Visualizing the Complex Process for Deep Learning with an Authentic Programming Project

Project-based learning (PjBL) has been increasingly used to connect abstract knowledge and authentic tasks in educational practice, including computer programming education. Despite its promising effects on improving learning in multiple aspects, PjBL remains a struggle due to its complexity. Completing an authentic programming project involves a complex process of applying programming strategies to design and develop artifacts. Programming strategies are often implicit and hard to capture, but critical for programming performance. This study proposes a visualization-based learning environment that externalizes the complex process of applying programming strategies to the design and development of solutions to an authentic programming project. It aims to make the complex process accessible, trackable, and attainable with the support of technology. Twenty-nine senior college students participated in this study, using the proposed learning environment to complete a PjBL module of ASP.NET. The proposed approach improved students’ programming performance and subject knowledge and activated their intrinsic motivation to learn programming.