=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1684/paper6
|storemode=property
|title=Introductory Programming Training of First Year Students at Riga Technical University
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1684/paper6.pdf
|volume=Vol-1684
|authors=Natalya Prokofyeva,Marina Uhanova,Sabina Katalnikova,Oksana Zavyalova,Aleksejs Jurenoks
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/bir/ProkofyevaUKZJ16
}}
==Introductory Programming Training of First Year Students at Riga Technical University==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1684/paper6.pdf
Introductory Programming Training of First Year
Students at Riga Technical University
Natalya Prokofyeva, Marina Uhanova, Sabina Katalnikova, Oksana Zavyalova and
Aleksejs Jurenoks
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Riga Technical University, Riga,
Latvia
{natalija.prokofjeva, marina.uhanova, sabina.katalnikova,
oksana.zavjalova, aleksejs.jurenoks}@rtu.lv
Abstract. In this paper, solution to the problem of introductory programming
education at Riga Technical University is considered. At the Faculty of Computer
Science and Information Technology, the main courses of student training are
courses in programming languages and environments. Their contents, forms and
methods of teaching must correspond to the contemporary state of programming
languages, methods and technologies, as well as to the perspectives of their de-
velopment. The paper provides a description of changes in content and method
of teaching the course “Algorithmization and Programming of Solutions” offered
to first year students at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Tech-
nology.
Keywords: introductory programming training, Pascal, Java, example-based
method
1 Introduction
Along with the ever-accelerating scientific and technical progress, continuous growth
of knowledge and change in its content occurs. This obliges the specialists constantly
to master new knowledge, skills and abilities and imposes new demands on their train-
ing. At present, it is very important to implement a technique of teaching that would
assure informational and methodical support of the learning process. As is well known,
every study course includes three components: basic (theoretical) part (i. e. ideas,
knowledge); laboratory practical part (abilities, experience); examination part (control
of abilities and skills). All these parts are obligatory and traditionally employed by
teachers in all higher education establishments. Thus, in creating (projecting) a course
the following tasks are to be solved:
• Elaboration of a detailed module structure of the course and scenarios of learning;
• Creation of quality methodical materials;
• Choice of forms and techniques of knowledge control, development of knowledge
testing materials;
• Selection and structuring of accessory materials.
The problem of increasing the quality of study courses has been considered by the
authors of this paper elsewhere [1]. It was established that balanced supplementation
of study courses with new content elements not only increases performance of the stu-
dents, but also to a great extent increases the quality of teaching.
At the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology the main courses
of student training are courses in programming languages and environments. Their con-
tents, forms and methods of teaching must correspond to the contemporary state of
programming languages, methods and technologies and the perspectives of their devel-
opment. However, the staff teaching these courses faces a host of problems to be solved
in order to ensure quality training of future specialists in information technologies.
In this paper, solution to the problem of introductory programming education at Riga
Technical University is considered. Changes in content and method of teaching of the
course “Algorithmization and Programming of Solutions” taught to first year students
at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology are described.
2 The Problem of Choice of the Initial Programming Language
When speaking of first year students, one of the main peculiarities of this audience is
almost complete absence of basic training in programming. Undeniably, among the
students enrolling into the university there is a small percentage of those having basic
programming skills. But the inevitable conclusion imposes itself: one should count on
the average level of the students, which means that our target audience has no program-
ming skills whatsoever and teaching has to be started really from zero.
Every year in September a testing of first year students is performed with the aim of
determining the level of initial training of the students. The results show that in the
academic year 2015/2016 only 18% of first year students enrolled at the Faculty of
Computer Science and Information Technology are familiar with the basics of program-
ming. In order to even out the level of training of the first year students, those students
who have not completed the test successfully are given the opportunity to attend the
course “Introduction to computers and algorithms”.
Thus, the level of programming training of first year students is extremely low. This
is what we have on the “entrance”. “On the exit”, or on completing their higher educa-
tion, the student must have mastered knowledge, abilities and practical experience in
object-oriented, logical and WEB programming. Disregarding the latter two, we shall
dwell in more detail on teaching “classical” programming to first year students. It is
precisely the subject matter taught during the first semester that lays the basis for stu-
dents’ programming style and programmer’s thinking.
It is possible to single out the following problems:
• Choice of initial programming language and languages for subsequent training;
• Selection of study content;
• Selection of teaching methods, forms and means, including those based on infor-
mation technologies;
• Realization of inter-subject and intra-subject connections etc.
Traditionally, programming training presupposes first mastering structural program-
ming (Pascal), and then object-oriented programming (Java, C++). Analysis of papers
devoted to this problem shows that most educational establishments hold to this ap-
proach [2, 3].
At the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology of Riga Technical
University the basic course in programming training is ”Algorithmization and Program-
ming of Solutions”. This course presupposes familiarization with the principles of al-
gorithmization of computational processes and program creation.
