The Action Research Journey of Designing Persuasive Object- Oriented Programming Lab Assignments Framework Using
Persuasive Technology
Elly Johana Johan1*, Syahanim Mohd Salleh2, Zalilah Abd Aziz3
1 Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 13500 Permatang Pauh, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
2 Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
3 Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected] Accepted: 15 December 2021 | Published: 31 December 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/ijares.2021.3.4.16
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Abstract: The aspire of this action research is to design a persuasive object-oriented programming (OOP) lab assignments framework which benefit and appeal to students. The framework presented in this paper serves as a blue print for an action research activity to inspect how principles of persuasive technology can be adopted into undergraduate OOP lab assignments. To complete the development of the proposed framework, this research comprises of four action research cycles. The current situation analysis cycle included a theoretical study, the improvement implementation cycle included framework development and OOP lab assignment development, the review changes cycle included evaluation, and the continued action for improvement cycle included the development of E-Worksheets. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 202 students participated in this study. Data was gathered via questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and observation. Overall, each persuasive technology principle adopted in this study received an 80 percent or higher score, and students agreed that each element of the lab assignment is beneficial and appealing to them. In conclusion, this action study has shown the effectiveness of the persuasive technology principles with the integration of incremental, iterative and guided approaches to improve OOP lab assignments which benefit and appeal to students.
Keywords: programming assignment framework, persuasive technology, programming education, action research
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1. Introduction
Eckerdal and Thune (2005) as well as Thune and Eckerdal (2019) reported many students points out that the concepts of object and class are difficult to learn although they try into understanding them. Students in majority find themselves in dilemma while solving programming problems including OOP lab assignment, thus resulting poor grade as an outcome. Traditional approaches to OOP lab assignments leave students unsure about how to approach the task. It's especially challenging when the student is learning a new programming concept.
Paradigms of teaching clarify how education should be conceptualized and how assorted tools or techniques can be used in order to improve the teaching approach. Persuasive technology can motivate people to initiate a learning process, to stay on task, and then to review material as needed (Devincenzi et al., 2017).
Action research in education is a method of solving the problem of teaching objectively and systematically. It helps in the improvement of teaching process. As stated by Hopkins (2008), the action research framework is most appropriate for participants who recognize the existence of shortcomings in their educational activities and who would like to adopt some initial stance in regard to the problem, formulate a plan, carry out an intervention, evaluate the outcomes and develop further strategies in an iterative manner.
2. Research Description
One of the methods to assess students’ comprehension in learning OOP is through programming assignments which are normally conducted during lab sessions. In spite of many examples and exercises discussed during the lecture coupled with readily available references from textbooks and web portal, students continue to face problems when writing and understanding programming codes individually (Sivasakthi & Rajendran, 2011). This is quite observable for average and weak category of students (Rahmat et al., 2012).
OOP lab assignments have generally been in the form of problem-based questions with or without storytelling elements (Rodziah 2018). In most situations, the problem is the same as in textbooks and there is no guidance to help students solve it. They frequently struggle to complete OOP lab assignments because they do not completely understand the material presented during lectures, do not revise after lectures, and do not practice programming exercises prior to the lab session. Despite this, they can solve simple and straightforward problems but they are unable to complete programming assignments for advanced topics due to a lack of programming skills. Sometimes they staying stuck and did not even get close to solve the task and this scenario is similar to the study conducted by Carbone et al. (2000). They have potential, but they require guidance from lecturers as well as supporting materials related to the problem. Difficulties faced by students are challenging the ability of lecturers to produce OOP lab assignments that appeal to them.
Action research is a process designed to empower all participants (students, instructors and other parties) in the educational process with the means to improve their practices conducted within the educational experience (Hopkins, 2008). Educators are typically more encouraged to solve problems they have recognized rather than solving problems that others have identified.
Persuasive technology provides a broad platform in the use of hardware and techniques to create a more conducive learning environment in enhancing motivation and students' interest in their study. Inspired from captology (Fogg, 2003), persuasive technology in education Filippou et al. (2016) and action research approach (Carr & Kemmis, 2009), the main objective of this action study is to develop a framework of OOP lab assignments by integrating the incremental, iterative and guided approaches through the adoption of persuasive technology for the benefit of students in learning OOP.
3. Action Research Process
The foundation action for this study was scrutinizing the overall research feasibility. This study was guided along the way by an action research cycle design. The repeating cycle components were planning, action, and reflection adapted from Piggot-Irvine’s Action Research Model (Piggot-Irvine, 2006). Figure 1 depicts the four cycles required to complete the framework development. These cycles were the current situation analysis cycle, which included theoretical study, the improvement implementation cycle, which included framework development and OOP lab assignment development, the review changes cycle, which included evaluation, and the continued action for improvement cycle, which included the development of E-worksheets.
