Epplets - Benefits
Using Epplets is expected to help students with the following:
- Ability to match code with the appropriate comment
- Learning from the feedback provided for syntactic and semantic distracters
- Appreciation for the role played by stylistic issues in understanding code -
issues such as indentation and the use of mnemonic names for variables
- Appreciation for good coding practices such as input validation,
combining cases in selection statements, preceding code with pseudocode in comments, etc.
- Learning control flow in a program through reverse engineering -
how the flow of control determines the order in which statements must appear in
a program.
- Learning data flow in a program - how a partial order is imposed on statements
in a program by the variables involved in the statements.
Typically, when writing a program, students go from algorithm to code.
In Epplets, students go from code to algorithm.
This is especially helpful when the algorithm is not obvious.
In this sense, epplets may promote computational thinking.