Introductory training at RTU is also based on structural programming, i. e. on teach-
ing Pascal. The main argument for this is the fact that teaching object-oriented pro-
gramming without prior knowledge in structural programming is extremely compli-
cated if not impossible. It should be noted that most university teachers belong to older
generation. As a rule, they have gained immense experience in using the techniques of
structural programming based on algorithmic decomposition of big systems. However,
using out-of-date instruments dims students’ enthusiasm and can form arrogant atti-
tudes toward programming courses as waste of time. Training specialists demands new
approaches able to endow it with methodological meaningfulness and contemporary
fulfilment adequate to existing reality and standards of the new generation.
Already Edsger W. Dijkstra in his book A Discipline of Programming noted that “A
most important, but also a most elusive, aspect of any tool is its influence on the habits
of those who train themselves in its use. If the tool is a programming language, this
influence is – whether we like it or not – an influence on our thinking habits” [4, viii].
That is why the problem of choice of programming language, selection of content and
adequate teaching methods of future IT-specialists is very relevant at the present time.
Today’s students will start their professional activity in 3–4 years after taking the
course in programming. In this lapse of time the industry will have advanced in terms
of languages, methods and technologies. That is why it is not appropriate to teach some-
thing that is already today obsolete in information technologies. Object-oriented ap-
proach should substitute the structural one, the former currently being the basic para-
digm used in programming industry. It is also most widely used for internet application
programming (developing web-services, applets, dynamic content etc.).
Thus, object-oriented language should be the first programming language for a stu-
dent. It can be either Object Pascal (with its realization in the visual programming en-
vironment Delphi or free environment Lazarus) or Java – a wholly object-oriented lan-
guage allowing to develop platform-independent application (for developing Java pro-
grams it is possible to use the integrated development environment Eclipse).
Directors of study programs at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information
Technology, as well as the representatives of students’ parliament have recommended
Java as the initial programming language. The advantages of this choice are the possi-
bility of comparative analysis of different programming languages and of choosing op-
timal set of instruments for problem solving, as well as development of algorithmic and
logical thinking of students.
Thus, starting with 2015/2016 academic year Java has been selected for program-
ming training of first year students, while sophomore students as before first learn C
and then C++.
3 Method of Teaching JAVA at Riga Technical University
University teachers are facing a problem: how to teach students not having any pro-
gramming experience a language as serious as Java? One of the solutions was to apply
an example-based method.
The course ”Algorithmization and Programming of Solutions” comprises 48 hours
of lectures and 32 hours of practical tasks. The first part of the course includes topics
like linear, cyclic and branched algorithms, variable and elementary data types, arrays,
operators and operations, methods. During the second part of the course students master
the following topics: basics of object-oriented programming, line and symbol pro-
cessing, task with files (streams); task with file system.
Example based method includes the following: during the lectures a particular topic
is expounded and then a practical task is offered to students. Solving the task includes
working out an algorithm (a structural scheme); analysis of the tools offered by the
programming language that are necessary for realizing the algorithm; example of a so-
lution (program code). Then students are asked to solve a one-type task. If students
have questions during executing the task teacher helps them by explaining where a
mistake might have occurred. Then popular mistakes are considered and finally the
right solution of a task is demonstrated. Thus, many practical tasks are handled during
the lectures.
In this course, several practical tasks are envisaged. Organization of practical tasks
takes place in the following way. Student must develop and algorithm, write a program
and submit it electronically to the study portal ORTUS [5]. When the program is eval-
uated the student must defend his task, i. e. write a report and answer teacher’s questions
about the program and the task in general. The first part of the course includes five, the
second one – three laboratory tasks (see Table 1).
Table 1. Laboratory tasks on Java programming language
First semester
No. Title Definition of the task Constructions in Java
1 Branched pro- Enter coordinates of points x and y. Input-output operations.
grams Determine, to which color field does Announcement of varia-
this point belong. bles. Conditional operator.
2 Development Calculate the trajectory of bullet flight Cycle operators. Use of
of a simple cy- based on given parameters. Display on mathematical functions.
clical program the screen a table containing time and
coordinates of the bullet flight.
3 Processing Create a one-dimensional array and Arrays, break and con-
one-dimen- fill it in with values. According to the tinue operators.
sional arrays option of the task modify elements of
the array. Display the elements on the
screen before and after modification.
First semester
No. Title Definition of the task Constructions in Java
4 Processing two- Create a two-dimensional array con- Multidimensional arrays.
dimensional ar- taining results of a sports competition. Nested loops. Generation
rays Process the results in a particular way of random numbers.
depending on the option of the task.
5 Ways of organ- Develop a program filling in a two-di- Techniques of nested loop
ization of mensional array with numbers based organization
nested loops on nested loops.
Second semester
No. Title Definition of the task Constructions in Java
1 Sorting arrays Develop a program that would sort ele- Methods. Recursion.
ments of the array in the ascending order
in two different methods.
2 Lines and text Develop a program modifying the con- Java libraries. Processing
files tent of a text document in a particular lines. Classes of input-out-
way. put.
3 Creation of a Create a simple information system. Basics of object-oriented
file processing programming
system
Laboratory tasks are devoted to mastering input/output of information in Java, to
organizing of branched algorithms by using a conditional operator, to using different
operators of cycle organization while working with arrays, as well as lines and use of
files. Descriptions of several laboratory tasks are shown below.
