Exploring the Use of Games and a Domain-Specific Teaching Language in CS0

Abstract

University students learning about computer science (CS) can be intimidated and frustrated by programming, and to make matters worse, the general-purpose programming languages chosen for introducing students to programming contain too many features that have the potential to overwhelm and distract students. We hypothesize that by using a delayed-coding approach with a language designed for teaching a smaller set of features focused on the fundamental CS concepts, such as types, values, conditions, control structures, and functions, student retention and success would improve, especially for those with no or little prior programming experience. To test this hypothesis, we split a college computer science orientation class into two sections. One section began programming with a general-purpose language, Python, during week 1. The second section used a new, functional domain-specific teaching language themed around programming simple, well-known physical games. A group of researchers designed the new language with the purpose of giving students a more focused approach to learning basic computer science concepts and emphasizing good programming practices early, such as working with user-defined types and decomposition. Based on student survey responses before and after the two sections and their grades through the two subsequent CS courses, we find that students in the delayed-coding section using the new language had lower engagement in their class. In addition, we find no evidence of a higher pass rate for students from this section in their subsequent computer science courses.