The previous cycle's reflection phase served as the planning phase for the next cycle. The four cycles will be discussed in the following section.
Figure 1: Action Research Cycle (Piggot Irvine Action Research Model, 2006)
Cycle One: Current Situation Analysis
The theoretical study was the first step in this cycle.
Theoretical Study
The theoretical study is the groundwork of every research. The key points of this phase are to get more understanding on the practice and gaps in current form of OOP lab assignments.
Limitations in previous research on OOP lab assignments were identified, as well as the elements that drive students to become stuck when performing them. Concurrently, data from current OOP lab assignments, observations of students during lab sessions, and semi-structured interviews about OOP lab assignments were gathered. The results of these activities were used to create a plan that outlined the framework that would be developed in the next cycle.
Cycle Two: Improvement Implemented
Framework Development
The framework is developed as the first step in this second cycle. The conceptual framework of OOP lab assignments was adapted the principles of Persuasive System Design (PSD) suggested by Oinas-Kukkonen and Harjumaa (2018). The PSD framework breaks down 28 persuasive technology principles into four categories or dimensions: primary task support, dialogue support, system credibility support and social support. Based on the 28 principles presented in the PSD (Oinas-Kukkonen & Harjumaa 2018) not all persuasive design principles are suitable to be adapted in this domain. After mapping the programming tasks to guided, incremental and iterative approaches, ten relevant persuasive principles were selected for adaptation in developing the OOP lab framework in this study. Five principles adopted from primary task support category were reduction, tunneling, tailoring, self- monitoring and simulation. Three principles adopted from dialogue support category were liking, suggestion and similarity. The other two design principles were expertise and cooperation adopted from system credibility support and social support category respectively. The design of the framework was reviewed by experts. This process was iteratively repeated for improvement, refinement and validation until the specifications were met. The reflection of this step was the framework that formed the basis for developing persuasive OOP lab assignments on the next step.
Persuasive OOP Lab Assignments Development
The second cycle's second step entails the development of persuasive OOP lab assignments and other relevant supporting materials using guided, incremental, and iterative approaches based on PSD's persuasive technology principles. In this study, the design of the OOP lab assignment is geared towards the scope of the Object-Oriented Programming (TK2934) syllabus in Java language.
TK2934 course is a compulsory course for second year students of the Faculty of Technology and Information Science (FTSM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). This course introduces object-oriented programming paradigm in problem solving using Java programming language. Before taking this course, the students went through two programming courses in the first year; Programming and Data Structures. Both of these courses used C++ as the programming language.
TK2934 course teaching component consists of lectures, tutorials, lab assignments and projects. Lectures are to deliver course materials and tutorials are for discussing problems related theories and concepts. In lab sessions, students were given problem-based questions and required to solve the problem by writing programs using object-oriented paradigm. For the project, students were required to design and develop a mid- sized software in groups based on the problems presented. Acquired skills in problem solving lab sessions will help students to produce good quality project.
TK2934 course begins with an introduction to Java and objects and progresses to advanced topics such as inheritance and other Java packages. Before the development process began, it requires identifying the learning outcomes for each selected topic. Next, the assignments and its supporting materials prepared on paper were reviewed by experts. The assignments and its supporting materials were comprehensively being improved and refined until the requirement was met. The reflection of this step was assignments and it supporting materials that became the plan for the evaluation on the next cycle.
Cycle Three: Review Changes
The third cycle was a review changes study, which included an evaluation process on recently developed OOP lab assignments.
Evaluation
The aim of this cycle was to evaluate the effectiveness of persuasive OOP lab assignments. It refers to the measurement phase of persuasive OOP lab assignments given to students enrolled in the TK2934 course at FTSM, UKM. Before the evaluation began, the method and criterions to evaluate the effectiveness of the new or improved forms of OOP lab assignments in terms of motivation and achievement the learning outcomes were determined. Then, the instrument of evaluation was developed. The reflection of this step was the evaluation report acted as the report and recommendations for the next cycle.
Cycle Four: Continued Action for Improvement
Following the completion of the evaluation process, it was determined that there was a need to provide a platform for students to submit their assignments. The E-Worksheet was formed on the basis of the idea. The development of E-Worksheets was a step in this cycle.
E-Worksheets Development
The step of this cycle was the process of developing E-Worksheets. As a standard procedure, it originated with description of basic requirements and specifications for developing the E- Worksheets. Following that, the process of designing the E-Worksheets began by developing it as a platform for students to submit their assignments. The reflection of this cycle were the E-Worksheets that have been through the process of revision, improvement and refinement. In this study, action research comes to an end at this cycle when the research objectives are met.
