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Using Comics to Introduce and Reinforce Programming Concepts in CS1

Published: 05 March 2021 Publication History

Abstract

Recent work investigated the potential of comics to support the teaching and learning of programming concepts and suggested several ways coding strips, a form of comic strip with its corresponding code, can be used. Building on this work, we tested the recommended use cases of coding strip in an undergraduate introductory computer science course at a large comprehensive university. At the end of the course, we surveyed students to assess their experience and found they benefited in various ways. Our work contributes a demonstration of the various ways comics can be used in introductory CS courses and an initial understanding of benefits and challenges with using comics in computing education gleaned from an analysis of students' survey responses and code submissions.

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  • (2024)An Initial Exploration of Code Diagram Query EffectivenessProceedings of the 26th Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education10.1145/3660650.3660664(1-7)Online publication date: 2-May-2024
  • (2024)Generative Artificial Intelligence for the Visualization of Source Code as ComicsHuman Interface and the Management of Information10.1007/978-3-031-60114-9_4(35-49)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2024
  • (2023)Evaluating the Utility of Notional Machine Representations to Help Novices Learn to Code TraceProceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 110.1145/3568813.3600119(314-328)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2023
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      cover image ACM Conferences
      SIGCSE '21: Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
      March 2021
      1454 pages
      ISBN:9781450380621
      DOI:10.1145/3408877
      Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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      Published: 05 March 2021

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      Author Tags

      1. coding strip
      2. comics
      3. dual coding theory

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      • Learning Innovation and Technology Enhancement (LITE) Grant University of Waterloo Internal Grant

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      Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

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      Cited By

      View all
      • (2024)An Initial Exploration of Code Diagram Query EffectivenessProceedings of the 26th Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education10.1145/3660650.3660664(1-7)Online publication date: 2-May-2024
      • (2024)Generative Artificial Intelligence for the Visualization of Source Code as ComicsHuman Interface and the Management of Information10.1007/978-3-031-60114-9_4(35-49)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2024
      • (2023)Evaluating the Utility of Notional Machine Representations to Help Novices Learn to Code TraceProceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 110.1145/3568813.3600119(314-328)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2023
      • (2023)Helping Students Understand the Code’s Behavior and Purpose by Leveraging Concreteness Fading and ComicsProceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 210.1145/3568812.3603491(35-36)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2023
      • (2023)Developing Comic-based Learning Toolkits for Teaching Computing to Elementary School LearnersProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3545947.3576272(1325-1325)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2023
      • (2023)Reference Guide for Teaching Programming with ComicsProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3545947.3576251(1392-1392)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2023
      • (2023)Putting a Context in Context: Investigating the Context of Pencil Puzzles in Multiple Academic EnvironmentsProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569848(353-359)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
      • (2023)CrossCode: Multi-level Visualization of Program ExecutionProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581390(1-13)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
      • (2023)Educational Data Comics: What can Comics do for Education in Visualization?2023 IEEE VIS Workshop on Visualization Education, Literacy, and Activities (EduVis)10.1109/EduVis60792.2023.00012(34-40)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2023
      • (2022)PrivacyToon: Concept-driven Storytelling with Creativity Support for Privacy ConceptsProceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3532106.3533557(41-57)Online publication date: 13-Jun-2022
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