Anchored instruction ITS: a novel approach to make learning programming interesting and effective
Budi Hartanto, Jim Reye · IOP Conference Series Materials Science and Engineering · 2019
Abstract Learning programming is known to be troublesome to the students in the computer science department. The problem is originated in the students’ inability to understand the logic in developing the program. Many teachers advise the students to practice writing the program to improve the students’ skill. However, many students do not enthusiastically follow this advice due to the unattractive activity in writing the program as well as the lack of help when they have problems in writing the program. In this research, we proposed a system that increases the attractiveness of the program development activity and is able to provide help when the students have problems in it. These goals were performed by integrating an anchored instruction in an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). The attractiveness of the anchored instruction and the effectiveness of the Intelligent Tutoring System were analysed using a pre- and post-test, and a survey. From the tests and the survey, we found that the anchored instruction can increase the students’ interest in practicing programming; the Intelligent Tutoring System could help the students in writing the program and improve their knowledge in programming (24.67% improvement). The research showed that anchored instruction Intelligent Tutoring System can be used as an alternative approach to make learning programming interesting and effective.