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It is highly recognized that difficulties involved in teaching programming in an introductory course, arise from the cognitive process complexity that is necessary for developing this ability. Previous studies on the best first programming language or the best first programming paradigm have been conducted. Even, the most appropriate integrated development environment (IDE) for novice programmers has been inquired, and the most appropriate problem solving strategy to teach to write computable solutions has been researched. From the investigation in a sample of Bogota universities, and from a holistic perspective, this paper presents an overview of the most common practices and difficulties in teaching these courses, providing important information to help diagnose possible weaknesses in the current process of teaching as well as providing some elements to consider in the design of new strategies, resources and planning criteria for these formative scenarios.

International audience; We propose a method to construct asymmetric metrics for evaluating the quality of multi-relational association rules coded in the form of SWRL rules. These metrics are derived from metrics for scoring association rules. We use each constructed metric as a fitness function for evolutionary inductive programming employed to discover hidden knowledge patterns (represented in SWRL) from assertional data of ontological knowledge bases. This new knowledge can be integrated easily within the ontology to enrich it. In addition, we also carry out a search for the best metric to score candidate multi-relational association rules in the evolutionary approach by experiment. We performed experiments on three publicly available ontologies validating the performances of our approach and comparing them with the main state-of-the-art systems.

This paper compares programming environments that exploit heterogeneous systems to process a large amount of data efficiently. Our motivation is to investigate the feasibility of the adaptive, transparent migration of intensive computation for a large amount of data across heterogeneous programming languages and processors for high performance and programmability. We compare a variety of programming environments composed of programming languages, such as Java and C, memory space models, such as distinct and shared memory, and parallel processors, such as general-purpose CPUs and graphics processing units (GPUs) to examine their performance-programmability tradeoffs. In addition, we introduce a software-based shared virtual memory that creates a view of the host memory inside GPU kernels to enable seamless computation offloading from the host to the device. This paper reveals a programmability-performance hierarchy in which programs increase their performance at the cost of decreasing programmability. The experimental results suggest the desirability of a well-balanced system.

Visual end-user programming interfaces are becoming increasingly important in the context of smart homes. This paper describes the comparative evaluation of two prototypes following different approaches: form-filling and data-flow programming. We assessed rule completion time, success, user experience and rule recollection as well as suitability to different user-groups. Participants were significantly faster and had a higher overall completion rate using form-filling, but remembered significantly more items when being presented with a data-flow visualization. We therefore recommend approaches that imbibe characteristics of both approaches for end-user programming in a smart home context with untrained users, focusing on a guided process flow, explicit logic and content-categorization.

End-user programming in smart homes addresses tasks that range from very simple to very complex. In this study we investigate how task complexity impacts performance when using two different visual programing representations: form-filling and data-flow programming. We invited 16 participants to create rules to solve smart-home situations of varying complexity and analyzed their completion rates for the two visual programming representations. We identify the following areas of difficulty for programming novices in our smart home scenario: choosing and connecting triggers and their specifications, and using Boolean operators. Both visual representations enabled users to specify complex rules, with advantages in different areas. They indicate that overall task complexity might be less decisive for performance than complexity of triggers and Boolean operators.

Many instructors consider a programming environment replete with a large variety of interactive objects and commands a liability for teaching introductory programming. In fact, such an environment is an important pedagogical tool, whose instructional capabilities can be amplified by discovery-based programming praxes — predefined programs with embedded comments that instruct students to browse and experiment with the program code, visualize static and dynamic program state, and make inductive inferences. By embedding commentary in program code, we essentially create duals of programming lectures, which embed code in a discussion. The praxes are associated with multiple-choice quizzes, which ask students to identify the results of the experiments and the conclusions drawn from them. Students who learned using such praxes made less use of recorded lecture videos to study the material. Moreover, they received explicit instruction in several interactive features that are arguably essential to effective programming.

This showpiece will present iSnap, an extension of the block-based, novice programming environment Snap!, which supports struggling students by providing on-demand hints and feedback that help them complete programming assignments. iSnap extends the existing syntactic scaffolding offered by block-based programming to additionally support the implementation of programming tasks. Research on iSnap has explored questions of how visual programming environments can better support learners, the impact of this support, and how learners seek and use computer-based help. The showpiece will consist of an interactive demonstration of iSnap, including the user interface experienced by students and the data-driven algorithm used to automatically generate the programming feedback.

