International Higher Education Teacher Award ^2024/25

The course "Procedural Languages" aims at teaching the basics of programming to all students of the first semester. It develops the necessary basic competencies in the area of programming for a variety of advanced courses. The structure is a closely linked sequence of 25 alternating self-study and attendance phases and is assessed with 5 ECTS. The sequence as well as the contents of each individual phase are mapped in a Moodle course. In the first 10 teaching weeks of the semester there are two attendance units per week, in the last five weeks there is one per week. This results in a very short time interval for the intervening self-study phases, especially in the first ten weeks, which we consider in the planning and dimensioning of these phases. The goal of each self-study phase is to introduce a new programming element. Students need 30 - 60 minutes to work through the basic material in the form of a slide script and the associated self-checks. In addition, there is also always a video and textbook to serve different learning preferences and provide alternative perspectives and levels of detail. The material not only contains the theoretical description, but also uses short code examples to demonstrate the application of the new element. Each of these code examples is followed by a request to the students to perform a corresponding self-check in Moodle, providing immediate feedback. The self-checks do not require the reproduction of theoretical content but are derived from the theory-based demonstrated code examples. Specifically, they consist of a problem that students can solve in five to fifteen minutes by minimally modifying the code example from the slide lecture. It thus checks for understanding, demonstrates again how it works, and gives students a chance to experiment with the new element. During classes, the results of the self-checks, the collected questions and introductory quizzes help lecturers with getting an overview of the students’ knowledge and possible open questions. The structure of ICM allows them to put focus on clarifying these questions by means of discussion and by exploring them within mob-programming sessions. The tests in this course are practical programming tasks and incorporate additional forms of feedback like peer reviews and code reviews. This enriches the automated feedback with qualitative aspects, promotes sharing of knowledge between students and builds a positive feedback culture within the class.

Methodology

The course „Procedural Languages“ emphasizes practical experience in all of its phases und uses different feedback mechanisms in order to help students with developing basic programming competences. It employs the inverted classroom model (ICM), and thus requires students to gather the basic theoretical knowledge during self-study phases. Students may perform self-checks, in which they apply the newly gained knowledge to simple programming tasks and receive automated feedback. As a result they quickly gather hands-on experience and develop an understanding for possible associated questions and challenges. During classes, the results of the self-checks, the collected questions and introductory quizzes help lecturers with getting an overview of the students’ knowledge and possible open questions. The structure of ICM allows them to put focus on clarifying these questions by means of discussion and by exploring them within mob-programming sessions.

Tools, equipment, technology used

The course is held via the learn-management-system Moodle. For student-centeredness, it is important that students receive feedback for their small, quickly solvable self-checks just as quickly. For this, we use Moodle CodeRunner for automated program code assessment. In it, students enter program code and CodeRunner automatically checks it against predefined test scenarios. For each scenario, instructors define, for example, simulated input sequences with expected associated program outputs, or structural requirements for the program. Within seconds of entering the program code, students receive feedback on whether the delivered solution meets these test scenarios. The ability to run these tests as many times as needed, and thus receive repeated feedback, encourages students to try different solutions and thus promotes understanding. They can record any questions that arise in the Moodle course in a shared question collection or discuss them in the forum. Instructors use the forum to support students during the self-study phase and thus model an appreciative feedback culture. In addition, they receive an automatically generated summary of all self-checks carried out and can use this together with the feedback from the forum and the collection of questions for targeted preparation for the next attendance phase. In this way, student-centeredness can be ensured to the full extent and student cohorts can be supported in their individual challenges, especially in the next attendance sessions.

