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CFX: finding just the right examples for CS1

Authors:

Dale Reed,

Sam John,

Ryan Aviles,

Feihong HsuAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 36, Issue 1

Pages 363 - 367

https://doi.org/10.1145/1028174.971426

Published: 01 March 2004 Publication History

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Abstract

Finding just the right example to answer a question can be difficult for CS1 students and teachers. For this to work well there must be an intuitive interface coupled to an appropriate set of focused examples. The examples then provide the scaffolding to enable students' discovery. CFX (C For eXample) provides the needed easy-to-use web based interface.A small pilot study showed that students using CFX could find answers to their programming questions in roughly half the time it took using a textbook. Freely distributed as open source software under the GNU General Public License [4], CFX can be used as a database authoring tool to capture a set of examples. Once the content is established, the interface as well as the data can be automatically exported to a standalone dynamic interface, using static, non-database content.The development of this system has been sponsored in part by NSF's CCLI program, with sample content developed in conjunction with McGraw-Hill.

References

[1]

Arends, R.I. (1994). Learning to Teach. (3rd ed.), New York, NY:McGraw Hill, Inc (ch. 11).

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[2]

http://copland.udel.edu/~jconway/EDST666.htm, 6/5/2001.

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[3]

http://education.indiana.edu/~p540/webcourse/gagne.html

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[4]

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt

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[5]

Rosenshine, B. (1986). Synthesis of research on explicit teaching, Educational Leadership, April issue, pp. 60--69.

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Index Terms

CFX: finding just the right examples for CS1
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language features
        Classes and objects
        Control structures
        Data types and structures
        Procedures, functions and subroutines
  2. Software organization and properties
    1. Contextual software domains
      1. Operating systems
        Communications management
        Input / output

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Published In

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 36, Issue 1

March 2004

501 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/1028174

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGCSE '04: Proceedings of the 35th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
March 2004
544 pages
ISBN:1581137982
DOI:10.1145/971300
Conference Chairs:
Dan Joyce
Villanova University
,
Deborah Knox
The College of New Jersey
,
Program Chairs:
Wanda Dann
Ithaca College
,
Tom Naps
University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 March 2004

Published in SIGCSE Volume 36, Issue 1

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