The TuringLab Programming Environment - An Online Python Programming Environment for Challenge based Learning

Henry Miskin, Anandha Gopalan

2016

Abstract

Computing has recently been introduced as a core subject in British schools, meaning that children need to learn computer programming. Teachers have to be prepared to be able to deliver the new curriculum, but many of them do not feel confident teaching it as they have no formal background in Computer Science. Also, when learning to programme, children need the correct environment and support to succeed. This paper presents TuringLab, an environment to assist teachers in delivering the practical elements of the computing curriculum, while also proving to be engaging and challenging for the children. Teachers can create programming challenges for their pupils and see how they are progressing (or struggling) during completion of the challenges. Students can undertake challenges in an engaging environment which displays a graphical output of their code and assists in understanding errors they may encounter. TuringLab has been used to teach children how to programme at a number of volunteer-led coding clubs. Children engaged well with TuringLab, and the volunteers, who acted as teachers in these sessions, found TuringLab an extremely valuable educational tool.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Miskin H. and Gopalan A. (2016). The TuringLab Programming Environment - An Online Python Programming Environment for Challenge based Learning . In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-179-3, pages 103-113. DOI: 10.5220/0005802701030113

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu16,
author={Henry Miskin and Anandha Gopalan},
title={The TuringLab Programming Environment - An Online Python Programming Environment for Challenge based Learning},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU,},
year={2016},
pages={103-113},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0005802701030113},
isbn={978-989-758-179-3},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU,
TI - The TuringLab Programming Environment - An Online Python Programming Environment for Challenge based Learning
SN - 978-989-758-179-3
AU - Miskin H.
AU - Gopalan A.
PY - 2016
SP - 103
EP - 113
DO - 10.5220/0005802701030113