Computational Thinking in Augmented Reality: An Investigation of Collaborative Debugging Practices

摘要

The uniqueness of Augmented Reality (AR) is its affordance to support learning abstract concepts by rich information, visualization and the integration of user-content interaction. Research has shown that abstract idea and invisible phenomena can be learned better with the support of AR. However, high complexity and conceptual Computational Thinking (CT), such as algorithm design and related programming concepts, are rarely studied empirically in the intersection with immersive technology. This study is aimed at addressing this issue and providing a piece of quantitative and empirical evidence to AR-supported Computer Science discipline-based learning. We designed a mobile AR-enabled application based on a CT framework and related AR affordances in the literature. This app can contextualize a programming debugging task and support program editing & CT learning. A controlled laboratory study was designed and conducted. The result of statistical analyses shows that participants with the AR support made better quality of programs with lower errors and less amount of code edits, compared to those without the AR support.