Jupyter notebooks as a development and documentation tool for supporting computer programming learning among adolescents: a case study in a k-18 school

Abstract

[en] This Treball Fi de Grau (TFG) reports on an exploratory case study aimed at facilitating computer programming learning in a K-18 school through Jupyter Notebooks, to test their usability for this user group, and find possible improvements to the interface. Over a period of 4 months, we were in charge of running an extracurricular activity intended to train a team of students to participate in a competition of code challenges, HP Code Wars, thereby adopting a learning-service approach (aprenentatge servei). Within this context, we looked into different aspects of the use of computational notebooks, which were not used in the educational institution, and came up with some possible features to add to the user interface of Jupyter Notebooks to serve better our students’ needs and encouraging good programming practices. From these results we designed a variable inspector for Jupyter, and co-designed an extension that allows the user to add a second dimension to the narrative, where students seemed to agree on a cell folding/grouping approach for a multi-layered structure. The evaluation activities yielded positive results, with students preferring the use of notebooks over interpreters, and documenting their work in an explanatory narrative.