6533b871fe1ef96bd12d0dc8

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Teaching Programming to Large Student Groups through Test Driven Development - Comparing Established Methods with Teaching based on Test Driven Development

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description

This paper presents an approach for teaching programming in large university classes based on test driven development (TDD) methods. The approach aims at giving the students an industry-like environment already in their education and introduces full automation and feedback programming classes through unit testing. The focus for this paper is to compare the novel approach with existing teaching methods. It does so by comparing introduction to programming classes in two institutions. One university ran a TDD teaching process with fully automated assessments and feedback, while the other ran a more traditional on-line environment with manual assessments and feedback. The TDD approach has clear advantages when it comes to learning programming as it is done in the industry, including being familiar with tools and approaches used. However, it lacks ways of dealing with cheating and stimulating creativity in student submissions.