@article{wang_limke_bobbadi_isvik_catete_barnes_price_2024, title={Idea Builder: Motivating Idea Generation and Planning for Open-Ended Programming Projects through Storyboarding}, url={https://doi.org/10.1145/3626252.3630872}, DOI={10.1145/3626252.3630872}, abstractNote={In computing classrooms, building an open-ended programming project engages students in the process of designing and implementing an idea of their own choice. An explicit planning process has been shown to help students build more complex and ambitious open-ended projects. However, novices encounter difficulties in exploring and creatively expressing ideas during planning. We present Idea Builder, a storyboarding-based planning system to help novices visually express their ideas. Idea Builder includes three features: 1) storyboards to help students express a variety of ideas that map easily to programming code, 2) animated example mechanics with example actors to help students explore the space of possible ideas supported by the programming environments, and 3) synthesized starter code to help students easily transition from planning to programming. Through two studies with high school coding workshops, we found that students self-reported as feeling creative and feeling easy to communicate ideas; having access to animated example mechanics of an actor help students to build those actors in their plans and projects; and that most students perceived the synthesized starter code from Idea Builder as helpful and time-saving.}, journal={PROCEEDINGS OF THE 55TH ACM TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM ON COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION, SIGCSE 2024, VOL. 1}, author={Wang, Wengran and Limke, Ally and Bobbadi, Mahesh and Isvik, Amy and Catete, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany and Price, Thomas W.}, year={2024}, pages={1402–1408} }
 @article{wang_bacher_isvik_limke_sthapit_shi_tabarsi_tran_catete_barnes_et al._2023, title={Investigating the Impact of On-Demand Code Examples on Novices' Open-Ended Programming Projects}, url={https://doi.org/10.1145/3568813.3600141}, DOI={10.1145/3568813.3600141}, abstractNote={Background and Context: Open-ended programming projects encourage novice students to choose and pursue projects based on their own ideas and interests, and are widely used in many introductory programming courses. However, novice programmers encounter challenges exploring and discovering new ideas, implementing their ideas, and applying unfamiliar programming concepts and APIs. Code examples are one of the primary resources students use to apply code usage patterns and learn API knowledge, but little work has investigated the effect of having access to examples on students’ open-ended programming experience. Objectives: In this work, we evaluate the impact of code examples on open-ended programming, through a study with 46 local high school students in a full-day coding workshop. Method: We conducted a controlled study, where half of the students had full access to 37 code examples using an example browser system called Example Helper and the other half had 5 standard, tutorial examples. Findings: We found that students who had access to all 37 code examples used a significantly larger variety of code APIs, perceived the programming as relatively more creative, but also experienced a higher task load. We also found suggestive evidence of a better post-assignment performance from the example group, showing that some students were able to learn and apply the knowledge they learned from examples to a new programming task.}, journal={PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 ACM CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL COMPUTING EDUCATION RESEARCH V.1, ICER 2023 V1}, author={Wang, Wengran and Bacher, John and Isvik, Amy and Limke, Ally and Sthapit, Sandeep and Shi, Yang and Tabarsi, Benyamin T. and Tran, Keith and Catete, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany and et al.}, year={2023}, pages={464–475} }
 @article{limke_lytle_mahmoud_lin_hill_catete_barnes_2023, title={Participatory Design with Teachers for Block-based Learning with SnapClass}, ISSN={["1943-6092"]}, DOI={10.1109/VL-HCC57772.2023.00028}, abstractNote={As computer science is increasingly taught in secondary schools, tools need to integrate block-based environments into learning platforms. This way, teachers can more effectively lead lessons, help students, and assess students' programs in their classrooms. We conducted a participatory design process with three K-12 computing teachers to understand their struggle and needs for block coding within their classrooms. The teachers identified 14 needs that were not already addressed by our tool, SnapClass. SnapClass, a new web-based learning platform for Snap!, integrates assignments with starter code, executable student submissions, rubric-based assessment, and a gradebook into one platform. The teachers designed prototypes for three features important to their classrooms: assignment differentiation, help-requests, and peer and self-assessment. This paper begins by introducing SnapClass and the motivation for its development. Then through thematic analysis of the session transcripts, we identify the common struggles teachers face while instructing programming and summarize how they would address those struggles through the design of SnapClass.}, journal={2023 IEEE SYMPOSIUM ON VISUAL LANGUAGES AND HUMAN-CENTRIC COMPUTING, VL/HCC}, author={Limke, Ally and Lytle, Nicholas and Mahmoud, Sana and Lin, Maggie and Hill, Marnie and Catete, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2023}, pages={173–178} }