4. Method
This study employs a mix of data, quantitative and qualitative approaches. From the first to the fourth cycles, qualitative data was collected using semi-structured interview and observation methods, while quantitative data was collected using questionnaires in the third cycle. This integrated research is able to describe the research problems in this study in great depth. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be used to support the study's findings.
Participants
The respondents in this study were enrolled students in the FTSM, UKM, who took the Java language, TK2934 course.
5. Data Collection
A research instrument is a tool that is used to collect data in order to achieve the study's objectives. The instruments used to collect data are classified as quantitative or qualitative. The quantitative approach was carried out using questionnaires, while the qualitative approach was carried out using semi-structured interviews and observations. This approach is used in this study to obtain findings that also serve to improve understanding of a data and facts study.
Instrument 1: Observation
Observational practices are an essential characteristic of many action research studies and of case studies whether undertaken by participants or outsiders (Hannan & Kelly, 2006).
or individuals. In undisguised observation, the observed individuals know that the observer is present for the purpose of collecting information about their behaviour. In this action research, the behaviour of students during the two hours lab sessions were observed. The aspects of observations include how they dealt with the problems given, the level of commitment and motivation shown during the lab sessions and the time taken by students to complete each level of the assignments. This observation is used to demonstrate that the students did not become stuck when completing the persuasive OOP lab assignments.
Instrument 2: Semi-Structured Interview
Interviews are broadly used because they are a powerful means of both obtaining information and the availability of ready interviewees. Semi- structured interviews were used because it is open, allowing new ideas to be brought up during the interview as a result of what the interviewee says. It gave an idea of the personality, understandings and experience of the interviewee. Semi-structured interviews were being used in this study to obtain expert opinions from a variety of perspectives both before and after the development of the persuasive OOP lab assignments framework. The experts are lecturers from various Malaysian universities who have been teaching programming for over 15 years. Based on the experiences they have, they emphasized the importance and significance of developing persuasive OOP lab assignments framework for the benefits and appeals to students in learning OOP. Furthermore, this interview includes students in order to better understand their needs and interests in learning OOP. Students who participated in the lab sessions were chosen at random for their spontaneous response to the effectiveness of persuasive OOP lab assignments assigned to them.
Instrument 3: Questionnaires
Questionnaires were employed as devices to collect information about respondents’ view on how strongly they agree or disagree with a statement given. Online questionnaires were chosen because of its' advantages over some other types of surveys in that they are easily accessible, economical, do not require as much effort from the researcher as verbal or telephone surveys do, and often have consistent answers that make it simple to compile data (Phellas et al., 2011).
The purpose of the surveys was to collect the students' experiences and reflections about engaging in this action research in terms of the structure of the new OOP lab assignments, supporting materials offered, level of acceptance and knowledge of the assignments given to them. The Subject Coordinator sent an email informing student about the survey. Participation was entirely voluntary. The survey was completed by 190 students for this study. This course had 202 students enrolled, which represents a high response rate of 94 percent of the respondents.
6. The New Structure of OOP Lab Assignments
The new structure of persuasive OOP lab assignment differs from traditional assignments in that it is rich in description, instruction, and supplied material. The new structure of persuasive OOP lab assignment comprises several sections:
➢ Title
➢ OO Focused Concepts
➢ Background Information
➢ What is this exercise about ...
➢ What should I know to be able to do this exercise...
➢ What will I learn from this programming exercise...
➢ What resources are provided …
➢ What do I need to do ...
The final section of "What do I need to do" was presented using incremental (stages), iterative and guided approaches. Each stage was the expansion of the previous stage until the complete program is developed to solve the problem described in the section "What is this exercise about ...".
The assignment for Lab 2: Objects is an example of OOP lab assignments which is designed based on the framework of persuasive OOP lab assignments and implemented using Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE). In this lab, students will eventually produce a Java program which displays a complex graphics scene involving texts, lines, ovals and polygons.
The assignment was divided into several smaller phases in stages so that it could be completed using incremental, iterative and guided approaches. Each section of the assignment was an adoption of persuasive technology principles. For example, the "Title" of a lab assignment helps students to get a comprehensive idea about the assignment and this section is associated to the principle of expertise under system credibility support category. This principle highlight that assignments come with current, relevant, and well-coordinated information will have a greater potential to persuade. While section "What do I need to do ..." (which refers to the process need to do step by step to complete the assignments) helps students deal with the complexity of the task and help them begin writing programs is related to reduction / simplified principle under primary task support category. This principle lay emphasis on an assignment that reduces complex behaviour into simple tasks helps students perform the target behaviour.
Thus, for every element in the assignment has been designed relative to the principles of persuasive technology. The assignment for Lab 2: Objects is posted on the website, along with a link to the notes, videos, and other resources.
