One step at a time: Parallelism in an introductory programming course
| Autor: | Steven Bogaerts |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
Java
Computer Networks and Communications Computer science Programming language 05 social sciences 050301 education 02 engineering and technology Thread (computing) computer.software_genre Java concurrency Theoretical Computer Science Real time Java Artificial Intelligence Hardware and Architecture 020204 information systems Multithreading ComputingMilieux_COMPUTERSANDEDUCATION 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering Programming paradigm Reactive programming 0503 education computer Software computer.programming_language |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing. 105:4-17 |
| ISSN: | 0743-7315 |
| Popis: | By introducing parallelism in introductory programming courses, all computer science students can receive a basic understanding of this crucial topic. Such an early introduction, however, has many challenges. This paper first presents a fall 2013 comparison of two Computer Science I (CS1) sections, leading to a conclusion emphasizing the importance of devoting sufficient time to a sufficiently small set of parallelism topics. Six additional CS1 sections are then considered, offered from spring 2014 through spring 2016 by three different instructors. Five of these removed coverage of Java thread programming due to challenges found in fall 2013, only to show measurably reduced effectiveness of the parallelism module. Thus a new thread programming integration strategy is presented, as done in spring 2016. This strategy includes active out-of-class activities that split the disparate challenges of Java thread programming into distinct exercises. Results demonstrate improved student interest and learning. It is better to cover a few PDC topics well than try to cover many in a shallow way.Active PDC programming exercises generate greater interest and motivation in students.Java thread programming has many smaller challenges that should be addressed first. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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