Learning to code and collaborate in a web environment

Abstract

Programming is a core skill that all computer science students should adopt, but mastering that skill is a demanding task. Educational institutions must find a way to alleviate problems associated with learning programming and to offer a service to an increased number of applicants. Part of these efforts is the use of Web tools in acquiring programming skills. The Web is a social platform and is designed to promote communication, collaboration, and sharing. Use of these tools in teaching programming prepares students for work in a distributed work environment but also opens up a possibility of improving learning process through new forms of interaction between students and lecturers. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of Web programming tools with an emphasis on collaborative editors and discuss challenges they are addressing as well as possibilities of their application in the learning environment. As a follow up, a new taxonomy of programming learning tools is proposed to facilitate the comparison of these tools and selection of a suitable one for the particular learning activity.