Browsing by Author "Khudhur, Omar Mohammed"
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item THE EFFECT OF PAIR PROGRAMMING ON THE UNDERSTANDABILITY OF FLOWCHARTS: A CASE STUDY IN A C PROGRAMMING COURSE(2022-03-01) Khudhur, Omar Mohammed; Topallı, DamlaConstructing algorithms is one of the most important concepts to be learned for the first-year computer science students in learning programming. However, it is observed that most students find it challenging to construct algorithms and represent it by using a design, such as flowcharts. Based on this issue, in this thesis, it is aimed to investigate the effect of pair programming approach on the understandability of flowcharts and evaluate the progress of CS1 students in a C programming course on this topic. Pair programming is a technique which enables students to interact and communicate with their peers when working on a code or design project. Accordingly, in this thesis, an experimental study is conducted with two groups: solo and pair to better understand the effect of pair programming on defect detection performance while working on the flowcharts. Secondly, it is investigated if pair and solo groups’ performance can be classified by using classification algorithms. Finally, both groups’ progress in the course regarding the flowcharts is compared and analyzed based on a pre-test and post-test experimental design. The results of the study reveal that the pair group detects more defects correctly on the flowchart when compared to the solo group. To differentiate between solo and pair groups, after applying feature selection methods and classification algorithms, the highest accuracy obtained is approximately 70% when the decision tree (J48) and rule-based PART algorithms are applied, which is considerably low. According to the pre-test and post-test analysis results, at the beginning, there is no significant difference between those groups, but post-test results reveal that pair groups progress is higher considering the exam scores compared to the solo groups. These results may provide insight that adopting pair programming in programming courses can increase students’ motivation and success in constructing algorithms and learning programming. In future studies, it is expected that the use of this technique for software and IT companies and the creation of effective paired groups that can work in synchronization may increase the efficiency of the projects.