The TuringLab Programming Environment: An online
Python programming environment for challenge based learning
Henry Miskin and Anandha Gopalan
Abstract:
Computing has recently been introduced as a core subject in British
schools, meaning that children need to learn computer programming.
Teachers have to be prepared to be able to deliver the new curriculum,
but many of them do not feel confident teaching it as they have no
formal background in Computer Science. Also, when learning to programme,
children need the correct environment and support to succeed. This paper
presents TuringLab, an environment to assist teachers in delivering the
practical elements of the computing curriculum, while also proving to be
engaging and challenging for the children. Teachers can create
programming challenges for their pupils and see how they are progressing
(or struggling) during completion of the challenges. Students can
undertake challenges in an engaging environment which displays a
graphical output of their code and assists in understanding errors they
may encounter. TuringLab has been used to teach children how to
programme at a number of volunteer-led coding clubs. Children engaged
well with TuringLab, and the volunteers, who acted as teachers in these
sessions, found TuringLab an extremely valuable educational tool.