To support children learning to use new software applications independently, tutorial systems should prevent errors and ensure that users are able to transfer tutorial skills to a new context effectively. In this paper, we describe the formative development and evaluation of on-request stencils, an interaction technique that both prevents children from making errors within a tutorial and significantly improves their ability to transfer tutorial skills to a related task. Using on-request stencils, users can attempt a task independently. If they encounter difficulty, users can request step by step tutorial overlays to guide them through the current task. In a study comparing tutorial performance, task performance, and attitudes, we found that users of on-request stencils successfully completed 47% more transfer tasks than users of persistent stencils. There were no significant differences between the two groups in tutorial performance or attitudes towards the software system.

Research suggests that storytelling can motivate middle school students to explore computer programming. However, difficulties finding and realizing story ideas can decrease time actually spent on programming. In this paper, we present guidelines for constructing story scenes that reliably inspire ideas for novice programmers creating stories. To evaluate the impact of pre-built scenes with strategic design constraints on early programming behavior and attitudes, we conducted a between-subjects study comparing participants who used pre-built scenes and participants who crafted their own scenes. The results suggest that story starter scenes enable novice users to explore programming in the environment sooner, allow users to add and modify significantly more novel programming constructs during the length of the study, and maintain motivation for learning to program via storytelling.

To facilitate long-term engagement in programming for middle school children, we developed the Looking Glass Community. The Community includes both a website and integrated access to community resources within the novice programming environment, Looking Glass. We discuss how we designed the Community to support engagement by providing a source for initial ideas, support for learning new skills, positive feedback, and role models.