TY - JOUR
T1 - A study of element fill-in-blank problems for c programming learning assistant system
AU - Kyaw, Htoo Htoo Sandi
AU - Funabiki, Nobuo
AU - Aung, Shune Lae
AU - Dim, Nem Khan
AU - Kao, Wen Chung
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, International Journal of Information and Education Technology. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - —Nowadays, C programming is essential for university students to study various programming languages, algorithms, and computer architecture. Previously, we have developed Java programming learning assistant system (JPLAS) for studying Java programming. JPLAS provides several types of exercise problems to cover different study stages, including the element fill-in-blank problem (EFP). An EFP instance asks students to fill in the blank elements in the given source code. The correctness of the answer is marked through string matching. In this paper, we study the EFP for C programming learning assistant system (CPLAS), by extending our works for JPLAS. To automatically generate a feasible EFP instance, the graph-based blank element selection algorithm is newly designed and implemented for C programming. For evaluations, we generate 19 EFP instances using C source codes for basic grammar concepts, and fundamental data structures and algorithms, and assign them to 42 students in a Myanmar university. The solving results confirm the effectiveness of EFP in detecting the students who may have difficulty in studying C programming and the hard topics for them.
AB - —Nowadays, C programming is essential for university students to study various programming languages, algorithms, and computer architecture. Previously, we have developed Java programming learning assistant system (JPLAS) for studying Java programming. JPLAS provides several types of exercise problems to cover different study stages, including the element fill-in-blank problem (EFP). An EFP instance asks students to fill in the blank elements in the given source code. The correctness of the answer is marked through string matching. In this paper, we study the EFP for C programming learning assistant system (CPLAS), by extending our works for JPLAS. To automatically generate a feasible EFP instance, the graph-based blank element selection algorithm is newly designed and implemented for C programming. For evaluations, we generate 19 EFP instances using C source codes for basic grammar concepts, and fundamental data structures and algorithms, and assign them to 42 students in a Myanmar university. The solving results confirm the effectiveness of EFP in detecting the students who may have difficulty in studying C programming and the hard topics for them.
KW - Algorithm
KW - CPLAS
KW - Element fill-in-blank problem
KW - Graph
KW - Index terms—C programming
KW - Self-study
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U2 - 10.18178/ijiet.2021.11.6.1520
DO - 10.18178/ijiet.2021.11.6.1520
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85110423570
SN - 2010-3689
VL - 11
SP - 255
EP - 261
JO - International Journal of Information and Education Technology
JF - International Journal of Information and Education Technology
IS - 6
ER -