doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2023.13.11.1995
A Proposal of Hint Function for Java Programming Learning Assistant System
Yanhui Jing1
,
Nobuo Funabiki1,* , , ,
Htoo Htoo Sandi Kyaw2 ,
Kiyoshi Ueda3
- 1Department of Information and Communication Systems, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan.
- 2Division of Advanced Information Technology and Computer Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
- 3Department of of Computer Science Nihon University, Koriyama, Japan.
- Manuscript receivedMarch 27, 2023
- revisedApril 15, 2023
- acceptedMay 8, 2023
Abstract
Nowadays, Java is one of the world’s most used object-oriented programming languages for its dependability and portability. To assist the self-studies of novice students, we have developed the Java programming learning assistance system (JPLAS). JPLAS offers several types of exercise problems for different difficulties, including the grammar-concept understanding problem (GUP), the mistake correction problem (MCP), the element fill-in-blank problem (EFP), and the phrase fill-in-blank problem (PFP), where a question asks to answer the corresponding keyword or phrase in the given source code. Unfortunately, some students cannot solve them well as the difficulty level is ascending. In this paper, to help such students, we propose a hint function that will show the first or more characters of each correct answer word in the answer interface on a web browser for JPLAS, when requested. The use of this function by a student can be traced by a teacher to analyze the performance and problem difficulty. For evaluations, we generated three instances for GUP, MCP, EFP, and PFP respectively, and assigned them to junior students taking the Java programming course in Okayama University, Japan. Their answer results found that the proposal is effective in helping students solve exercise problems in JPLAS, but the thinking time needs to be adjusted for PFP.
Keywords
- C programming
- CPLAS
- mistake correction problem
- automatic generation
- answer interface
How to Cite
Yanhui Jing, Nobuo Funabiki, Soe Thandar Aung, Xiqin Lu, Htoo Htoo Sandi Kyaw, and Kiyoshi Ueda, "A Proposal of Hint Function for Java Programming Learning Assistant System," International Journal of Information and Education Technology, vol. 13, no. 11, pp. 1828-1834, 2023. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijiet.2023.13.11.1995
Copyright & License
Copyright © 2023 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).