In this paper, a series of programming cases are designed which can be used to solve the technical problems of material science and engineering. These cases can provide a bridge between the teaching of Python Programming and the solving of engineering technical problems. The results showed that the wide application of these case in the teaching can improve the study efficiency and foster autonomy.

We developed a programming education support tool pgtracer. Pgtracer provides fill-in-the-blank questions to the students and collects student log to analyze students learning process and understanding level. In this paper, we report our experience to utilize pgtracer at an actual programming course as homework assignment. We develop fill-in-the-blank questions corresponding to the course syllabus at each week. Student activities on pgtracer are analyzed to develop questions for the succeeding weeks. We also provide data to the instructor about the activities and achievement of the students for better collaboration between lecture and homework. We received positive feedbacks from both of the teacher interview and student survey about the usefulness of pgtracer as programming education support tool.

In recent years, Computer programming has become a critical subject, and it is a basic literacy in the digital age. However, learning programming skills is not an easy task as supported by many studies. On the other hand, many studies have concluded that student question generation has a positive effect on students learning, but few studies have geared toward supporting its use in programming classes. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a programming learning system named Peer-Interaction Programming Learning System based on a question generation strategy. The system was built by adding and intergrading learning assistance functions by system initiative into existing open-source QaA system. The usability of the system was examined for an undergraduate computer science course: Introduction to Computer Programming (n = 33). In this paper, we reported the design of the system and its user interface, identified several related systems, discussed our motivation and underlying teaching philosophy.

Project-based learning is a promising approach to the learning of computer programming by filling the gap between the acquisition of abstract knowledge and the application of knowledge to authentic programming tasks. However, making the implicit aspects of a programming task accessible to learners is a pressing issue. This study aims to address the problem by the design and evaluation of a web-based system for project-based learning of programming, which aimed to engage students in realistic complex programming tasks with the support of computer-based scaffolding. 29 college students participated in the use and evaluation of the proposed learning system. The results have shown the promising effects of the system as reflected by the students' perceptions of the system, their knowledge achievement, and their motivation to learn programming using the proposed system.

Programming languages are the primary tools of the software development industry. As of today, the programming language of the vast majority of the published source code is manually specified or programmatically assigned based solely on the respective file extension. This work shows that the identification of the programming language can be done automatically by utilizing an artificial neural network based on supervised learning and intelligent feature extraction from the source code files. We employ a multi-layer neural network - word embedding layers along with a Convolutional Neural Network - to achieve this goal. Our criteria for an automatic source code identification solution include high accuracy, fast performance, and large programming language coverage. The model achieves a 97% accuracy rate while classifying 60 programming languages.

Geometric semantic genetic programming is a hot topic in evolutionary computation and recently it has been used with success on several problems from Biology and Medicine. Given the young age of geometric semantic genetic programming, in the last few years theoretical research, aimed at improving the method, and applicative research proceeded rapidly and in parallel. As a result, the current state of the art is confused and presents some “holes”. For instance, some recent improvements of geometric semantic genetic programming have never been applied to some popular biomedical applications. The objective of this paper is to fill this gap. We consider the biomedical applications that have more frequently been used by genetic programming researchers in the last few years and we systematically test, in a consistent way, using the same parameter settings and configurations, all the most popular existing variants of geometric semantic genetic programming on all those applications. Analysing all these results, we obtain a much more homogeneous and clearer picture of the state of the art, that allows us to draw stronger conclusions.

In this article we approach the current state of art regarding programming education. We analyze the current constraints and challenges that students have been facing when learning programming, as well as the methodologies adopted by teachers and researchers to overcome these adversities. We propose the implementation of gamification to motivate and encourage students to achieve better results and to learn efficiently. To that end, the main characteristics of a gamified system are described, as well as the principles of its implementation.

In this paper, we suggest an PLC programming framework integrated with motion control software module. Our programming framework is characterized with the following features. Firstly, the framework provides programming environment for motion control codes. Secondly, the PLC program can be composed and edited by the use of pre-implemented software modules. Finally, we implemented the framework and validated by programming and executing a motor control code.

