What is it about?
We used Coral for the first few weeks of our CS1 course prior to teaching C++. We analyze our experiences of teaching Coral in a ~100-student CS1 section for weeks 1-3 versus two other sections that taught C++ only. We performed analyses to answer three research questions: (1) Do students learn Coral more easily than C++? (2) Do students easily transition from Coral to C++? and (3) Do Coral-treated students do equally well on later C++ programs? We did not find support for (1), but did find support for (2) and (3), with Coral-treated students easily switching to C++ and performing equally well on later C++ programs. We conclude that CS1 instructors who enjoy the early-weeks teaching benefits of Coral can do so confidently knowing that students will perform equally well later in the course.
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Why is it important?
Instructors might have reservations prior to implementing Coral in their courses (for the added benefit of easing students into learning a new language). However, they can do so confidently knowing that students will perform equally well when taught Coral prior to C++ versus C++ only.
Perspectives
Students seemed to enjoy learning Coral since they could focus more on the logic rather than the technical syntax of C++ with its vague errors. The transition from Coral to C++ in a ten week term did not cause significant changes in performance in course material which helps eases the stress of whether to try this out in your own courses.
Ashley Pang
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Experiences Teaching Coral Before C++ in CS1, March 2023, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3545945.3569732.
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