A Review of Virtual Programming Laboratory: Design Issues
Abstract - With the wave of COVID-19 lockdown, most schools have moved their learning support to virtual platforms, while most of these learning systems are there to provide theoretical materials, video lectures, evaluation system and other services to support the classroom work, the practical classes have not enjoyed these level of transition eitherbecauselimitedknowledgeinthisareaswhencompared with the classroom or insistence of most school authorities to transition to these platforms. In this study, different implementations of virtual programming laboratory by different schools were x-rayed with a view to understand where each of the proposed system can be best applied. Schoolswhoareyettoprovidevirtualprogrammingplatform can do so to increase the learning curve of their students as well expose them to costly high-end devices from the comfort of their low end mobile devices.
Key Words: Online Coding, Programming laboratory, Virtual Programming Laboratory (VPL), Cloud-based laboratory,Programminglanguages
1. INTRODUCTION
This The current traction drawn by IT companies in the global market and the salary derivation of programmers even in the most dwindling economies of the world have pushedalotofyouthsaroundtheworldandmostlyinAfrica toventureintoprogrammingcareer.Alotofstudentfromall overtheworldareannuallyenrolledintothecomputingor information technology courses in various institution of higherlearning.[1]
The challenge is that so many schools in Nigeria teach programming basically as a white board practice in the classroom with few occasions of hands-on training in the laboratories burdened with few working computers; inverselyproportionaltotheadmittedstudentscombined withinconsistent powersupply.
Thoughmostofthegraduateshaveexcusedthemselvesfrom skill development in the programming community even graduatesofcomputerscience,someofthemhavecontinued to leverage in the versatility of mobile devices to position themselves for choice opportunities in the programming community.
Similarly,someinstitutions havedeclined theiradmission ratetoonlyaccommodatethenumberofworkingcomputers in programming labs others have continued to proffer
alternativestophysical andfacetofaceon-handstraining usingvirtualplatform.
Inthisstudy,amexplorationofsometheplatformsusedby different institutions to meet their demands in teaching programming courses is presented as well as their limitationsandstrength.Theoutcomeofthisstudyistohelp institutions make inform decisions on appropriate coding laboratory that meets their peculiar budget and expected curriculumwerenecessary.
2. An Overview
2.1 Virtual Programming Laboratory: Terminology and Definitions
VirtualProgrammingLaboratory(VPL)isaprogramming laboratorythatallowstudentstoperformtheirprogramming assignmentinremotelocationoutsidethespecifiedpractical roomsandatnospecificlabhours.
Thetermvirtuallabcanbetracedtothestudyby[2]in which CS1 and CS2 course were taught in Villanova University at public sites without a reserved room in the schoolforon-handstrainingandaspecifiedlaboratoryhours. This was to overcome the problem of proper classroom facilityatthatperiod.
[3]recognizedvirtuallabsasane-learningactivitywhose outcome can be both useful at applying knowledge and evaluating knowledge. And it can be offered to both synchronousandasynchronousplatformeitherallowingboth theteacherandthelearnertobeonlineatagiventimeorat differenttimes.
Other terms for Virtual Programming Laboratory are online coding, remote coding, coding without computers, mobile touch device coding, virtual programming environments
Most virtual laboratories comprised of two major components namely: the laboratory lessons and the code editor. The teacher prepares and publishes the laboratory lessonsforthestudentstostudythroughontheirown.After studyingthelessons,thestudentsareexpectedtopractice whattheyhavedonebywritingtheappropriatecodesthat will demonstrate that a particular programming skill has beenacquired.
The aim of the virtual laboratory is to provide a laboratoryexperiencefordistance(orremote)studentswho
may not have the opportunity to practice what they have learnt theoretically or to provide a low cost and efficient virtualplatformthatwillallowschoolstodopracticalonhigh costhardwareorrobots.
In this study we reviewed different implementations of virtualprogramminglaboratorybydifferentschoolswitha view to exposed the circumstance behind their implementations,theirstrengthandthelimitations
2.2 Virtual Programming Laboratory (VPL) - Design
Several workshavebeendoneonthesubjectofvirtual laboratorysystem.Someoftheseworksincludetheoneby [4]whereanin-housevirtuallabappcalledLEFT1wasuseto teachPHPserversidescriptingtostudents.LEFT1comprised of two major parts, the administration and application management component and the student workspace component.WithLEFT1whichisaweb-basedapplication, the students need not to install Apache Web Server and MySQLonthecomputerssinceitisinstalledintheserver.
Furthermore,[5]designedandimplementednewsystem ofprogrammingparsonproblemusingmobiletouchdevices. Theirnewsystemwhichfallsbetweenrigidscaffoldingand real coding exercise tries to eliminate the problem of restrictedthinkingandlimitedcreativityimposedbythedrag anddropsystemofscaffolding.Usingrealcodingexercise,the students were exposed to the syntax and semantics of programming.
