Alice and robotics in introductory CS courses

Abstract

Statistics for underrepresented minority groups and women continue to show low numbers in enrollment and rates of retention in academic computer science programs. A new approach to increase student interest in computer science in a first year program is introduced.Laboratory modules for an introductory programming course have been developed at the University of Alabama with the goal to increase student motivation and understanding of fundamental programming concepts. The course utilizes robots and Alice, a 3D graphical programming environment. The drag and drop interface of Alice allows students to program real robots using instructions that correspond to statements of programming languages such as Java, C++, and C#. Students gain programming experience that is transferable to upper level courses by engaging in a stimulating and less frustrating environment using Alice interfaced with robots.

Dorothy

“…Wellman, et al [21,22] integrated the Alice programming environment with the iRobot Create platform to stimulate interest in CS1 courses in the undergraduate computer science program at the University of Alabama. Using source code from Alice 2.0, the Java programming language and the Bluetooth-enabled robot platform (based on the Roomba robot base), researchers generalized the robot's commands to terms in Alice and created a component that utilizes Alice's output [6].…”

“…Classroom modules were designed based on PREOP for an introductory computer science course. Studies show that the use of PREOP significantly increased the students' self-ratings of confidence and computing abilities [6,22]. However, PREOP does not allow users to simulate sensing or create programs that result in adaptive behavior on the robot (e.g., automatically detect and track objects).…”

“…The Alice 3D environment has been used as a programming interface with mobile robots to successfully stimulate interest in CS1 courses within an undergraduate computer science program [6,21,22]. However, existing schemes typically interface with a single robot, do not support bidirectional communication between Alice and robots, or do not support graphical routines that result in autonomous and adaptive behavior on robots.…”

Teaching computing and programming fundamentals via App Inventor for Android

“…These three are compared and contrasted by their creators in [58]. The use of robotics (such as Karel [59] or Lego Mindstorms) in introductory programming courses are also reported in the literature, such as in [31], [30], [44].…”

Playable Serious Games for Studying and Programming Computational Stem and Informatics Applications of Distributed and Parallel Computer Architectures

“…It is also relevant to point out that the serious games approach intersects with related approaches which use simulations, visualizations, and robotics to engage learners in specific learning situations (El-Sheikh & Prayaga, 2011;Hartness, 2004;Kelleher & Pausch, 2007;Laird, 2001;Wellman, Davis, & Anderson, 2009). …”