Distractions in Programming Environments

Mason, R. and Cooper, G.

A workshop for teaching introductory programming using Lego Mindstorms NXT presented students with either a �complete� or �subset� form of user interface, both of which are pre-packaged with the application. The learning activities presented to all students only made use of the functionality contained within the subset interface and students presented with the complete interface only made use of the functionality associated with the subset version. Despite no reference to, or use being made of, the extended functionality of the complete interface, students undertaking activities in this mode reported higher levels of difficulty associated with learning programming and performed poorly on a test of programming concepts compared to students presented with the subset form of the interface. Results are explained in terms of Cognitive Load Theory, in particular, redundancy of information. Implications to the selection of programming languages and environments for teaching introductory programming are discussed.

Cite as: Mason, R. and Cooper, G. (2013). Distractions in Programming Environments. In Proc. Fifteenth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2013) Adelaide, Australia. CRPIT, 136. Angela Carbone and Jacqueline Whalley Eds., ACS. 23-30

(from crpit.com) (local if available)