[6] also developed an in-house web application that allowsstudentstoperformlaboratoryexerciseonJavascript, HTMLandPHPlanguageovertheInternetfromthecomfort oftheirchoicelocations.Theirsystemcompilesprogramona node.jsserver;wherealsothesubmittedprogramisstored andmarked.
[7] proposed the use of VPL in teaching algorithm and programming(APROG).Thiswillinvolvetheintegrationof VPLintotheexistingMOODLEoftheschool.UsingtheVPL, the scoring and plagiarism test of submitted codes was automated.Thoughmoretimewererequiredtosetupthe VPLenvironment.
[8] used a game called PROSOLVE to improve the programmingskillsofstudents.PROSOLVEcombinedboth gamification andscaffoldingtechniques. With gamification technique, students efforts to learn programming were rewarded with bonus, points and marks; the scaffolding allowedpseudo-codestobearrangedappropriatelybythe students. The result of their study proved that including gamification in learning will increase the students enthusiasmtolearn;however,the notmuchattentionwas giventolearningtheprogrammingsyntaxorsemantics.
[9]developedanonlinecodingenvironment,CodingHere, for learning programming. It has some security features,
whichoperatesaLinuxdeamon,topreventthevisitorfrom runningmaliciousontheserver.Itcouldalsodetecterrors andcodingpatternsinthesourcecode.Theenvironmentwas builtusingGolanguageandClanguage.ItintegratesDocker containerandsomeLinuxservices.
[10] used Google Collaboratory cloud services both to prepare the students on computer programming for the unified state exam; and to teach computer programming course to high school students. Using the interactive notebooksoftheGooglecollaboratorycloudservices(GCCS), theteacherscanbothteachandprovideanonhandspractical fortopicscoveredinPythonlanguage.Theresultofthestudy provedGCCStobeeffective.
[11] wanted to overcome the challenge that new programmersfacelearningprogrammingespeciallychildren between8-16years,thisledthemtodevelopscratch.The scratch environment which is built with squeak language allowsnewprogrammerstowriteprogramsusuallygames bysimplyarrangingblocksofcodescorrectlysimilartothe LEGO bricks played by most children. Different control structureshavedifferentshapestoprovewheretheycanbe plugged. This is the same for different operator and argumentsofafunction.
Thescratchprojectisbothanopensourceprojectwith lotsofexistingprojectsontheirwebsite;andacommunitydrivenprojectwheremembersofthecommunityuploadand sharetheirprojecttoeithergetvotedfororcommentedon.
In other to promote computer programming in rural communities in Japan where there are little or no teacher withprogrammingproficiency,[12]developedarogue-like mathematical game to teach pupils and teachers in elementary school scratch programming. Using the design conceptswhichcoversdigitaltechnology,programeducation andartificialintelligence,theteachersandthepupilswhere tolearnprogrammingbyimitatingorreproducinganexisting gameonscratchwebsite.Byprogrammingthepositionsand movementsoftheobjectsinthegame,thestudentswereto integrate their mathematical knowledge in other to save a princessfromaroguedragon.
Thescratchprojectisbothanopensourceprojectwith lotsofexistingprojectsontheirwebsite;andacommunitydrivenprojectwheremembersofthecommunityuploadand sharetheirprojecttoeithergetvotedfororcommentedon. Thesetwoconceptshavehelpedtodrivetheprogramming motivationamongstyoungagedchildreninUnitedStatesand Europe. However, scratch does not have a mobile version; andisyettoprogramphysicaldevices[11].
[13]introducedSololearnaspartoftheirlearningtoolsto their students Zhytomyr Polytechaic State University, Ukraine,inothertooverboththechallengesoftheCOVID-19 lockdownandtheRussia/Ukrainewar.UsingSololearn,the engineering students were taught fundamentals of
programmingwithemphasisinclanguage.Sololearnhasa mobile version meaning that students don’t really need laptop to use it. It has both free and paid PRO version. Sololearn provided both theoretical lessons on several languageswithtestquestionswhichcouldeitherbeobjective, subjective or scaffold (block-based). With Sololearn code editor,thestudentspracticedwhatthelearntrightfromtheir mobile devices. As a community-based project, Sololearn allowedmemberstoberewardedandrecognizedbysharing projects, answering questions, and sending questions. However, just like scratch, Sololearn owns the codes submittedbyitsusersanddoesnotprovideprivacyofthese codestoavoidcodeplagiarism.
