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Unplugged Activities to Introduce Parallel Computing in Introductory Programming Classes: an Experience Report

Published: 02 July 2019 Publication History

Abstract

Learning programming in early introductory classes is challenging for first year university students, and introducing parallel programming (PDC) in early classes along with traditional sequential programming is even more challenging. Unplugged activities may help alleviate some of the difficulties for students. Unplugged activities have been shown to increase student interest, and to enhance student understanding of CS programming concepts. We have used unplugged activities to teach PDC concepts before introducing parallel programming. Our experiences show that using unplugged activities to introduce the PDC concepts reduce the barrier to learn parallel programming.

References

[1]
B. Rodriguez, C. Rader, and T. Camp, "Using Student Performance to Assess CSUnplugged Activities in a Classroom Environment," inProceedings of the 2016 ACMConference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education - ITiCSE16, 2016, pp. 95 -- 100
[2]
C. Watson and F. W. B. Li, "Failure rates in introductory programming revisited,"inProceedings of the 2014 conference on Innovation & technology in computer scienceeducation - ITiCSE 14, 2014, pp. 39 -- 44.
[3]
T. Bell, J. Alexander, I. Freeman, and M. Grimley, "Computer science unplugged:School students doing real computing without computers,"New Zeal. J. Appl.Comput. Inf. Technol., vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 20 -- 29, 2009.
[4]
"iPDC Modules", https://www.csc.tntech.edu/pdcincs/index.php/ipdc-modules/

Cited By

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  • (2025)An Introductory-level Undergraduate CS Course that Introduces Parallel ComputingJournal of Parallel and Distributed Computing10.1016/j.jpdc.2025.105044(105044)Online publication date: Feb-2025
  • (2024)A Pleasant Surprise: A Classic Assignment and an Offbeat Assessment for PDC, HPC, and Related KU CoverageJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3665609.366561439:8(70-82)Online publication date: 17-May-2024
  • (2024)Effectively Matching Programming Languages to Introductory Programming Teaching ParadigmsProceedings of Ninth International Congress on Information and Communication Technology10.1007/978-981-97-5441-0_37(443-453)Online publication date: 18-Dec-2024
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  1. Unplugged Activities to Introduce Parallel Computing in Introductory Programming Classes: an Experience Report

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    ITiCSE '19: Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education
    July 2019
    583 pages
    ISBN:9781450368957
    DOI:10.1145/3304221
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 02 July 2019

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    Author Tags

    1. introductory programming
    2. parallel and distributed computing
    3. unplugged activities

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    Overall Acceptance Rate 552 of 1,613 submissions, 34%

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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2025)An Introductory-level Undergraduate CS Course that Introduces Parallel ComputingJournal of Parallel and Distributed Computing10.1016/j.jpdc.2025.105044(105044)Online publication date: Feb-2025
    • (2024)A Pleasant Surprise: A Classic Assignment and an Offbeat Assessment for PDC, HPC, and Related KU CoverageJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3665609.366561439:8(70-82)Online publication date: 17-May-2024
    • (2024)Effectively Matching Programming Languages to Introductory Programming Teaching ParadigmsProceedings of Ninth International Congress on Information and Communication Technology10.1007/978-981-97-5441-0_37(443-453)Online publication date: 18-Dec-2024
    • (2023)Faculty Development Workshops for Integrating PDC in Early Undergraduate Curricula: An Experience ReportProceedings of the SC '23 Workshops of the International Conference on High Performance Computing, Network, Storage, and Analysis10.1145/3624062.3624097(314-323)Online publication date: 12-Nov-2023
    • (2023)Peachy Parallel Assignments (EduPar 2023)2023 IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops (IPDPSW)10.1109/IPDPSW59300.2023.00049(248-255)Online publication date: May-2023
    • (2022)Passive or active learning: the challenges of teaching distributed computing using Raspberry Pi clusters to open distance university studentsOpen Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning10.1080/02680513.2022.2118573(1-15)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2022
    • (2020)PDCunplugged: A Free Repository of Unplugged Parallel Distributed Computing Activities2020 IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops (IPDPSW)10.1109/IPDPSW50202.2020.00060(284-291)Online publication date: May-2020
    • (2020)Trying to do it all in a single course: a surprisingly good idea2020 IEEE/ACM Workshop on Education for High-Performance Computing (EduHPC)10.1109/EduHPC51895.2020.00006(1-11)Online publication date: Nov-2020

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