Introduction to Robotics for Novice Users: A Case Study from Summer Schools in Greece

Abstract

The paper conveys experiences and conclusions from the organization of three summer schools aiming at introducing novice users to robotics programming. Issues related to teaching material, teaching approaches, challenges in the classroom and participant's acceptance are all examined in dedicated sections of the paper. The teaching staff’s impressions as well as the conclusions drawn from the course evaluation by the participants show that the robots can be successfully employed for introducing novice users, especially schoolchildren, to software development as well as robotic principles.