In the last few years, geometric semantic genetic programming has incremented its popularity, obtaining interesting results on several real life applications. Nevertheless, the large size of the solutions generated by geometric semantic genetic programming is still an issue, in particular for those applications in which reading and interpreting the final solution is desirable. In this paper, we introduce a new parallel and distributed genetic programming system, with the objective of mitigating this drawback. The proposed system (called MPHGP, which stands for Multi-Population Hybrid Genetic Programming) is composed by two subpopulations, one of which runs geometric semantic genetic programming, while the other runs a standard multi-objective genetic programming algorithm that optimizes, at the same time, training error and the size of the solutions. The two subpopulations evolve independently and in parallel, exchanging individuals at prefixed synchronization instants. The presented experimental results, obtained on five real-life symbolic regression applications, suggest that MPHGP is able to find solutions that are comparable, or even better, than the ones found by geometric semantic genetic programming, both on training and on unseen testing data. At the same time, MPHGP is also able to find solutions that are significantly smaller than the ones found by geometric semantic genetic programming.

This paper describes the development of "Protoboy", an educational and fun alternative that applies aspects of Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL) and gamification in order to motivate students during their education to gain knowledge about logic and computer programming. The software prototype built allows providing programming concepts and challenges that are fun and intuitive. The tests performed on the prototype showed a good evaluation of the aesthetics and perception of the video game by the students.

Learning programming is difficult. This refers to primary and secondary school students, but to university student beginners at programming too. These particular reasons stand as a challenge to teachers, as well. Most of the authors agree that recursion presents one of the most difficult concepts at programming, whereas some authors think it is the most difficult concept in programming. On the other hand, it is no longer only an important mathematical concept, but a programming technique, a way of algorithm thinking, and a tool to problem solving. There have been many attempts how to teach recursions. Hereinafter, one can find certain approaches for which authors claim to bring a better understanding of this important concept.

Visual programming languages (VPLs) are becoming more popular and making the transition from the informal to conventional educational settings. One of the important features of VPL is that novices are not required to remember a list of commands or complex syntax since everything they need is just there in the environment. The objective of introductory computer programming courses at the university is to teach students how to develop solutions in high-level computer programming languages such as C#. However, they also need to acquire problem-solving skills. Since computer programming and problem-solving are both challenging, schools and universities often make use of VPLs combined with game-based programming. Students will eventually need to transfer programming concepts learnt from VPL into a high-level programming language. A transition from VPL to the text-based high- level programming language is not seamless and additional tools and efforts are required. This paper presents prototypes we have developed for undergraduate university students to enable mediated transfer from VPL to high-level programming language by using the idea of mini- languages.

Tools for software engineers, such as programming languages and IDEs, should reflect the needs of their users. Unfortunately, designers of programming languages lack strong guidance regarding how to make these tools most effective for users. Though there is a well-developed theory of programming languages, there is little evidence regarding how to use this theory to build languages in which software engineers are most productive. I propose to develop methods for programming language design that fuse results from programming language theory with methods from human-computer interaction so that designers can create effective tools for users.

Learning programming is difficult due to the various associated processes. Programming concepts are abstract and language independent. However, implementing an algorithm for a specific problem in a programming language is one of the learning outcomes of programming courses. In this paper, we present a concept of programing building blocks for introducing programing concepts with associated in-class code writing tasks utilizing our web-based platform.

In response to questions such as what, why, how to teach programming, which are the learning difficulties in Secondary Education and considering that the most successful practice until now in schools are environments, which use audiovisual material and robotics, this research aims to present different teaching approaches, programming languages such as Pascal and C++, applications which use mechanical or electronic structural elements or sensors, MAX/MSP and Arduino environments, which are user friendly, new trends of educational applications, which are Educational Robotics, Image and Video Sonification, and a new proposal, aiming to be more user friendly than others. By this novel proposal, creating an interactive data base and a platform, which use audio, image, video, musical tone-melody, voice messages, optical and acoustic simulation of orders teaching, of programs implementation, of debugging with alternative correction proposals and of programs execution, students will better and pleasantly understand the concepts of programming such as variables, operators, logical operations, algorithmic structures, syntax and run-time errors [17], [18].

