This paper presents an experimental evaluation of a program visualisation tool. Computer science students in an introductory object oriented programming course in Java were asked to respond to a series of questions regarding concepts common to the writing and debugging of code at a novice level. Statistical analysis of data collected from this experiment revealed that a diagrammatic representat...

Spin is a model checker for the verification of software systems. Spin uses a high level language called Promela to specify systems descriptions. The goal of this tutorial is to introduce novice users to both Promela and Spin. The tutorial itself is divided into two parts. The Basic Spin part is targeted towards novice users of Spin. The Advanced Spin part of the tutorial could also be of consi...

It remains unclear when to introduce software quality into the computing curriculum. Introductory students often cannot afford to also worry about software quality, while advanced students may have been groomed into undisciplined development practices already. To be able to answer these questions, educators need strong quantitative evidence about the persistence of software quality problems in ...

The purpose of the study was to investigate how novice runners adjust their lower extremities in heel-toe running while they wear dress shoes and running shoes. Ten novice male runners repeatedly ran across a force plate at 4 m/s in each type of shoes. Joint kinematics and kinetics, vertical ground reaction force, and utilized coefficient of friction during the stance phase were quantified. The...

With the projected shortage of nursing faculty, formalized programs are needed to provide mentorship programs that will encourage and support faculty as they move from the role of novice to expert educator. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the experience of protégés participating in a mentorship program for novice faculty. An interpretive phenomenological research study was c...

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to clarify essential abilities of novice physical and occupational therapists for independent execution of their duties and to develop a clinical competence assessment tool. [Subjects] Forty-five experienced therapists participated in this study. [Methods] A two-phase mixed-methods design was used. First, semi structured interviews were conducted on 15 experi...

This paper describes an intelligent learning environment for novice users of a GUI. The learning environment allows users to work in a protected way; it monitors their actions and reasons about them so that it can make hypotheses about what their real intentions have been and examine whether these have been met. In case the system believes that the user has made an error it informs him/her abou...

The aim of the present study was identify the most significant problems that Spanish novice physical education teachers encountered during their first teaching experiences. A mixed methodology (quantitative and qualitative) was utilized through questionnaires and interviews. The Inventory of Teaching Problems developed by Jordell (1985) was translated, revalidated to physical education and comp...

The Twiddler one–handed chording keyboard offers rapid mobile text entry on a keypad similar to that of a standard mobile telephone. Previously we found that novice users could be trained to type 47 words per minute (wpm) while one participant reached 67 wpm. Here, we present an evaluation designed to examine which combination of two typing aids helps novice Twiddler typists the most. Specifica...