research-article

Understanding Wikipedia as a Resource for Opportunistic Learning of Computing Concepts

Authors:

Martin P. Robillard,

Christoph TreudeAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '20: Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Pages 72 - 78

https://doi.org/10.1145/3328778.3366832

Published: 26 February 2020 Publication History

Abstract

Posts on on-line forums where programmers look for information often include links to Wikipedia when it can be assumed the reader will not be familiar with the linked terms. A Wikipedia article will thus often be the first exposure to a new computing concept for a novice programmer. We conducted an exploratory study with 18 novice programmers by asking them to read a Wikipedia article on a common computing concept that was new to them, while using the think-aloud protocol. We performed a qualitative analysis of the session transcripts to better understand the experience of the novice programmer learning a new computing concept using Wikipedia. We elicited five themes that capture this experience: Concept Confusion, Need for Examples, New Terminology, Trivia Clutter, and Unfamiliar Notation. We conclude that Wikipedia is not well suited as a resource for the opportunistic learning of new computing concepts, and we recommend adapting information sharing practices in on-line programmer communities to better account for the learning needs of the users.

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Cited By

Nassif MRobillard M(2023)Identifying Concepts in Software ProjectsIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2023.326585549:7(3660-3674)Online publication date: Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2023.3265855
Wang CPeng XXing ZMeng X(2023)Beyond Literal Meaning: Uncover and Explain Implicit Knowledge in Code Through Wikipedia-Based Concept LinkingIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2023.325002949:5(3226-3240)Online publication date: 1-May-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2023.3250029
Liu MPeng XMarcus AXing STreude CZhao C(2022)API-Related Developer Information Needs in Stack OverflowIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2021.312020348:11(4485-4500)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2021.3120203
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Index Terms

Understanding Wikipedia as a Resource for Opportunistic Learning of Computing Concepts
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing literacy
      2. Informal education

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cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '20: Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

February 2020

1502 pages

ISBN:9781450367936

DOI:10.1145/3328778

General Chairs:
Jian Zhang
Texas Woman's University, USA
,
Mark Sherriff
University of Virginia, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Sarah Heckman
North Carolina State University, USA
,
Pamela Cutter
Kalamazoo College, USA
,
Alvaro Monge
California State University, Long Beach, USA

Copyright © 2020 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 26 February 2020

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SIGCSE '20: The 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

March 11 - 14, 2020

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Cited By

Nassif MRobillard M(2023)Identifying Concepts in Software ProjectsIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2023.326585549:7(3660-3674)Online publication date: Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2023.3265855
Wang CPeng XXing ZMeng X(2023)Beyond Literal Meaning: Uncover and Explain Implicit Knowledge in Code Through Wikipedia-Based Concept LinkingIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2023.325002949:5(3226-3240)Online publication date: 1-May-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2023.3250029
Liu MPeng XMarcus AXing STreude CZhao C(2022)API-Related Developer Information Needs in Stack OverflowIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2021.312020348:11(4485-4500)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2021.3120203
Liargkovas GPapadopoulou AKotti ZSpinellis D(2022)Software Engineering Education Knowledge Versus Industrial NeedsIEEE Transactions on Education10.1109/TE.2021.312388965:3(419-427)Online publication date: Aug-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.2021.3123889
Dunn PBrunton EMarshman MMcDougall RKent DMasters NMcKay D(2021)The First Paragraph Is As Good As It Gets: STEM Articles in Wikipedia and Opportunistic LearningCollege Teaching10.1080/87567555.2021.200438771:1(56-65)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2021
https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2021.2004387
Hata HNovielli NBaltes SKula RTreude C(2021)GitHub Discussions: An exploratory study of early adoptionEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-021-10058-627:1Online publication date: 22-Oct-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-021-10058-6
Brown CParnin CDevanbu PCohen MZimmermann T(2020)Understanding the impact of GitHub suggested changes on recommendations between developersProceedings of the 28th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3368089.3409722(1065-1076)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3368089.3409722

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