Abstract:

Algorithmization and programming is a challenging and complex part of computer science for most students, regardless of whether the teaching is distance or face-to-face. In order to successfully master programming, students must have developed algorithmic and programming thinking skills.

They must also have some knowledge of the environment in which they are programming in order to be able to create optimal program source code. It is important to know the standard data types and data structures offered by the programming environment by which the problem being solved is represented in the computer. Although the algorithm - the explicit solution procedure - is independent of the programming environment, the data structures used and the mechanism of access to their individual elements affect the writing of the program code, syntactically. Algorithmization of the solution to a problem can only be mastered by creating algorithms, and programming can only be mastered by encoding the solution algorithms into a programming language. To become a good programmer, one needs to acquire not only theoretical knowledge, but more importantly programming skills.

In this paper, the authors bring their experience of distance learning of programming. They evaluate the differences, advantages and disadvantages of full-time and distance form of teaching in primary and secondary school. They describe what was possible to keep from the classical form of teaching, what had to be modified and what had to be changed. They also discuss appropriate tools, programming languages and environments, and their applicability to distance learning programming in primary and secondary schools. When teaching algorithmization and programming, it is very important for the teacher to see the students' solutions written/coded in a programming environment so that he/she can unambiguously determine whether the program is good, and whether adequate variables, control and data structures of the programming language have been used. In face-to-face teaching, the proven methods used in distance learning can be problematic and not very effective. Therefore, the choice of appropriate software for online teaching is very important, as well as the use of their capabilities and the features they offer. There are many tools that can be applied in online teaching, but not all of them were primarily designed for this method of teaching. The authors of this article describe their experiences of teaching algorithmization and programming via Skype, MS Teams and Webex and highlight their potential in distance education. If a student just needs advice from the teacher, any connection is enough for him/her to discuss his/her problems with the teacher. Problems arise if the student needs direct intervention by the teacher or a classmate in the source code of the program. Then the appropriate choice of the environment and the choice of its features that allow this is very important. When teaching programming, during discussions and consultations, it is most appropriate that the program code of the solution (which clearly expresses the solution procedure) is available and that it is possible to intervene in the program, so that each participant can express his suggestions and ideas directly in program code that is unambiguous, understandable and easy to read.

Keywords:

Algorithmisation, teaching and learning programming, programming skills.