General principles for a Generalized Idea Garden

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2017

Abstract

Many systems are designed to help novices who want to learn programming, but few support those who are not necessarily interested in learning programming. This paper targets the subset of end-user programmers (EUPs) in this category. We present a set of principles on how to help EUPs like this learn just a little when they need to overcome a barrier. We then instantiate the principles in a prototype and empirically investigate them in three studies: a formative think-aloud study, a pair of summer camps attended by 42 teens, and a third summer camp study featuring a different environment attended by 48 teens. Finally, we present a generalized architecture to facilitate the inclusion of Idea Gardens into other systems, illustrating with examples from Idea Garden prototypes. Results have been very encouraging. For example, under our principles, Study #2’s camp participants required significantly less in-person help than in a previous camp to learn the same amount of material in the same amount of time.

Identifier

85019947458 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Journal of Visual Languages and Computing

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvlc.2017.04.005

ISSN

1045926X

First Page

51

Last Page

65

Volume

39

Grant

1528061

Fund Ref

National Science Foundation

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