This paper aims to investigate, classify and establish appropriate benchmarks for visual programming codes. For the present study we have relied on the use of the Scratch-2 visual programming language. Scratch-2 is very popular as an introductory programming language at primary education and at the first years of secondary education in Greece. Initially, an evaluation framework, named VPLEF (Visual Programming Languages Evaluation Framework), is constructed based on several selected criteria. Since the observation of the visual code is not easy in the programming environment, we adopted the codOrama tool for a more consistent representation of the Sctrach-2 codes, aiming to identify the code characteristics, which were then associated with the evaluation criteria. We focuson the evaluation criteria of user interactivity, communication and parallelism-linearity of VPLEF and on two groups of commands, namely on “Control” and Event”, in conjunction with the system arguments. The study of the aforementioned entities leads us to a set of specified relationships of each of these three criteria with the command/argument combinations. Finally, an evaluation process is proposed to quantify the contribution of each combination to a specific criterion.

Block-C is a block-based programming learning tool for C programming language that uses the recognition over recall approach on top of the rigid and complex constructs of C language. It empowers students to learn programming by guiding them to focus on the programming logic rather than the syntax of C language. Novice programmers in introductory programming courses are more productive with the use of Block-C than with regular textual C programming. They can internalize the programming concepts more easily by gradually assigning meaning to the visual models (pertaining to the programming logic) created using the tool. In lab or tutorial sessions, where the presence of facilitators is limited, Block-C can guide the students to complete their assignments easily and effectively. Finally, Block-C promotes the transition to the regular textual C programming by allowing the students to export their code and see how their block-based programs are translated to textual C, but also how textual C is translated to block-based C.

In this paper the use of an open-source online learning platform to aid in teaching and assessment of computer programming in large classes is discussed. The pedagogical philosophy of how the subject of computer programming is taught is presented. Based on the skills and learning processes that are identified for effective teaching of computer programming, a strategy for employing modern web technology coupled with an automated assessment capability to meet these goals is discussed. The paper describes the technology and implementation of the learning platform and new methods for automated assessment of programming assignments and exams. Finally, the application of the system to achieve the pedagogical goals and the benefits of using the system for teaching large classes is reported.

As IoT/robotics research and applications expand explosively into many domains in computing, information, and control systems, schools and universities must prepare students to understand and be able to program IoT devices and robots. However, programming IoT and physical devices is hard and depends on good understanding of hardware and low-level programming. Workflow and visual programming environments have been developed to address this issue, including MIT App Inventor, Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio and VPL (Visual Programming Language), and Intel Service Orchestration Layer. We have developed a new visual programming language and its development environment: ASU VIPLE (Visual IoT/Robotics Programming Language Environment). ASU VIPLE is specifically developed to support different device platforms. It supports LEGO EV3 and all IoT devices based on an open architecture. ASU VIPLE integrates engineering design process, workflow, fundamental programming concepts, control flow, parallel computing, and event-driven programming seamlessly into the curriculum. It has been pilot tested at Arizona State University in summers 2015 and 2016, and is now taught in an ASU regular class, Introduction to Engineering. It has been adopted by numerous universities around the world. This paper focuses on the mathematical model of ASU VIPLE. π-calculus is used to describe the basic activities in VIPLE, as well as the workflow defined by the basic activities.

CodeMage is an interactive educational programming environment targeted at novice Java programmers who have little knowledge in basic programming. The system comes with innovative features such as, real-time guidance and reviews, code generation tool, visual debugger, hinting system for best practices, remote tutor and database manipulation tool which makes it a unique educational programming environment. Though many of programming tools are available in the market, they have their drawbacks in suitability to be adopted in programming by beginners due to the complexity in software interface, cryptic error messages and warning messages, no adequate support to fix errors and not adhering to real-world programming context etc. CodeMage is an attempt to overcome above problems and change how novices perceive and practice Java programming around the world and it is working as expected.