7. Findings
This section is an analysis of the findings of the data collection before and after the framework was developed.
Framework Pre-Development: Semi Structured Interview
Initial information was gathered prior to the development of the framework process was started.
The dominant instruments used in preparation for the development of this framework is through semi-structured interviews. Interview involves the estimations of experts on the relevance of developing persuasive OOP lab assignments framework for students in learning OOP. In addition, this interview also involves students in order to understand their needs and interests in learning OOP. Here are the findings from the interviews that were conducted:
➢ In practice, students who are having difficulty answering lab assignments will be guided through consultation sessions with a maximum of 5 students at a time. The issue is that some students have dropped out of the consultation session due to time constraints on the part of both instructors and students. As a result, it is critical to find an approach in the assignment that provides students with detailed guidelines. Through this approach, students seem to undergo a process of 'consultation' while answering the lab assignments.
➢ The learning style of today's students are visual in nature, filled with animated elements and all the information at their fingertips. As a boost of motivation in learning a programming course, visual elements such as animation and video that appeal to their
➢ It has been observed that traditional programming assignments do not seem to pique the interest of many students in learning programming. One of the reasons argued to contribute towards this is that educators fail to deliver in ways that engage or motivate students to learn the skill. The instructors come from a different paradigm, no doubt will happen disorders paradigms and technological obstacles in the process of adapting the latest paradigm in accordance with the lifestyle of today's students. However, it is more difficult to bring the students to the past paradigm. We as educators need to make sacrifices in the transformation of teaching and learning parallel and appeals to their paradigm.
Framework Post-Development: Observation
Observations made during one semester of study in which students participated in six lab sessions of the new structure OOP lab assignments. Each lab session lasted two hours. The findings from the observations are listed below.
➢ The majority of students make the most of the two-hour lab sessions in order to complete the assignment. Students appear to be more motivated, and they devote their full attention to the assignment rather than browsing unrelated websites like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram during the lab session.
➢ The approach of persuasive OOP lab assignments, initiated students working early and those who did so are much more likely to complete the assignment they have already in progress. They had a better understanding of what they were doing, so it was easier for them to get started and not get stuck on the assignment.
➢ Students gained confidence in interacting with instructors and knew exactly what to ask of a given assignment. They used the supporting material, video presentation, as a point of reference in writing programming code and were eager to show the results that had been successfully produced for each stage.
Framework Post-Development: Questionnaires
The survey was completed by 190 of the 202 students who attended the six lab sessions during a semester for the Object-Oriented Programming (TK2934) course that applies the principles of persuasive technology. A variety of perspectives were gathered which covered the assignment structure, supported material provided, level of acceptance, and their understanding of the assignment. The survey results that have been analyzed are listed below.
➢ Overall, each persuasive technology principle adopted in this study received an 80 percent or higher score, and students agreed that each element of the lab assignment is beneficial and appealing to them. This suggests that students prefer lab assignments that are guided, incremental, and iterative, as well as rich in visual elements and other relevant supporting material.
➢ The short completion period of each stage formulated students to feel a sense of incremental achievement. It can enhance their confidence and they believe in their capabilities and abilities to complete the programming tasks. It can prevent boredom and pressure when dealing with syntax errors that have to be addressed when writing extensive programming code at once.
➢ A video is one of the supporting materials that has a strong persuasive impact on students.
While the video is only one component of the overall structure of the lab assignment, students responded positively to it. In comparison to text-based materials and static images alone, video is an important component in assisting students in acquiring information (Harun & Abidin, 2010).
8. Conclusion
The major goal of this study is to develop lab assignment framework for an object-oriented programming course that uses persuasive technology as an alternative to traditional OOP teaching and learning methods. Through the findings stated, the 10 persuasive concepts derived from PSD in this study had a positive impact on students. Five principles adopted from primary task support category were reduction, tunneling, tailoring, self-monitoring and simulation.
Three principles adopted from dialogue support category were liking, suggestion and similarity. The other two design principles were expertise and cooperation adopted from system credibility support and social support category respectively.
This study employs the action research approach due of its significance in the domain of education and very closely related to this study's goal of developing a framework of OOP lab assignments by integrating incremental, iterative, and guided approaches through the use of persuasive technology. According to Lomax (1994), action research is educational research and in contrast to research in education where action research is based on innovation in education that allows educators to innovate and change in education and in this study, it refers to improvements in the teaching and learning process of OOP programming.
As conclusion, this action study has shown the effectiveness of the persuasive technology principles with the integration of incremental, iterative and guided approaches to improving OOP lab assignments which benefit and appeal to students. Maintaining student motivation to continue studying, especially in an OOP context, is both interesting and gratifying.
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