3.1 Laboratory Task “Branched Programs”
Task
1. Develop and algorithm and write a program that would analyze the color of the field
in which a particular point is located based on the x and y coordinates of the point.
2. Write a report on the task including: definition of the task, analysis of solution, de-
scription of the algorithm, program code, testing example.
Requirements
• Output of information about the author of the program (name, surname, group num-
ber, student ID number);
• Input of point coordinates (x and y – real numbers);
• Output of messages “red”, “blue”, “green” or “white” depending on the field to
which the point (x, y) belongs;
• Make provision for output of messages in response to mistaken action on the part of
the user.
Task options
• Task options correspond to the three last numbers of a student’s ID (e. g. if the ID
number is 123RDB456, the option is determined by the numbers 4, 5 and 6);
• The program must be uploaded to the ORTUS environment as a source file (*.java)
and a compiled file (*.class).
• 500 options of this laboratory task have been developed (some of them are seen on
Figure 1).
Fig. 1. Examples of laboratory task
3.2 Laboratory Task “Development of a Simple Cyclical Program”
Task
1. Develop and algorithm and write a program that would calculate the trajectory of
bullet flight based on given parameters and conditions. The trajectory must be de-
termined prior to reaching the goal or ground.
2. Write a report on the task including: definition of the task, analysis of solution, de-
scription of the algorithm, program code, testing example.
Requirements
• Output of information about the author of the program (name, surname, group num-
ber, student ID number);
• Input of the value of the initial speed of the bullet v0 and the angle of flight (v0
and – real numbers);
• Output of the bullet’s trajectory as a table (time, coordinates of the bullet x and y);
• Output of the message “the target was destroyed” if the bullet has reached its goal
and the message “shot off the target” in the opposite case;
• Make provision for output of messages in response to mistaken actions on the part
of the user.
Task option
• Task option correspond to the three last numbers of a student’s ID (e. g. if the ID
number is 123RDB456, the option is determined by the numbers 4, 5 and 6);
• The program must be uploaded to the ORTUS environment as a source file (*.java)
and a compiled file (*.class).
• 400 options of this laboratory task have been developed (some of them are seen on
Figure 2).
For each laboratory task solution examples have been worked out including descrip-
tions of algorithms as block-diagrams, Java source code, as well as a set of tests for
testing the program.
Fig. 2. Example of laboratory task
However, as the student flow is very big (16 groups 30 people each) the problem
was to evaluate all these laboratory tasks. For this purpose, a testing program was de-
veloped including requirements for each laboratory tasks and special tests were created.
The task submission process comprised two parts. Mark for the program itself (based
on automatic check results) and defense of the laboratory task. For the defense the stu-
dent had to prepare a report. During the defense the teacher could ask the student 2–3
questions about the program.
The evaluation part of the course includes two tests – “Types of data. Language
operations. Control structures” and “Arrays and methods”, as well as mid-term control
of student knowledge organized in distance regime with limitations imposed on the
time of submission and number of available attempts [5].
Thus, for studying the object-oriented Java language the content and method of the
study course “Algorithmization and Programming of Solutions” have been changed.
It is too early to speak of the results, but this method has been successfully applied
for more than 10 years at the course “Computer learning” providing the basics of algo-
rithmization and programming for chemistry and electricity program students [6].
4 Topics of Java teaching method integration into related subject
Using student laboratory tasks submissions in both subjects, covered topics were
arranged according to difficulty level. Processing results was proved that development
environment influences the level of assimilation of topics. The same topics in both de-
velopment environments where marked with different difficulty level (Table 2).
Table 2. Topics complexity (1 very difficult – 5 very easy)
Topic Eclipse environment VBA in Excel envi-
ronment
Input-output operations. 5 4
Announcement of varia- 5 2
bles.
Cycle operators. 4 3
Use of mathematical 4 4
functions.
Arrays 2 5
Multidimensional ar- 2 5
rays
Nested loops. 4 2
For example, topics related to the array use are easily understandable within Excel
VBA environment, but issues related to the cyclical structures in Eclipse environment.
Fig. 3. Java teaching method topics integration in to related subject.
For successful implementation of in this paper described Java teaching method,
changes in topic order and explanation are done for related subject “Application soft-
ware” for the first year students. (Fig.3). This approach allows to improve the quality
of mastering topics in “Algorithmization and Programming of Solutions” subject, look-
ing harder thread using other in educational process linked development environments
and tools.
5 Conclusions
The choice of initial programming language is very important. The methods and forms
of education for future IT-specialists must be chosen correctly. In this paper, the struc-
ture and new content of the basic course ”Algorithmization and Programming of Solu-
tions” are presented, as well as the methodological approaches to teaching the Java
programming language. This course on Java is taught to the first year students of the
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology of Riga Technical Univer-
sity. The realization of the course according to the structure expounded in the paper is
meant to:
• Promote the professional orientation of the students in mastering object-oriented
programming which is currently the leading tool of professional programming;
• Promote the interest of today’s students, yesterday’s schoolchildren in Java and in
gaining solid knowledge in object-oriented programming.
• In future, the authors plan to conduct and experimental work in training the first
years students in object-oriented programming.
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