Supporting Learners in Online Courses Through Pair Programming and Live Coding

Pair programming has been shown to be a beneficial and popular technique for engaging students and improving learning outcomes in programming and related classes. While using pair programming in a collocated classroom setting is relatively straightforward, there is a strong lack of good tools and options for distributed classroom settings. The growth of such classes, from small structured seminars to massive open online courses (MOOCs), and the isolation and impoverished learning experience some students report in these, points to an urgent need for tools that support remote pair programming in a distributed educational setting. This paper explores the requirements and needs of online learners in Computer Science through a literature survey. To validate these requirements, we implement a collaborative development environment aimed at improving the learning experience through pair programming and a tights code-artifact feedback loop. We conclude by presenting the results of a user study in both collocated and distributed classroom settings.