This book is part of the results of the project Development of engaging and readily transferable laboratory experiences for the introductory programming course, whose main goals are: (1) enhance the delivery of the introductory level computer science programming course through a set of well-structured online laboratory experiences that are engaging, applied, and meaningful, and (2) facilitate the adoption of the developed materials by other instructors. The project provides turnkey solutions that significantly eases an instructor’s change in classroom techniques toward more hands-on, active and engaging courses. In essence, the turnkey solution consists of a set of well-structured online laboratory experiences that are applied, meaningful, easily accessible and transferable, all packaged into a virtual appliance preconfigured with all the necessary software (compilers, libraries, and data files). The laboratory experiences contain a strong continuous assessment component to establish students’ skills, concept mastery and attitudes towards the concepts and theme of the lab experiences. The experiences are designed following Merrill's five principles of instruction, i.e. be task-centered, and have processes of activation, demonstration, application and integration. Product development follows the ADDIE model (analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation). Student learning assessment is done before, during and after each laboratory experience. Promotion and dissemination of the solution is achieved through exhibitions and publications in major CS Education conferences, as well as supported by a dedicated website. : Click here for more information about this project.
Products
- A Virtual appliance with a CMS that contains the laboratory experiences, this book, and the C++ source code, can be foud here.
- (For classroom computers) A Virtual appliance with the book and the source code can be found here.
- (For a class server) A Virtual appliance with the CMS that contains the laboratory experiences, and the book can be found here.
- For a book with the solutions of the laboratory, please contact the PIs of the project.
- An application to automatically generate the book in your local computer can be found here.
- The source code of all the laboratories contained in this book can also be found in their development repository here.
Testing Environment
The laboratory experiences referenced in this book were tested in Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems, however our main development platform was the Ubuntu LXDE Virtual Machine that is in the products section of these document.
Principal Investigators.
The principal investigators or PIs are all professors at the Computer Science Department of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus.
- Rafael Arce Nazario
- Jose R. Ortiz Ubarri
- Ivelisse Rubio
- Cynthia Lucena - Project evaluator
Acknowledgements
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DUE-1245744. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
The PIs acknowledge the help of the students that participated in the development and testing of the laboratory experiences: Jonathan Velez, Luis Albertorio, Julio de la Cruz, Ramon Collazo, Rafael Melendez, Tamara Perez, Alejandro Sanchez, Roxana Gonzalez, Jose Alfredo Valles, Valerie Santiago, Tatiana Castro, and Coralys Cubero.
The PIs also acknowledge the students that participated in the evaluation of the laboratory experiences in the Introduction to Programming courses of the University of Puerto RIco at Rio Piedras.
