How novices read source code

Abstract

Every expert was once a novice. It takes a lot of dedication and time for novices to master any programming language. What if there is an improvement in design as well as method of teaching that can foster the process of learning. In the field of Computer Science education, design of course curriculum as well as tools for learning has always been important. It is a great challenge to design and integrate new methods to teach programming, so that any Computer Science novice can learn and master necessary skills and knowledge. In this thesis, we conduct an empirical study using eye tracking equipment to understand how novices read source code in the context of two programming classes. Our main goal is to begin to understand the strategies and techniques they use to read source and their improvement in program comprehension as the course progresses. The results indicate that novices put in more effort and had more difficulty reading source code as they progress through the course. However, they are able to partially comprehend code at a later point in the course. The results also show that we did not see any shift in the stage of learning the novices are currently at, indicating that there might be more than one course that needs to be taken over the course of a few years to realize the shift. We call for more studies to further learn about this shift