Block programming lowers the barrier for programming learners and it is used in many software education program. Based on our observation, we realized that there are differences in way of learning and time of finishing goals even in under same instructors. To know the cause of this difference we propose a logging function to see the coding behavior of programmers. In this work we have developed library for generating log of developer's behavior in the process of block programming and defined required common items in creating block log process. In addition, we present the coding characteristics from the log, available information for deriving coding characteristics and detail criteria for deriving each characteristic. The contribution of this work is in development of framework generating logs of block programming process. This work will contribute to understand the programming learners' behaviors and enable instructors to design the learning courses properly.

The article describes the possibilities of parallelization algorithms of decision trees and their implementation in programming languages that use the features of the functional programming paradigm. They allow simplifying transformation of sequential algorithm to its parallel form. As example we consider the C4.5 algorithm and comparison of its implementation in Java 7 and Java 8 programming languages. The Java 8 uses the elements of functional programming languages: pure functions, functions for list processing and etc.

A holistic approach is needed to impart abstract thinking and Programming skills among the students to enable them to be successful developers when they get employed in an IT organization where the organizations are transforming towards digital technologies. Though computer programming curriculum comprises of essential topics of programming, there is wide gap between the industry expectations from the fresh hires and the programming abilities of these graduates. In this paper we discuss industry expectations and propose an approach to computer programming course highlighting pedagogical aspects. Abstract concepts of computing, along with programming techniques are integrated and a programming pedagogy is proposed based on ABET framework. The approach is illustrated using Python language as vehicle since it is being used extensively across organizations as part of automation and digital transformations.

Practice is considered an important step in grasping the precise concepts of computer programming for novices. An editor plays an integral part in promoting practice and acquiring programming skills. Most of the programming editors available in the market promote programming shortcut (to convert the problem statement directly into a computer program). In this study, a new editor was introduced in the introductory programming (IP) course based on the ADRI approach which discourages programming shortcut. Moreover, it focuses on paying equal attention to programming knowledge (syntax & syntax) and problem solving strategies. The results show improvement in achieving students' learning outcomes and positive impact on attrition rate. Students (treatment group) who used the ADRI editor show more satisfaction on using the program development environment compared to the control group.

Although different programming environments have been developed to teach programming to beginners, the programming environment most suitable for introductory education is unknown in terms of the programming method such as text or visual. This study applies programming learning using a digital game, Minecraft, to compare the learning effect of text-based and visual-based programming in the LUA programming environment provided by a Minecraft extension. Both methods have certain learning effects, but visual-based programming has more significance than text-based programming on the attitude toward programming, indicating that visual-based programming is superior to text-based programming in introductory education.

The problems in our teaching on object-oriented programming are analyzed, and the basic ideas, causes and methods of the reform are discussed on the curriculum, theoretical teaching and practical classes. Our practice shows that these reforms can improve students' understanding of object-oriented to enhance students' practical ability and innovative ability.

To encourage further use of robotics middleware, thereby, increasing the efficiency of the development process, we propose a Web-based visual programming tool for beginners. We first suggest the following requirements: (1) to utilize robotics middleware; (2) to easily build a development environment; (3) to combine variables and commands to operate various types of robots in a straightforward manner; and (4) to easily reference both objects in visual programming and source code. Consequently, we compare our work with existing visual programming tools for programming education and for robot control. Finally, we confirm the effectiveness of our tool. We detail our programming tool for learning and using Robotics Technology (RT) middleware. In particular, we use HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript to implement a Web-based GUI that automatically generates RT-Component source code. This code is then transferred through the XML-RPC process and launched on the server machine.

The aims of the article is to the study fuzzy multi-objective linear fractional programming (FMOLFP) problem by using goal programming approach. At first by using Charnes and Cooper [1] transformation, the FMOLFP problem is transformed to fuzzy multi-objective linear programming (FMOLP) problem. The reduced problem is formulated by goal programming approach to find out the solution of FMOLFP problem. By using our proposed GP approach some pareto optimal solution is obtained for the FMOLFP problem. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate our approach.

The purpose of this article is to explain how a fuzzy linear programming model can be transformed into a fuzzy multi-objective linear programming model and then solved. An algorithm is developed to present our approach and fuzzy optimal solution is obtained. To demonstrate the efficiency and feasibility of the proposed approach, one numerical example has been solved.

