Applying validated pedagogy to MOOCs: an introductory programming course with media computation

Abstract

Significant advances have been made in the learning and teaching of Introductory Programming, including the integration of active and contextualised learning pedagogy. However, Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs), where Computer Science and, more specifically, introductory programming courses dominate, do not typically adopt such pedagogies or lessons learned from more traditional learning environments. Moreover, the improvement of learning within the MOOC context in terms of discipline-specific pedagogy, and the improvement of student learning outcomes and processes have not been studied in depth. This paper reports findings from a foundation programming skills MOOC that supports the learning of fundamental Computer Science concepts and the development of programming skills through a media computation approach, based upon digital artworks and animations. In this paper, we explore the course activity data as well as a sample of students' source code submissions to investigate their engagement with the course and the quality and development of their programming skill over the six weeks of the course duration.