Evaluation of a Practice System Supporting Distributed Practice for Novice Programming Students

Abstract

Programming is an important skill in the 21st century, but it is difficult for novices to learn. To help students practice and learn efficiently, the authors developed a mobile platform called Daily Quiz, which incorporated distributed practice theory. To evaluate the impact of distributed practice in programming learning facilitated by Daily Quiz, the authors conducted a between-subject experiment with 200 freshmen divided into two groups. Both groups received the same number of multiple-choice questions via Daily Quiz. However, the control group was encouraged to practice every 7 days, whereas the experimental group was encouraged to practice every 3 days. The results showed that this simple manipulation significantly improved the experimental group’s performance on final exams. Further analysis revealed that the experimental group of students achieved a higher rate of first-check correctness and tended to be more engaged in academic social interaction. Finally, a behavioral sequence analysis was adopted to compare the behavioral patterns of the two groups to investigate how distributed practice helped the students learn more efficiently.