts like interfaces and multithreading means mastering Java takes a longer learning curve, which adds further obstacles to students’ learning progress. For undergraduates of computer science and software engineering at Auburn University, Java I (Fundamental Computing I) and Java II (Fundamental Computing II) are required courses. Learning Java can indeed be a significant challenge for these students, even with some prior programming knowledge, and during the studying process, students often encounter many problems.

Teacher-Guided Project-Based Coding Practice can enhance and facilitate students’ high-level programming language learning and solve the Java learning barriers mentioned above. Teacher-Guided Project-Based learning can effectively bridge the gap between abstract theory and practice. Typically, projects demand a much higher level of integration of knowledge points and seamless application of them than ordinary exercises or exams. These knowledge points often span a long period and cover a wide range, making it even more challenging to integrate and apply theoretical knowledge to practical projects. However, project-based coding practice with teacher guidance can effectively overcome this obstacle, enabling students to benefit more from project-based learning than single assignment/exam and eliminating the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, thus optimizing students&#39; advanced programming language learning outcomes.

This new version lab design is aligned with lecture materials, we design new learning cycle: guided learning; self-paced review; flipped model; guided learning; self-paced review; flipped model; and quiz. This learning circle mechanism can maintain the continuity of student engagement, motivate students, and balance the learning stress of students. For the Teacher-Guided part of this design, we apply a line-by-line coding lecturing style which can maximize reducing students’ inabilities to understand the comprehensive code of the project due to skipping explanations. If the student can not understand the code of the whole project well because jumping lecture, then the project-based coding assignment will lose its meaning. Because the core purpose of this project-based coding project is aimed to cultivate students’ structural thinking ability and causally logical thinking ability. When the teacher demonstrates the code line by line and explains the meaning of the code at the same time, as well as the relationship between the current line of code and the context, it can promote the development of the above two abilities of students. Therefore, line-by-line coding lecturing on a large project plays an irreplaceable role in cultivating students’ architectural thinking and causally logical thinking skills.

AU - Chaohui Ren
AU - Cheryl Seals
AU - Karen Nix
CY - Mississippi State University, Mississippi
DA - 2025/03/09
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Teacher-Guided Project-Based Coding Practice Enhance High Level Programming Language Learning
UR - https://peer.asee.org/54194
DO - 10.18260/1-2--54194
ER -