Integrating Components, Contracts, and Reasoning in CS Curricula with RESOLVE: Experiences at Multiple Institutions

Heym, Wayne D.; Sivilotti, Paolo A. G.; Bucci, Paolo; Sitaraman, Murali; Plis, Kevin; Hollingsworth, Joseph E.; Krone, Joan; Sridhar, Nigamanth

doi:10.1109/cseet.2017.40

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…It has a strong theoretical basis and has been used for nearly a decade at multiple institutions. Thousands of undergraduate students have employed sym bolic reasoning approaches using this reasoning tool in CS courses (Cook et al, 2012b;Drachova et al, 2015;Hallstrom et al, 2014;Heym et al, 2017) and in software engineer ing projects (Cook et al, 2013;Priester et al, 2016). It suffices to say that the engine is far more powerful than demanded by the reasoning activities discussed here.…”

Section: Reasoning Tool Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tool-Aided Learning of Code Reasoning with Abstraction in the CS Curriculum

Fowler¹,

Hallstrom²,

Hollingsworth³

et al. 2021

Informatics in Education

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Computer science students often evaluate the behavior of the code they write by running it on specific inputs and studying the outputs, and then apply their comprehension to a more general understanding of the code. While this is a good starting point in the student's career, successful graduates must be able to reason analytically about the code they create or encounter. They must be able to reason about the behavior of the code on arbitrary inputs, without running the code. Abstraction is central for such reasoning.In our quest to help students learn to reason abstractly and develop logically correct code, we have developed tools that rely on a verification engine. Code involves assignment, conditional, and loop statements, along with objects and operations. Reasoning activities involve symbolic reasoning with simple assertions and design-by-contract assertions such as pre-and post-conditions as well as loop invariants with data abstractions. Students progress from tracing and reading code to the design and implementation of code, all relying on abstraction for verification. This paper reports some key results and findings from associated studies spanning several years.

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Section: Reasoning Tool Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tool-Aided Learning of Code Reasoning with Abstraction in the CS Curriculum

Fowler¹,

Hallstrom²,

Hollingsworth³

et al. 2021

Informatics in Education

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It has a strong theoretical basis and has been used for nearly a decade at multiple institutions. Thousands of undergraduate students have employed the ideas in CS courses [ [12], [15], [19], [21]] and in software engineering projects [ [11], [33]]. It suffices to say that the engine is far more powerful than demanded by the reasoning activities discussed here.…”

Section: Reasoning Tool Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Steps, Instruction, and Motivation on Learning Symbolic Reasoning Using an Online Tool

Fowler

Cook

Plis

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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Several research studies have shown the benefits of code tracing to promote student understanding of program behavior. While code tracing on specific input values is a useful starting point, students ultimately need to be able to reason rigorously and logically about the correctness of their code on all (i.e., arbitrary) inputs. Otherwise, they may make false generalizations and may achieve only a shallow understanding. Results of a multi-semester experiment to answer the following research questions: (1) With or without steps, can students learn the basics of tracing code on symbolic input values using an online tool? And how important is classroom instruction? (2) What is the impact of motivation on student attitudes in learning to reason with such a tool? Data was obtained from 297 subjects who used the online reasoning tool in a second-year software development course for CS majors. Analysis indicates that students can do symbolic reasoning to trace code and that instruction and motivation have significant impact.

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“…Roleplay is an approach to collaborative learning that has been used to teaching software engineering amongst other topics. In this approach, students assume roles as supervisors and programmers in order to facilitate their understanding of the socio-technical aspects of the software engineering development process [12]. Students in our course engage in such roleplay in several activities, such as in learning principles of requirements analysis from different perspectives.…”

Section: Active Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Activity-Based Undergraduate Software Engineering Course to Engage Students and Encourage Learning

Kraemer

Sitaraman

Hollingsworth

2018

Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference of Software Engineering Education

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The objective of this paper is to summarize our experience in teaching a software engineering course that emphasizes student learning through activities. It provides an outline and a template for educators interested in combining traditional topics with formal contract specification and verification topics, and engaging students in the classroom with a variety of activities that span the entire software lifecycle. Some of the activities are paper-based and are concerned with topics such as processes, requirements analysis and design, whereas others are tool-based and focus on specification and reasoning. Some activities involve pairs of students and others involve larger groups. The paper contains several illustrative examples. Student responses indicate that they find the activities engaging and conducive to learning. 1 CCS CONCEPTS • Software and its engineering ~ Software creation and management • Software and its engineering ~ Formal methods • Social and professional topics ~ Computing education

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Integrating Components, Contracts, and Reasoning in CS Curricula with RESOLVE: Experiences at Multiple Institutions

Cited by 7 publications

References 20 publications

Tool-Aided Learning of Code Reasoning with Abstraction in the CS Curriculum

Tool-Aided Learning of Code Reasoning with Abstraction in the CS Curriculum

Impact of Steps, Instruction, and Motivation on Learning Symbolic Reasoning Using an Online Tool

An Activity-Based Undergraduate Software Engineering Course to Engage Students and Encourage Learning

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