Incorporating the Virtual Programming Lab into a First Year Computer Science Module

For many students attending third level, Computer Science is a new discipline. As part of their first year students will undertake a module in programming. Computer Science has a notoriously high failure rate at the end of first year with programming modules seen as a major stumbling block. Programming is an individual task and one which can be very frustrating with struggling students feeling isolated and often embarrassed to ask questions. For novice programmers feedback from traditional Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) can be demoralising with potentially numerous errors frustrating students. Feedback from these IDEs tends to be high level and confusing for novice programmers. The aim of this case study was to provide automated real-time feedback and grading to students in their introductory programming module. This feedback system would be available to the students in their weekly labs and also when they are doing self-directed study. The automated system used was the Virtual Programming Lab (VPL) which allows for tailored feedback that gives an automatic grade even if a program does not compile.