Narrative
Class Context
- Mr. Ayala is a computer science teacher at West Adams High School. His students work primarily in the Java coding language because of its wide application in multiple hardware and software platforms. Java is also the programming language of the Advanced Placement Computer Science A test.
- Mr. Ayala frequently gives coding project assignments (e.g., make a functional calendar that includes leap years) to his students. Students work on those projects in class and after school. Mr. Ayala uses the Schoology LMS platform to announce and share his assignment requirements to his students. In turn, his students submit their completed code to Mr. Ayala through Schoology.
- An issue that Mr. Ayala faced with his class was that students would often turn in code that contained several errors, which he would then grade in the manner of a traditional assignment (i.e., a certain amount of points deducted for incorrect answers). This frustrated Mr. Ayala because the end result was that many students did not actually produce functioning code.
- Mr. Ayala wanted to give students more control of the learning process so that they could learn from their mistakes, think more critically about when, where, and why they made errors, and learn by correcting those errors. In short, he needed a way to automate feedback that was instant and accurate, and which provided students with clear direction to continue their learning.
Digital Resources used in this Lesson
Schoology: A Learning Management System Used in this lesson to post assignment instructions to students, for students and teachers to communicate via messaging functions, for students to check and submit their completed work, and for teachers to provide feedback on student work. | ||
Compilejava.net A code compiler (Quality Assurance tool) Used in this lesson for students to check their completed Java code for errors. In this lesson, it is embedded in the Schoology assignment page so that students can easily check their work before submitting. |