V7 N1 Paper 2
Annals of the MS in Computer Science and Information Systems at UNC Wilmington
Spring 2013

PeTE: Programming Education Teaching Environment  

Paul Martin

Committee

Douglas Kline (chair)
Curry Guinn
Tom Janicki
Kevin Matthews

Abstract

Teaching software programming is challenging to both students and instructors. The basic process of assigning, completing, and grading projects is filled with non-value-added tasks such as file management, compression, delivery, decompression, and navigation through folder structures. As a result, instructors tend to assign fewer projects, provide less feedback, and generally spend too much time on activities that don’t promote learning.Professional programming involves collaborative software development and professional practices that are not well-addressed in university curriculums. Tools such version control, task tracking, bug tracking, and workflow management systems are generally not covered in classes. As a result, graduates are not well-prepared to use these tools, they must be trained by their employers, and they must adopt professional software development practices after graduation. Professional software development tools and systems were mainly developed to aid software development teams but can also be useful in an educational context. They can not only relieve the burden of non-value-added tasks, but would also expose students to additional professional work habits. This project used Microsoft’s Team Foundation Server (TFS) to teach .Net programming in the Information Systems and Operations Management department at University of North Carolina Wilmington. Although the project focused on .Net programming, the concept applies to programming education in general.

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Recommended Citation: Martin, P., Kline, D, Guinn, C., Janicki, T., Matthews, K. (2013) PeTE: Programming Education Teaching Environment. Annals of the Master of Science in Computer Science and Information Systems at UNC Wilmington, 7(1) paper 2. http://csbapp.uncw.edu/data/mscsis/full.aspx.

V7 N1 Paper 2
Annals of the MS in Computer Science and Information Systems at UNC Wilmington
Spring 2013