Using Comics to Introduce and Reinforce Programming Concepts in CS1

TL;DR

This study explores the use of comics, specifically coding strips, to teach programming in an introductory CS course, demonstrating benefits and challenges through student surveys and code analysis.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on how comics can be integrated into CS education and assesses their impact on student learning and engagement.

Findings

Students reported increased engagement and understanding.

Comics facilitated better grasp of programming concepts.

Challenges included integrating comics into existing curricula.

Abstract

Recent work investigated the potential of comics to support the teaching and learning of programming concepts and suggested several ways $coding$ $strips$, a form of comic strip with its corresponding code, can be used. Building on this work, we tested the recommended use cases of $coding$ $strip$ in an undergraduate introductory computer science course at a large comprehensive university. At the end of the course, we surveyed students to assess their experience and found they benefited in various ways. Our work contributes a demonstration of the various ways comics can be used in introductory CS courses and an initial understanding of benefits and challenges with using comics in computing education gleaned from an analysis of students' survey responses and code submissions.