Enabling independent learning of programming concepts through programming completion puzzles

Many novice programming environments use puzzle-like approaches to help novice programmers acquire new programming skills independently. Yet, little is known about 1) how puzzles can support effective learning of programming skills and 2) how learning programming using a puzzle-based approach compares to more a traditional tutorial style approach. We conducted a pair of studies to explore these two questions. First, we report lessons learned on the design of programming completion puzzles, their interface within a novice programming environment, and the design of a puzzle curriculum drawn from our first, formative study. We then report on a second study that compared the learning effectiveness of programming puzzles and tutorials. The results suggest that puzzles are a promising approach for introducing programming concepts within novice programming environments. Puzzle users performed 26% better on transfer tasks compared to tutorial users, while taking 23% less time to complete the learning materials.