Implementation of a smart lab for teachers of novice programmers

Communication between students and their instructors in the lab is a limited commodity. With limited access to the tutor, students can sometimes spend a long time trying to fix simple errors, continually revisiting and repeating the same errors. Instructors, on the other hand, find themselves explaining the same mistakes over and over again. It is often not clear to them how well individual students are progressing toward meeting the task objectives. This paper introduces a new implementation of Smart Classroom technology for introductory programming computer laboratories. The Smart Lab is intended to make the computer lab a better educational environment for both students and instructors. In the Smart Lab instructors are provided with information about each student's progress as they perform programming tasks, enabling the instructors to readily respond to individual student's problems and assess the overall progress of the class. Two different evaluation approaches were used to test the new implementation: an expert review session and a lab study. The evaluation found that the Smart Lab improved instructors understanding of their students' problems enabling them to provide timely and appropriate feedback. It also provided instructors with better understanding of their students' programming strategies and compilation behaviours.