Creative coding and visual portfolios for CS1

Abstract

In this paper, we present the design and development of a new approach to teaching the college-level introductory computing course (CS1) using the context of art and creative coding. Over the course of a semester, students create a portfolio of aesthetic visual designs that employ basic computing structures typically taught in traditional CS1 courses using the Processing programming language. The goal of this approach is to bring the excitement, creativity, and innovation fostered by the context of creative coding. We also present results from a comparative study involving two offerings of the new course at two different institutions. Additionally, we compare our results with another successful approach that uses personal robots to teach CS1.

Reading mobile games throughout the curriculum

“…Andrus and Nieh observed this in an upperdivision operating systems class [2], and Loveland similarly noted that both mobile programs and the Google brand made HCI projects more "cool" [13]. Independently, mobile programming [6,7,18,27], graphics [9], and computer games [19][20][21]26] have been shown to improve student experiences in introductory courses. Clearly, mobile games are the sweet spot for maximizing enthusiasm, especially since they are easier to write than traditional games [11].…”

“…While these goals are difficult to grade, failing to encourage their pursuit is dangerous. Without them, students will not develop the enthusiasm observed by Greenberg et al, whose students would give themselves extra assignments, due to the passion they developed through their projects [9].…”

Gibber

“…We use the term creative coding, widely used colloquially, to discuss programming practice geared towards artistic content production; it has also been found effective in computer science education [9]. The software used for creative coding often includes an integrated development environment, libraries for generating audiovisual output, and, in many cases, a domain-specific language designed to ease creative exploration.…”

C4

“…From a design standpoint the approach that GroupLab researchers have taken outlines methodologies for toolkit design, as expressed through the HapticTouch and Proximity Toolkits [17,18], Phidgets [11], as well as publications on enhancing creativity through the use of toolkits [12,13]. We apply their approach to toolkit design towards a creative-coding API.…”