 @article{limke_milliken_catete_gransbury_isvik_price_martens_barnes_2022, title={Case Studies on the use of Storyboarding by Novice Programmers}, DOI={10.1145/3502718.3524749}, abstractNote={Our researchers seek to support students in building block-based programming projects that are motivating and engaging as well as valuable practice in learning to code. A difficult part of the programming process is planning. In this research, we explore how novice programmers used a custom-built planning tool, PlanIT, contrasted against how they used storyboarding when planning games. In a three-part study, we engaged novices in planning and programming three games: a maze game, a break-out game, and a mashup of the two. In a set of five case studies, we show how five pairs of students approached the planning and programming of these three games, illustrating that students felt more creative when storyboarding rather than using PlanIT. We end with a discussion on the implications of this work for designing supports for novices to plan open-ended projects.}, journal={PROCEEDINGS OF THE 27TH ACM CONFERENCE ON INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY IN COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION, ITICSE 2022, VOL 1}, author={Limke, Ally and Milliken, Alexandra and Catete, Veronica and Gransbury, Isabella and Isvik, Amy and Price, Thomas and Martens, Chris and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2022}, pages={318–324} }
 @article{milliken_catete_limke_gransbury_chipman_dong_barnes_2021, title={Exploring and Influencing Teacher Grading for Block-based Programs through Rubrics and the GradeSnap Tool}, DOI={10.1145/3446871.3469762}, abstractNote={This article examines the grading process and profiles of secondary computer science teachers as they assess block-based student programming submissions. Through an iterative design process, we have created a new tool, Gradesnap, which streamlines how teachers can open, review, and evaluate student submissions within the same interface. Our study compares teachers’ grading processes using the different assessment formats, so that we can understand how their grading processes can be augmented or supported to reduce ’pain points’ and to enable teachers to provide more constructive and formative feedback for students. We use a case study approach to examine the experiences and outcomes of four secondary computer science teachers with varied teaching and assessment experience, when grading as usual, grading with a rubric, and grading with GradeSnap. Our study shows that when participants use GradeSnap, they are able to give supportive comments to lower performing and borderline students who need critical feedback to better understand misconceptions. We also discovered that the different grading processes provided a vehicle for reflection for some teachers in understanding their grading goals and how they enact them. This research is the first to examine teacher grading processes for computer science, and highlights the need for teacher preparation and support for providing programming feedback and assessment.}, journal={ICER 2021: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 17TH ACM CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL COMPUTING EDUCATION RESEARCH}, author={Milliken, Alexandra and Catete, Veronica and Limke, Ally and Gransbury, Isabella and Chipman, Hannah and Dong, Yihuan and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2021}, pages={101–114} }
 @article{akintunde_limke_barnes_heckman_lynch_2021, title={PEDI - Piazza Explorer Dashboard for Intervention}, ISSN={["1943-6092"]}, DOI={10.1109/VL/HCC51201.2021.9576443}, abstractNote={Analytics about how students navigate online learning tools throughout the duration of an assignment is scarce. Knowledge about how students use online tools before a course's end could positively impact students' learning outcomes. We introduce PEDI (Piazza Explorer Dashboard for Intervention), a tool which analyzes and presents visualizations of forum activity on Piazza, a question and answer forum, to instructors. We outline the design principles and data-informed recommendations used to design PEDI. Our prior research revealed two critical periods in students' forum engagement over the duration of an assignment. Early engagement in the first half of an assignment duration positively correlates with class average performance. Whereas, extremely high engagement toward the deadline predicted lower class average performance. PEDI uses these findings to detect and flag troubling engagement levels and informs instructors through clear visualizations to promote data-informed interventions. By providing insights to instructors, PEDI may improve class performance and pave the way for a new generation of online tools.}, journal={2021 IEEE SYMPOSIUM ON VISUAL LANGUAGES AND HUMAN-CENTRIC COMPUTING (VL/HCC 2021)}, author={Akintunde, Ruth Okoilu and Limke, Ally and Barnes, Tiffany and Heckman, Sarah and Lynch, Collin}, year={2021} }