Skramble: An Embeddable Python Programming Environment for Use in Learning Systems

Computing has recently been introduced as a core subject in British schools, meaning that children need to learn computer programming. Teachers have to be prepared to deliver the new curriculum and children need the correct environment and support to succeed. This paper discusses TuringLab, a challe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inComputers Supported Education Vol. 739; pp. 193 - 213
Main Authors Miskin, Henry, Gopalan, Anandha
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2017
Springer International Publishing
SeriesCommunications in Computer and Information Science
Subjects
Computer programming
Information technology
Online learning
Open source
Python programming
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Summary:Computing has recently been introduced as a core subject in British schools, meaning that children need to learn computer programming. Teachers have to be prepared to deliver the new curriculum and children need the correct environment and support to succeed. This paper discusses TuringLab, a challenge-based learning system for the Python programming language and proposes Skramble, an embeddable Python programming environment for use within existing learning systems. TuringLab has been used to teach children how to programme at a number of volunteer-led coding clubs. Children engaged well with the system, and the volunteers, who acted as teachers in these sessions, found it an extremely valuable educational tool. Skramble is an open source environment and is designed to abstract functionality such as code execution, error handling, syntax analysis, code testing, output capture and package management: allowing this feature-rich environment to be easily integrated into existing learning systems.
ISBN:9783319631837
3319631837
ISSN:1865-0929
1865-0937
DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-63184-4_11