Educational crowdsourcing to support the learning of computer programming

Abstract

Recent advancements in technology have enabled a shift to occur in teaching and learning. We are living in a connected world where physical boundaries of attending an institution to gain an education no longer apply. There are currently thousands of courses available online that do not require formal attendance. As such, this era of “open learning” pioneers an innovative research, across multiple disciplines. One domain of knowledge where open learning can be advantageous is within computer science. This industry is now highly in demand and can benefit from open learning platforms, where students may not have the opportunity to formally attend courses but still want to enhance their skills. However, there are some significant limitations in open learning applications: how they assess the quality of learning (i.e., was it just copying or at best learning by rote) or considering individual differences among learners. In this emerging research paper, we posit the idea of an adaptive, crowdsourced, and primarily educational technology, targeted at software development students. The proposed technology caters for either individual or group learning. It differentiates itself from other tutoring and programming support technologies as it will continually monitor and assess students’ performance in each phase of the education process.