A preliminary review of undergraduate programming students' perspectives on writing tests, working with others, & using peer testing

Authors:
Alessio Gaspar;Sarah Langevin;Naomi Boyer;Ralph Tindell
Affiliations:
University of South Florida in Lakeland, Lakeland, FL, USA;University of South Florida in Lakeland, Lakeland, FL, USA;Polk State College, Winter Haven, FL, USA;University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
Venue:
Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM SIGITE conference on Information technology education
Year:
2013

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Abstract

Techniques such as Pair Programming, or allowing students to run their programs against a reference test harness, have demonstrated their effectiveness in improving grades or retention rates. This paper proposes to supplement the existing literature by investigating students' perceptions of the benefits of writing tests, working with other students and using Peer Testing. Responses to an online anonymous survey cast new light on the relation between testing and programming and confirm previously postulated limitations of collaborative approaches; i.e. the unbalanced nature of contributions and lack of didactic interactions in student groups. We then examine how Peer Testing is perceived and discuss its relation to both collaboration and test-based pedagogies.