Githubisthemostpopularcloudserviceforhostingand managingopensourcesoftware.WithGithubdeveloperscan collaborateoncode,manageversion,performbugtracking andintegrateadditionalservices.AlsoGithubprovidesacode editor to run programs online. Due to its ability to track changesinacoderepository,mostteachersareusingGithub totrackthecontributionsofindividualstudentsinagroup programmingassignment[14].
Github is currently used by over 500,000 students and 5,000 teachers. [15] conducted a study to identify more features for its increased adoption in the programming community to include its popularity, the high demand of Githubskillsinthemarket,theabilitytointegratethird(3rd) partyintegrateddevelopmentenvironment(IDE)likeEclipse and VSCode, and the possibility of sharing professional portfolioonGithubwhenapplyingforjobs.
ThoughGithubcannotbeclassifiedafull-fledgedlearning managementsystem(LMS)becauseofitsinabilitytocheck forplagiarism,managestudentgradebookoreventrackthe learningcoverageofthestudent,usingthewikis,staticsites, thecodeeditorandtheversioncontrol[15]usedGithubto teachJavaprogramming,objectorientedprogrammingand design,andfreshmancourseonprogramming.Studentswere givengroupprojectsandalsoaskedtocorrectothergroup projects with bugs. In other to protect public view, submissionsweremadeusingprivaterepositories.Though [15] did to evaluate if the exercise improved the students performance,theresultoftheirstudyshowsthatthestudents are more likely to continue using Github as most of them were seen using it to run their practical in subsequent semesters.
Roboticprogrammingisusedbymostnationsastheentry pointofcomputerforstudentsincollegeduetoitsabilityto engage the students more, behaviorally and emotionally, whencomparedtootherformsofprogramming.Howeverthe overhead cost of an average classroom robot kits poses a challengeforpoorlyfundedschools.[16]usediPadsoftware, ARtonomous, to provide a low cost virtual alternative to these high cost learning kits. In addition, reinforcement learning (RL) was introduce to the students to raise the
curiosityofthestudentsinstudyingartificialintelligence,an areaofcomputerscienceinhighdemandofskillemployees.
Using ARtonomous, the students were to create both a virtualrobot,schoolbus;andthetrackonwhichtherobotwill run on. The robot will be testedand trainedon the drawn tracks;afterwhichthestudentsweretowritecodesinswift thatwillenabletheschoolbusrobottoconveystudentsalong apredefinedtrack.Ateachpointofinteraction,theiPadapp was always interacting with the remote server for both trainingofthemodelsandexecutionofthecodes.
In a similar study, [17] used two block-based programminglanguage,scratchandLEGOrobots,toprogram physical robots, and virtual game sprite, respectively. The studentswereallowedtocreateprojectswithbothlanguages and the engagement level of the students was tested. The resultoftheevaluationprovedthatbothlanguagescanbethe usedforengagingthestudentsandthatthevirtualplatform provedtobeeasierforthestudents.
Most of the authors proposed and implemented theirs usingtheopensourcesoftwaremodule,VPL.Theseallowed institutionswhichwerealreadyusingMOODLEtointegrate thevirtuallabintoanenvironmenttheywerealreadyused to.
3. METHODOLOGY
Several works have been done on the subject of virtual laboratory (or online coding) with the aim of providing virtualsituationofaphysicalprogramminglaboratory.Inthis studyweusedbothGoogleScholarandsemanticScholarto identify thirteen (13) different proposed virtual programming (or online coding) systems dated between 2008and2023fromdifferentjournals.However,forthesake of simplicity ten (10) of the systems which have a known namewereselectedfortabularpresentation.
The aim of the review is to understand the different implementationsoftheproposedsystemwithrespecttotheir aimofstudy,supportedlanguage,platformsupported,typeof coursematerialsupported,thetypeofevaluationprovidedby thesesystemsandtheserviceonwhichtheyarehosted.
3.1 Findings
The table below highlights the various proposed virtual laboratorysystemusedbythedifferentauthorsreviewed:
1 2008 Bucus, Dragulescu and Termaucu
To allow students test and implement webbasedapps writteninPHP
Reviewedpapers
4 2018 Anguloand Aktunc
5 2019 Mathew, Malik and Tawafak
To prepare collegestudents forunityexams
7. 2022 Wang Tohelpprovide programming platforms for poorly funded schoolsinJapan
8 2022 Wang, J. Liang, J. & Chang
To create an online judgement system with additional features to aid students in programming
9 2022 Dietz,etal Toovercomethe overheadcostof robotkitsandto buils their enthusiasm in artificial intelligence
10 2023 Vakaliuk,et al To support studentsduring the lockdown and the Ukraine/Russia war
PROSOLVE
Google Colaborator y (Google Colab)
Roguegame using scratch
Support languages whose translator can be installed in thejailserver.
defined
Incorporati on of VPL plugin into MOODLE Projectbased Wifi
web N/A Projectbased wifi
Over 40 languages includingPython,R, andJava.
