C++ Programming Students

It's strange that I'm the only tutor for our Computer Science and Information Systems department, but I can live with that. What irks me though, is how these students come to gain their knowledge about programming.

To be fair I will not mention names, and not blame anyone. I truly believe this to be a simple matter of miscommunication, and easily solved. I also feel that the scope of these classes needs to be monitored a little more closely, and what follows is simply what I understand the classes should teach in an introductory programming class, and my understanding of what is being taught in our introductory programming classes.

The classes in question are our first introductory classes to C++, and then our follow up course. These courses together should leave the student comfortable with the basic constructs and built-ins of C++. It should also make them comfortable with classes, and working in an OOP(Object Oriented Programming) paradigm. The problem crops up in the transition between these two classes. It seems (and this I know because of my tutees) that their understanding of the basics gets muddled in the first class, and thus they cannot build upon this knowledge in the second class. I have heard many things about what may be happening wrong in this class to cause such a terrible calamity, but let us refocus and start by going over what should be covered in the first class in order to succeed in the following class and throughout the whole program.

In an introductory programming class it should be important for students to become familiar with functions, control structures, and various keywords (not all of them mind you just most of them). Thus they should be comfortable looking through a piece of code like the following, and have an understanding of the majority of it:

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int factorial(int n)
{
    if (n == 0)
        return 1;
    return n * factorial(n - 1);
}

int main(int argc, char argv[])
{
    if (argc != 2)
    {
        cerr << "You must pass a number to get the factorials!" << endl;
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }
    int n = argv[1] + 1;
    while (--n, n > 0)
        cout << "The factorial of " << n << " is " << factorial(n) << "." << endl;
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

They should also be able to understand Makefiles (rudimentary Makefiles not automake or anything of its ilk), header files vs. source files, the stages of compiling and how to deal with different errors in each (i.e. A linking error versus a compilation error), and they should understand array mechanics (if not exactly what they are then how to use them). They should be able to put all of this together, and make a nice modular program that allows them to expand and reuse code in an intelligent way. Then if there is time (although this gets covered in great detail in the second class) a quick coverage of structs should ensue. At this point the education they should have gained from the first class should be enough of the basics that they understand the constructs of the langauge, and can start reading simple programs like the one above.

In reality, this goal (mind you this is my personal goal and does not reflect the goals of the professors or the department) was not met, and based on experience with people I'm tutoring who are in the second class at this time it is quite obvious where their shortcomings are. Those shortcomings are outlined below:

• Lack of understanding about the looping control structures
• Lack of knowledge as to how arrays function, and should be used
• Lack of knowledge as to how the compiler actually takes the source code (possibly spread over many files), and makes an executable
• Lack of understanding as to how to solve simple problems like manipulating all the entries of an array
• Lack of understanding as to how to do a simple search, or utilize functions provided in an API(Advanced Programming Interface).

This list will be updated appropriately as I gain more knowledge on what the students actually know. Thus this list may have inaccuracies and shortcomings, and may not reflect reality.

The list goes in in much the same fashion here after, and this is obviously a product of the class not fulfilling its primary purpose of laying down a foundation that the students can build on. To better achieve this goal it may be necessary to at the very least recommend some supplemental texts (see list at the end of this article for recommended books for the various programming courses).

Now, what I've heard reports of in this class is that (1) these concepts outlined above are not getting covered in the detail that is required of them in the subsequent classes (which only confirms what I've observed in students), and (2) there has been a report that a new teaching tool "Alice" was used in the introduction class.

The first point appears to be just a shortcoming of the class, and could be ameliorated by simply spending more time and going over more examples of the concepts in question.

Also, the students themselves need to realize that they control their education, and must participate for a class to truly be successful for them. When entering a class, students should think to themselves what do I want from this class, and how can I have this class help me achieve that goal? By asking questions and looking for more material on the specific area of study the student is interested in they can get a much more fulfilling experience and better understanding of the topics involved, but may hit a point where they just can't keep up with the class and need further assistance that isn't self-guided. Tutors are available from the tutoring department, and should not be shied away from. If you really want to learn the material you have to be willing to get help and help yourself towards that goal. That's only part of the problem, students who do try are still having a hard time within the status quo.

The second point requires that I do not put forth my personal opinion, but does require that I state its purpose (from the Alice website):

Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a freely available teaching tool designed to be a student's first exposure to object-oriented programming. It allows students to learn fundamental programming concepts in the context of creating animated movies and simple video games. In Alice, 3-D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world and students create a program to animate the objects.

In Alice's interactive interface, students drag and drop graphic tiles to create a program, where the instructions correspond to standard statements in a production oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, and C#. Alice allows students to immediately see how their animation programs run, enabling them to easily understand the relationship between the programming statements and the behavior of objects in their animation. By manipulating the objects in their virtual world, students gain experience with all the programming constructs typically taught in an introductory programming course.

In conclusion, it is my perception that there is a missing communication link in the way these classes are handled, but it's not just between the professors of the two classes (they seem to not have a smooth break between the classes), it's between the students and the professors that the communication has really broken down. The students must speak up for their education or they may see it going down a path that does not maximally further their education. This is wider spread than just the simple class example I've given here. Almost everywhere one looks, it seems that students are becoming more lethargic; pushing to just get through the courses. There is a lack of genuine interest in the education being provided, and more of a view that college is now a necessity to continue in society. Unfortunately, that has begun to be so, but we can still fight for the freedom of our minds.

Supplemental Books for CSIS Courses: 1. 152 * C++ in Plain English by Brian Overland 2. 252 * C++ in Plain English by Brian Overland 3. 352 * C++ in Plain English by Brian Overland * Beyond the C++ Standard Library: An Introduction to Boost by Björn Karlsson * C++ Coding Standards: 101 Rules, Guidelines, and Best Practices by Herb Sutter & Andrei Alexandrescu * Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John M. Vlissides