The debugger as a learning tool for object-oriented programming

Title

The debugger as a learning tool for object-oriented programming

 Author

Visser, John (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)

Contributor

Zaidman, A.E. (mentor)

Degree granting institution

Delft University of Technology

 Programme

Computer Science

 Date

2021-02-04

 Abstract

Novice students still have problems with the abstraction of object-oriented programming. This research shows that the debugger could be used to clarify abstraction of the object-oriented programming with the C++ program language. Our investigation spans two consecutive courses on object-oriented programming. For the introduction course on the object-oriented programming, we modified both lectures and lab sessions so that with the help of the debugger objects could be visualised, and we could walk through the program step by step. In the second course, the lectures were extended by forty-five minutes, allowing the students to do assignments during the lectures with the help of the debugger. The results of the written examination and the completed questionnaire showed that working with the debugger in both the lectures and the practical exercises had a positive influence, especially for the introductory course on object-oriented programming. Although the Corona pandemic influenced part two, the results of the written exam did improve, but it is unclear which influence the use of the debugger had during this course. Visualising objects and walking through methods step by step could help in understanding the fundamentals of object-oriented programming language C++.

 Subject

debugger
Object-Oriented Programming
education

 To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ac19345f-0f16-466e-8e80-4b6f16acbe6b

 Coordinates

52.0017011, 4.3678927

 Part of collection

Student theses

 Document type

master thesis

 Rights

© 2021 John Visser
Files
PDF thesis_the_debugger_as_a_ ... g_tool.pdf 5.36 MB
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