The low throughput rate in programming courses worldwide, especially on the first-year level, have been researched for many years. This has led to research published on the different teaching, assessment and learning methods, which can be used for programming courses. However, implementing these suggested assessment methods in the Open Distance e-Learning domain poses challenges. This conference paper will discuss the combination of assessment methods to improve learning, and reliably measure essential theoretical, practical and communication skills of first-year programming students. An approach focussing on data analysis was followed, and the research was quantitative in nature. The findings in this paper will show that pass rates should not always be considered as the sole indicator of the success or failure of the implementation of online teaching, assessment and learning methods. Experiences and outcomes shared in this paper offer programming instructors and the e-learning community in general an opportunity to make decisions on the extent to which they can use the teaching, assessment and learning strategies employed in this research in their own settings.

1. Teaching and Assessment Strategies for Self-Directed Learning
Dalize van Heerden
Department of Computer Science
Prof Leila Goosen
Department of Science and Technology Education
University of South Africa

2. Problem
• Low pass rate and high dropout rates
• Worldwide concern for higher education
institutions offering introductory computer
programming courses (Bergin and Reilly, 2005)
• Exacerbated in ODL environments, where
many other factors contribute to student
retention and success (Subotzky & Prinsloo, 2011)

3. Addressing the Problem through
Assessment
Assessment should not merely be for measuring
students’ ability to perform during assessment,
but should also be implemented as part of the
learning process (Wiliam, 2011).

4. Theory
• Programming students must understand the theory
behind each concept in order to apply the concept
practically.
• The practical nature of programming also means
students tend to know how to implement practical
concepts in a given context, without understanding
why the concept works.
• When the concept is changed, the student can no
longer apply the concept (Brito & De Sá-Soares,
2014).

5. IT Language
• IT students should be able to write reports, technical
materials, user manuals and in general communicate
their ideas using disciplinary language (Wu & Maly,
2015).
• Assessing students’ ability to communicate using
disciplinary language, especially if it is not their first
language of communication, is important to the
students overall success.

6. Practical
• Students are considered “competent programmers”
when they are able to practically demonstrate their
ability to design and develop programs in
accordance to specific requirements provided by the
user, which are as close to correct as possible
(Hayes & Offutt, 2010).
• In order to practically demonstrate their ability the
student needs to understand the theoretical
concepts, be able to apply the theory concepts
practically in different contexts and be able to
communicate with the user.

7. Assessment – Theory
• Short online quizzes consisting of multiple choice,
true and false and short answer questions are used
to assist students in determining their understanding
of basic concepts (Bälter, Enström, & Klingenberg,
2013).

8. Assessment - Language
• “the implementation of knowledge blogging in an
ODL environment is particularly well suited to
introductory programming courses when such
blogging demands reflective activities and continued
engagement with the course work. Specifically, we
suggest knowledge blogging to be a constructive
learning tool in a programming environment since it
promotes metacognition and differentiated instruction
by nurturing multiple learning skills.” (van Heerden &
van der Merwe, 2014)

9. Assessment - Practical
• There are several articles which indicate that there is
an improvement in the performance of students
taking programming courses when project based
learning and assessment are implemented (Bubas,
Coric, & Orehovacki, 2012)(Wilson & Ferreira, 2011)

10. Uptake Multiple-Choice Assessments

11. Uptake Blog Assessments

12. Uptake Project-Based Assessment

13. Assessment - Support
• Vodcast
• Additional Resources
• E-mail
• SMS
• Meetings

14. Findings
• When evaluating the outcomes of novel assessment
approaches, one should be careful to not view the
pass rate achieved as the sole indicator of its failure
or success
• The best planned, supported and implemented
assessment strategies may be in place, but if these
are not supported by the institution systems and the
students they will not be effective in addressing high
drop-out and failure rates.