Answer set programming (ASP) is a new programming language paradigm combining the declarative aspect with non-monotonic reasoning. In this paper, we will investigate and evaluate an application of Simple Assembly Line Balancing Problem in Answer Set Programming. The problem is a highly combinatorial and is generally solved by specific programs. We present an approach to solve the simple assembly line balancing problem in Answer Set Programming and compare them with the standard ones. It turns out that, although Answer Set Programming greatly simplifies the problem statement. It is comparable in efficiency to specialized programs.

Programming tasks are an important part of teaching computer programming as they foster students to develop essential programming skills and techniques through practice. The design of educational problems plays a crucial role in the extent to which the experiential knowledge is imparted to the learner both in terms of quality and quantity. Badly designed tasks have been known to put-off students from practicing programming. Hence, there is a need for carefully designed problems. Cellular Automata programming lends itself as a very suitable candidate among problems designed for programming practice. In this paper we describe how various types of problems can be designed using concepts from Cellular Automata and discuss the features which make them good practice problems with regard to instructional pedagogy. We also present a case study on a Cellular Automata programming exercise used in a MOOC on Test Driven Development using JUnit, and discuss the automated evaluation of code submissions and the feedback about the reception of this exercise by participants in this course.

We propose a general framework for information theoretic feature selection based on the integer programming. Filter feature selection methods usually rely on a greedy forward or backward selection heuristic to find a satisfactory set of features, as the exact search is a combinatorial problem. We formulate the existing filter information theoretic criteria into an integer programming problem, and by using objective functions, we can represent many different existing scoring criteria. The integer programming framework can be solved efficiently by the existing solvers. We demonstrate the superior performance of the integer programming formulation over its corresponding criterion empirically.

In this contribution we present a formalism to combine the well-known process modeling technique based on Petri nets with the recent developments in Visual Programming for robot programming. The resulting modeling approach enables process developers and robot programmers to follow a hierarchical approach to process development and to profit from the extensive analysis techniques developed for Petri nets, as well as the specialized robot programming features of the Visual Programming system. We applied our approach to an exemplary robot manufacturing process, demonstrating its modeling capabilities.

To most learners, programming language is not simple. In particular, when a large number of errors occur, teaching progress of courses will be affected, which leads to poor learning effectiveness. This study developed a web-based programming language teaching platform to solve this issue.

Component-based programming is predicted to become mainstream practice in software engineering in the next few years. Students need to get familiar with modern programming approaches such as this one, but including the topic into curricula is not a simple task. This paper presents our approach to teaching component-based programming. The goal of Component-Based Programming course was to practically explain the concept of program components and outline their benefits in software development. Students could try on their own how the initial design of software influenced stages of development when component-based approach was applied. To preserve students' engagement into the topic we utilised teaching by game development, an approach already successfully applied to Object-Oriented Programming course. We also describe the individual motivational factors we implemented in the course.

In computer science education, the programming environment is just as crucial as the classroom environment. Students must be provided with adequate tools for developing an understanding of computer science paradigms. These paradigms include object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts, such as inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation. JavelinaCode is a web-based integrated development environment (IDE) for Java programming that provides students with both a static and dynamic visualization of code; the static structure of code at compile time and the dynamic execution of code at run time. The objective of this research is to present the differences between JavelinaCode and similar programming environment tools to demonstrate how JavelinaCode improves students' understanding of OOP concepts. Comparative analysis is conducted between JavelinaCode and programming environment tools, including BlueJ, Jeliot 3, AguiaJ, JIVE, and jGRASP. Each of these tools is evaluated on the basis of time constraints for download and installation, complexity of the download process and tool's interface, and the provision of static and dynamic visualizations. The results of the comparative analysis show that JavelinaCode provides students with a more effective tool for understanding OOP concepts than those considered. This is due to a simplified set up process and user interface and a better integrated set of visualizations. The combination of these factors contributes to a programming environment that emphasizes developing and running code.

For advancing the educational quality of Java programming, we have proposed and implemented the Java Programming Learning Assistant System (JPLAS) as a Web application system. JPLAS offers fill-in-blank problems that request students to fill in the blank elements in a given Java code to study Java grammar and basic programming skills. In past years, we have utilized fill-in-blank problems at our Java programming courses. In this paper, we analyze solution results of students taking the course in 2015, and confirm the relatively high correlation between solution performances and course grades.

