GroupB
GroupC
GroupD
GroupE
GroupF
GroupG
pizza_friend
Atelier Hands-On Training
Overview
This hands-on workshop explores the tool Atelier that was developed to support feedback in programming tutorials. Our teaching philosophy for programming is based on a tinkering approach, that is characterised by playful exploration, driven by curiosity. Students define from the start their own assignments, given only a set of ingredients to use. The role of a teacher is to provide starting points, explain the first steps to take, and to get students unstuck when necessary. This approach puts students in a very active position but is also very feedback intensive.
To support giving feedback and to reduce inconsistencies in feedback given by teaching assistants (TAs), we developed a tool, Atelier, that allows to give comments on code and share this with the respective student, and also with TAs and teachers.
The hands-on activity will start with an introduction, followed by an online tutorial lecture with some simple programming assignments. Participants will take the role of students as well as TAs and use Atelier to give and receive feedback. After two rounds of programming exercises, we will evaluate the tool with the participants and discuss its use and place in programming education.
Introduction
During the warm-up competition ask participants, in a plenary session, to complete the following tasks..
- Find a submission
- Add a comment
- Find a comment
- Add a reply
- Tag a person
- Find a person's submissions
- Make their own submission.
Use the pizza friend for this warming-up exercise. Let the participants explore the interface themselves. You may turn it into a competition where participants earn a point for each task completed.
Philosophy
The reason for this workshop and the Atelier tool in general is to encourage teamwork among TA’s which in turn will lead to consistency in feedback. This will create a better experience for TA’s, but also for students as they receive documented feedback.
Preparing
The presenter will hand out a link for you to follow, that will give you access to Atelier. You will be presented with a login screen. Select external login, enter a email address. You will get an email with a login course that is valid for 5 minutes. Once you confirm your email you will have access to the Hands-on activity.
Planning
The hands-on activity takes about 1 hour of time, and is planned as follows:
0:00 | Short introduction |
0:05 | Small warm-up competition |
0:15 | Show of features and answering any questions |
0:20 | Assigning the groups of 4 and explanation of the assignment |
0:25 | Roleplay assignment |
0:50 | Discussion |
1:00 | End |
The main activity is the Roleplay assignment where you will be assigned to play a role, either as student or teaching asstant. The next section will explain the different roles.
Roleplay assignment
Personas
During the role lay different participants assume one of the following roles:
Alice
Alice has been a TA for several years now, because of her experience she pretty much always knows what to do or what to say, however she is not afraid to keep learning and improving. Alice practices the following:
Gives elaborate feedback, that leaves some thinking to the student (she doesn’t spoil the answer)
She uses all the #’s and @’s to show her work and the students’ with others
She asks for feedback from the students to see if they fully understand what she is explaining
She uses Atelier to expand on other TA’s feedback that might not always be completely clear.
Bob
Bob is a new TA this year. He is very excited, but also a bit scared. He is really skilled in the subject, but still might need to learn a thing or two about conveying that knowledge to the students. Bob does the following:
- He gives short feedback, that is technically sound, but might not be as understandable to the students
- If he doesn’t know how a certain question should be answered, he is not afraid to ask other TA’s to help out
- He uses Atelier to document his feedback and to expand his TA skills by interacting with other TA’s
Carol
Carol and Dave are working together on their project. Carol is new to programming. She really wants to learn, but is a bit overwhelmed by this new skill. She is a bit shy and when she gets feedback she doesn’t quite understand she just nods and continues on. She is looking for a TA that will take their time answering her questions in a way that she can’t only solve that one particular problem, but also (similar) problems in the future.
- Her help request was “I want to drag it, but it doesn’t move. Help!”
Dave
Dave is working with Carol. Dave has some prior programming experience. He grasps all the concepts, but might sometimes still need help. He thinks he can do everything by himself, so he might not always ask (the right) questions, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have any. Dave is looking for a TA that can explain concepts and problems on his level, maybe just some pointers can be enough for Dave.
- His request “I tried to use an array, but that is impossible with classes”
Programs
Participants can use the attached programs to upload and comment. There are programs for 7 groups, but you can reuse them if necessary.
Provide them with the links or files. Alternatively, to save time on uploading a program, you can upload them before hand on Atelier, and just point the participants to their submission.
Discussion
After the main session conduct a discussion in the plenary session. These are topics to discuss
- Students
- What benefits does a student have from getting written feedback?
- What type of feedback does help a student most?
- What to avoid when giving feedback?
- How could students use it for work within a team?
- Teaching assistants
- How could you use the feedback feature to better help the student?
- When and why would you share automated feedback?
- What benefit would a teaching assistant get from seeing other comments?
- What benefits can they get from sharing comments?
- Tool
- Which part of the tool felt intuitive?
- Which need further work?
- What features would you like to see?
- How can it be used in tutorials?
- How can it be used outside of tutorials?
If you ave any comments after completing the hands-on activity, please contact us.