Jupyter in the Classroom
Abdulmalek Al-Gahmi, Yong Zhang, Hugo Valle · Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education · 2022
Jupyter is an interactive web-based programming environment commonly used by Python programmers and data scientists. It can be used in the classroom either by itself or in addition to a traditional programming environment. This paper documents our experience using Jupyter in multiple computer science courses in a public four-year university using different programming languages (Java, C++, and Python). It describes our motivations for using Jupyter in these courses and how it is made available to students. It also describes the different roles it plays in our pedagogical approaches and the challenges it poses to both instructors and students. A report is presented on the preliminary experimentation conducted to evaluate its effectiveness in improving student performance. While our tests are limited by small sample sizes and did not show that using Jupyter produces a statistically significant improvement in student performance, qualitative analysis of student responses showed the usefulness of this tool in revitalizing teaching and keeping students engaged.