Learning to program through the web

Computer-based tutoring systems which assist students in solving introductory programming problems have significant potential for improving the quality of programming education and reducing the instructor's work load. The innovative Environment for Learning to Program (ELP) provides an interactive web-based environment for teaching programming to first year Information Technology students at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). ELP allows students to undertake programming exercises by "filling in the gaps" of a partial computer program presented in a web page and to receive guidance in getting their programs to compile and run. Feedback on quality and correctness is provided through a program analysis framework. Students are given the opportunity to produce working programs at the early stages of their course without the need to familiarize themselves with a complex program development environment.