In the early years of college, students have the need to learn how to program in any programming language. It is important to see the differences between programming languages and their rules. We are proposing an interactive and self-study system for students to acquire the knowledge they need, from data structures to algorithms using multiple programming languages. The system gives the students some exercises that outputs an image. The student's image will be compared with the correct image that is in the system and the system judges the student's image will is correct or not. The students will program the exercises in the selected programming languages. Eventually the system will help students learn multiple programming languages, especially, how to solve problems regardless of programming language.

Computational Thinking has recently returned into the limelight as an essential skill to have for both the general public and disciplines outside Computer Science. It encapsulates those thinking skills integral to solving complex problems using a computer, thus widely applicable in our technological society. Several public initiatives such as the Hour of Code successfully introduced it to millions of people of different ages and backgrounds, mostly using Blocks Programming Environments like Scratch that lower the barriers of programming and facilitate learning. In this paper we present our arguments for fostering Computational Thinking skills using a Blocks Programming Environment augmented with a Tangible User Interface, namely by exploiting objects whose interactions with the physical environment are mapped to digital actions performed on the system. Our demonstration includes a working prototype implementing our Tangible Blocks Programming Environment called TAPAS.

As the needs of education of programming language increase, the importance of the learning environment has been emphasized. Based on the social trends, various web services for the education of programming which improves the computational thinking of a student. Among the web services, block-based programming languages are well known as an effective educational tool for a primary student though a freshman in the university. These tools are proven to be useful tools since the tools provide same programming environment to the students and the teachers anytime and anywhere. However, the environments may be insufficient for learning practical programming languages, such as C/C++ and Java, because they are not the block-based programming languages. This paper introduces a block-based learning environment for C programming language using web services. The environment fills the gap between building computational thinking and learning the syntax of the programming language. The programming environment provides the equivalent environment to teachers and the students during the programming hands-on.

This paper introduces the design and implementation of a minimal system for Distributed Pair Programming applied in project based assignments for programming courses. The application allows for projects to be developed by random formed teams with completely anonymous members.

Computer Programming as a process that embodies the creation of an executable computer program for a given computational problem by analyzing the task and developing an algorithm that computes the desired result. Due to its complex and diverse nature, programming requires a certain level of expertise in analysis of algorithms, data structures, mathematics, formal logic as well as related tasks such as testing and debugging. Due to increasing awareness of need for programming, there exists numerous competitive programming websites where students can practice and solve problems. The aim of our work is to assess the performance of students on such platforms. This work shall not only help the learners to self-assess themselves, but it will also aid the educators to evaluate the progress of their students. To meet this objective, the data was collected from two different competitive programming environments, namely, HackerEarth-a globally accessible competitive programming website and our university's in-house programming portal, a university-based programming environment. We used supervised learning to predict the performance of students for both the datasets. The accuracy obtained for the HackerEarth dataset is 80%, while the accuracy for the University dataset was computed to be 91%. Apart from predicting the performance, rigorous analyses were done unearth hidden trends responsible for a learners programming acumen.

The problems of IT convergence and security have arisen due to the complexity of the existing programming concepts. In this paper, for the first time since 1947 it is proposed to use a simpler and mathematically more rigorous concept of programming with the graphs loaded only through horizontal arcs. Such graph is a polyglot, it has ISO 8631:1989 certificate, and the single can be used along the entire lifecycle of programming process and working on a computer. To record a program in the new concept does not require programming languages. The new concept has HUNDREDS(!) times better characteristics from the standpoint of program compactness, memory use, promptness of entering and execution. Processes of designing the algorithms and software, processes of programming, evidence of correctness and self-documenting of software projects are significantly simplified, improved and accelerated. For the first time programming receives a rigorous mathematical basis (culture), wherein natural succession of the best practices in programming (OOP, AOP, WEB, CLOUD etc.) and, above all, continuity of the program libraries are ensured. The larger and the more logically complex is the program project, the greater is the effect of applying the new polyglot- concept. The new concept is so simple that it makes it possible to program for ANYONE, not just for programmers. This article describes the history of development and proving of the new polyglot concept of programming, its description, advantages, implemented graphical programming environment, and perspectives for application.