Scalable and Personalized Blended Learning for Software Education

• Main Authors: BOESCH, Chris, BOESCH, Sandra
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Automatic mentor assignment; team-based; mentoring; coding competition; self-directed learning; Computer Sciences; Education; Software Engineering
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/2865; https://www.cambridgescholars.com/innovations-in-technology-enhanced-learning
• Institution: Singapore Management University

For over three years, the authors have been developing and refining an online practicing platform called SingPath, which enables users to practice writing software code in various software languages. The platform started as a simple way of providing students with online feedback on solutions to software problems and expanded overtime, in order to support a variety of blended learning needs for a mixture of classes and classroom settings. SingPath has been used extensively in Singapore to supplement the teaching of software languages. The SingPath platform supports traditional self-directed learning mechanisms, such as badges and completion metrics, coupling these with a range of features such as tournaments and challenges, which are intended for classroom use. These features, along with the ability for users to adjust the level of difficulty and the ability for instructors to insert videos throughout the experience, provide a platform that enables educators to tailor a blended learning experience to their own unique needs. The platform is freely available on the Internet, allowing educators and self-directed learners around the world to experiment with different approaches to teaching and practicing software development.