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Enabling end-users to implement larger block-based programs

Published: 19 October 2022 Publication History

Abstract

Block-based programming, already popular in computer science education, has been successfully used to make programming accessible to end-users in applied domains such as the field of robotics. Most prior work in these domains has examined smaller programs that are usually simple and fit a single screen. However, real block-based programs often grow larger and, because end-users are unlikely to break them down into separate functions, they often become unwieldy. In our study, we introduce a function-centric block-based environment to help end-users write programs that require a large number of blocks. Through a user study with 92 users, we evaluated our approach and found that while users could successfully complete smaller tasks with and without our approach, they were both quicker and more successful with our function-centric method when tackling larger tasks. This work demonstrates that adding scaffolding can encourage the systematic use of functions, enabling end-users to write larger programs with block-based programming environments, which can contribute to the solution of more complex tasks in applied domains.

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  • (2024)End-User Development for Human-Robot Interaction: Results and Trends in an Emerging FieldProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36611468:EICS(1-40)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      ICSE '22: Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings
      May 2022
      394 pages
      ISBN:9781450392235
      DOI:10.1145/3510454
      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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      Published: 19 October 2022

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      • (2024)End-User Development for Human-Robot Interaction: Results and Trends in an Emerging FieldProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36611468:EICS(1-40)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024

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