Digital cs1 study pack based on moodle and python

A Radenski - ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 2008 - dl.acm.org
ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 2008dl.acm.org
We believe that CS1 courses can be made more attractive to students: by teaching a highly
interactive scripting language-Python by using an open source course management system-
such as Moodle-to make all course resources available in a comprehensive digital study
pack, and by offering detailed self-guided online labs. We have used Moodle [1] and Python
[2] to develop a" Python First" digital study pack [3] which comprises a wealth of new, original
learning modules: extensive e-texts, detailed self-guided labs, numerous sample programs …
We believe that CS1 courses can be made more attractive to students:
  • by teaching a highly interactive scripting language - Python
  • by using an open source course management system - such as Moodle - to make all course resources available in a comprehensive digital study pack, and
  • by offering detailed self-guided online labs
.
We have used Moodle [1] and Python [2] to develop a "Python First" digital study pack [3] which comprises a wealth of new, original learning modules: extensive e-texts, detailed self-guided labs, numerous sample programs, quizzes, and slides. Our digital study pack pedagogy is described in recent ITiCSE and SIGCSE papers [4, 5]. "Python First" digital packs instances have already been adopted by instructors at several universities. This demonstration reveals instructor and student perspectives to the "Python First" digital pack. In particular, we demonstrate how instructors can use standard Moodle functionality to customize and manage digital packs. We also demonstrate several Moodle-supported, Python-based self-guided labs.
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