Web, desktop and mobile
-teacher
defined Project based with version control
Projectbased Wifi
Teacher defined Project based with version ontrol
Internet
Scratch web Platform defined Projectbased Internet
CodingHere Python,CandC++ web Teachergenerated Random generated test case
Internet
ARtonomou s Swift mobile N/A -projectbased -wifi
MOOC sololearn` JavaScript, CSS, HTML,\C,SQL,PHP, Ruby, Swift 4, C#, jQuery, Java, C++, Kotlin,R,Go
Mobile Platform approved -multichoice -subtheory -testcase -projectbased
Internet
4. Discussion
From table1 above, it can be observed that ten (10) differentsolutionshasbeenidentified;thisinclude:LEFTI, integration of virtual programming laboratory (VPL) plugin with modular object-oriented digital learning environment (MOODLE), Github, Massive open online courses(MOOCS)Sololearn,Googlecolaboratory(colab), ARtonomous,CodingHere,GameusingScratch,PROSOLVE game,andVP-Lab.
Apart from the PROSOLVE and the scratch game which uses code blocks, the rest were introduced to allow the newprogrammerlearnprogrammingbyhardcodingthe programsyntax.
Whenitcomestoevaluationwhichisacriticalcomponent of learning, systems like Github, Google Colab, ARtonomous,andLEFTIadoptsasynchronousevaluation usingprojectbasedevaluationsuchthatthestudentswill beevaluatedmanuallybytheteacheraftersubmissionof project that been made. In addition, Github and Google Colabusesversioncontroltodeterminewhereacodehas been changed. With this the teacher can give group assignmentandmonitorthecontributionsofeachmember ofthegroup.
However,CodingHere,Sololearn,andVPLpluginautomatic evaluationofstudentsworkusingtestcaseexercises.The questionsaresetandthetestcasesaresubmittedtothe judgmentsystemstoautomatetheevaluationprocess.This willhelpthestudenttogetinstantfeedbackaswellasto appreciate his/her effort in the exercise. Sololearn even took it further by introducing multi-choice questions, block-basedquestionsandsubjectivequestions.Withthis thestudents’knowledgeofthecourseiswhollytested.
The choice of platform is a major determinant when it comestoprogrammingbecausemostoftheprogrammers areyoungpeoplewhowouldalwaysbewiththeirphones. So getting something that works with the phone is very crucial. Software can be developed to support three (3) main platforms: mobile, web, and desktop. Six of the solutions (CodingHere, VPL plugin, PROSOLVE, LEFTI, Scratch game and VP-Lab) reviewed support only web; ARtonomous support mobile (ipad); while three others (Github, Google Colab amd Sololearn) support all three platforms(mobile,webanddesktop).
Therearetwocategoriesoflanguagesupportidentifiedin thesesystem:thepre-installedlanguagesolutions(VP-Lab, PROSOLVE, LEFTI, Sololearn, Scratch game, CodingHere andARtonomous);andthe user-installedsolutions(VPL plugin, Google Colab and Github). The pre-installed languagesupportsolutionsiseasytousebecauseitdoes not require the user to set the language environment; however,hasafixedsetofprogramminglanguagethatit cansupport.Theuser-installedsolutionscomeswithsome
initialsetupdifficultiesbecausetheuserhavetosetupthe codingenvironmentonthecloud(orInternet);however,it allowsasmanylanguageastheuserwishtosetup.PHPis themostsupportedlanguage;whileSwiftandScratchare theleast.
LEFTI,PROSOLVE,VP-LabandARtonomousdoesnothave provisionforcoursematerial.Sololearnistheonlysolution in the ten that comes with predefined course materials; othersusesthematerialsprovidedbytheteacher.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Theneedforavirtualprogramminglaboratorycanbeseen in its attempt to reduce the burden of buying costly hardware materials, the allow the students to continue doing programming exercises outside the physical laboratory,toallowthestudentsgetautomaticfeedbackon his/hercodingexercises;toallowtheteachertoremotely track the contributions of a each student in a group assignment;ortoeradicatetheneedforastudenttosetup thedevelopmentenvironmentfromhislocaldevice.The need to also introduce the concept of redundant componentwhendevelopingthevirtuallaboratorycanbe helpful especially when there are network failures for whateverreason.[18]
In this study, several journal articles on virtual programmingsolutionswerereviewoutofwhichtenwas selected.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (Optional)
TheauthorswishtoacknowledgeTertiaryEducationTrust Fund(TETFUND)fortheirgranttowardtheactualization ofthisresearch.
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