The problem we want to address in the hackathon is long lectures and students having difficulty practicing skills outside of the lab. As I'm tutoring COMP1400, students have trouble practicing outside the lab because they cannot receive immediate feedback for their work. Without timely feedback, some students especially beginners have had trouble keeping up with the course.
The solution I want to propose is an online learning platform. It will allow students to learn in small chunks, about 10 minutes each. Students will first watch a short video (3 minutes) or read a short tutorial (200 words). They will then immediately practice their skills online, and their answers will be marked automatically. The design and functionality will be quite similar to Codecademy, but instead it will feature UNI content. This will be a huge improvement to many courses, especially entry level and ones which involve learning large amounts of technical skill. Even if this is not realized in the hackathon, it will be something I want to implement and use in my future tutorials.
In addition to solving the problem, this solution will also bring enjoyment when learning the course. If you remember the trader bot in COMP1511, we've all had loads of fun competing with our bots. It's obvious how a competitive element can be used to motivate students to learn. Now with an online system, instead of reading the log for each round, students can see their bots compete in real time with a graphical arena. Each lab can also be ranked and allow students to share their progress.
While Codecademy is a large and successful platform, the amount of choice is overwhelming for beginners. The content also doesn't cater to their current course. In COMP1531, my group members have learned Python via Codecademy, but were unsure how to apply their skills. With this solution, they can follow paths specifically designed for their course, and hence learn more effectively.
Another inspiration for this platform is MapleTA. I'm curious about your experience, and personally I've grasped most of my knowledge from them. This platform will be similar in porpose but related to learning technical courses.
If you're interested on how this system can be implemented step by step. The first course I want to implement this system for is COMP1400. Apart from having all the teaching material, another reason is because it is an entry-level Java course and the students are mainly beginners. It's first lab, where students practice controlling a "turtle" that draws onto a canvas, can be converted to an online experience where students can see each other's drawings. The remaining labs all feature large amounts of technical knowledge and can be examined by the system.
Our code is at: https://github.com/z5113924/cse-hackathon
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