Reflections From First Time Blended Programming Instructors - Teaching Challenges and Lessons Learned
Laura Reid, Oluwakemi Ola · Scholarship@Western (Western University) · 2015
Instructors charged with developing online courses to introduce computer programming concepts are confronted with a number of challenges relating to an evolving area of knowledge, creating an authentic online learning environment, and diverse background, values, and motivation of novice learners. Here we describe novice learners as individuals who have had little or no previous experience with programming and who do not intend to become professional programmers. Over the course of the last year we have designed an online programming course in JavaScript for novice learners. The goal of the course is to help people, with no programming background, realize that with a little practice and guidance, virtually anyone can write a computer program. In our session, the audience will be introduced to 3 major challenges we faced when developing the blended course and be given strategies that we used to overcome these obstacles. Because these strategies are based on pedagogy, they are applicable to the development of new online courses for all STEM disciplines.