Outcomes and outputs, main results

Due to the long-term planned concept, it was possible to bundle the technical and didactical expertise at the FHTW and, besides the transparent, curricularly anchored Common Body of Competencies, to make the LV concept transferable for other courses of studies with required programming competences. Initially, this will not save the instructors any time, but the LV concept should gain in quality after a continuous improvement process and, above all, develop a pool of questions and assignments that will enable the scalability of the course to many parallel groups. Scalability to a large number of students would already be possible and feasible in the self-study phases - but it contradicts the concept of the quality or content-rich interactive attendance phase envisaged here. The added value of the students arises - according to feedback from the same, especially through the constant possibility for assessment (in the formative sense of "for learning") and the immediate feedback through automated systems, the teacher and/or peers. Peer feedback demonstrates added value in two ways. Students are given the opportunity to shift perspectives in order to have an additional learning experience through the lens of feedback in the sense of performance assessment. Furthermore, students appreciate the abundance of practice opportunities, which are available to them in large numbers on an optional basis - but are still being feedbacked.

Lessons learnt

The Covid-19 crisis has shown that this course concept, planned and implemented through multiple forms of self-study, can be converted to pure distance learning at any time without much effort, and the inverted classroom model also works in virtual face-to-face phases due to the good preparation of the students.

Adaptability and sustainability of the best practice (for other institutions)

if interested, we could share our expertise and the course content. It runs with open source software like moodle and code runner and could be implemented and adapted from different learning management systems.

Promotion of best practice

The course is executing the new blended learning format, which is currently implemented for the majority of the courses at the UAS Technikum Wien. Since it is an example of good practice, it was nominated for the Ars Docendi Award of good teaching 2021.

Scope and impact

• Course/department level
• Faculty level
• Institutional level
• Cross-institutional level

As noted before, the concept of the Inverted Classroom as well as the variation in feedback opportunities is constantly being developed and refined in a participatory and evidence-based manner through the institutionalized "continuous improvement process." The concept is currently already being applied in a similar form in several courses or groups at the FHTW and will be rolled out on a large scale in the long term and in different forms within the FHTW. With this change in the teaching/learning and examination culture, the students of the University of Applied Sciences should receive optimal support in achieving their learning goals and become familiar with professional feedback culture. The CodeRunner tool will not be used exclusively in the first year of study, but students will encounter it again and again in different course formats and phases of study. However, the feedback opportunities developed and practiced in the first semester lay the foundation for active, self-effective study. In addition, as noted above, this Covid-19 -tested concept contributes to a well-founded basic digital competence of the students and supports the interaction and cooperation within the student cohort and the teachers. The concept presented here is also presented in terms of transferability within the FHTW among the teachers and is available as a so-called "source course" (Moodle template) for interested teachers.

6.1 Digitalization

• Outstanding, innovative, excellent practices of online / blended / hybrid learning
• Digital skills development and assessment both general and profession-related, embedded in course design, in teaching and assessment

Reasoning: Matching the content of the course, the materials are computer- and online-based. Self-Study-phases are completely digitalized. The concept includes face-to-face-sessions in groups, which can be adapted to online-streaming-sessions when needed (e.g. due to Covid-19).

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6.2 Internationalization

• Innovative practices of blended mobility

Reasoning: Especially in the completely digitalized format, where the meetings are held as webinars, the course can be opened easily to students of cooperating universities.

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6.3 Inclusion and diversity, universal design

• Inclusive course design, universally designed divers activities to meet special students' needs
• Innovative teaching methodology for inclusion and meet diverse student needs
• Senzitivizing students to consider special needs when practicing their profession
• Course includes hints on how the services/products of the profession could be universally designed/inclusive

Reasoning: The ICM offers students the possibility to learn new theories and adapt them in their own time (in a given period). The theories can be learned using different kind of media, therefore students can choose media according to their own needs. Everything is online in a classic Learn-Management-System (Moodle) with responsive design, in case of special needs not met adaptations for the student will be made.

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6.4 Sustainability

Reasoning: Given the lecturer-independent format, this course can be evaluated, further developed and held by any programmer with basic teaching skills. Since it covers the basics of an existing programming language, it has longer-term relevance.

3.3 Public contact datas

Name	Email address	Website
Wolfgang Berger	wolfgang.berger@technikum-wien.at