The Alice Software System Randy Pausch Carnegie Mellon University

Outline The Need: declining CS majors Demo of the Alice system History / How we built it How Alice is being used Q & A

Alice is a solution to the current big problem in Computer Science Education: Attracting and Retaining Students

How extravagant you are, throwing away women like that. Some day they may be scarce.

CS majors

The Shrinking CS pool

And, those that are qualified to fill technical jobs are not representative of the US population

One Potential Answer: It’s too frustrating class HelloWorld { public static void main (String args[]) { System.out.print("Hello World "); }

The way we teach CS1 has not really changed in the last 25 years. Alice is about keeping America economically competitive. And about eighteen year-olds not crying themselves to sleep.

The Alice Software A 3D interactive animation environment A tool for teaching fundamental programming concepts – object oriented System developed at Carnegie Mellon

A Demo of Alice…

Alice is about focusing on what really matters…

The Alice Approach Uses 3D graphics to engage students Has a “smart” drag-and-drop editor that prevents syntax errors Appeals to wide audience – Storytelling (young women, minority students) – Interactive computer games (young men) –Not threatening; Alice builds students’ confidence

Key Alice Features Makes objects something students can see and relate to Has a java syntax mode to ease the transition to C++/Java/VB.net

Over 700 free objects in the gallery

“Visual Programming” Alice is not “visual programming” Alice is textual programming of visual state. My Opinion: Code continues to be the best way we have to express programming logic, even for novices.

Stencils Tutorial

User Testing an API Talk-Aloud “mental model”-based tests, plus after-test debriefing Test in pairs, not alone

The Need for a Textbook

Textbook Features Emphasizes design using storyboards Supports varying instructional approaches – “objects-early” – “objects-first" Allows an (optional) early introduction to events Color screen captures illustrate step-by-step construction of programs

Schools using Alice Bucknell University California Lutheran University California State University at Humboldt Camden County College Carnegie Mellon University Clemson University Colorado School of Mines Community College of Philadelphia Cornell University Duke University Georgetown College Haverford College Ithaca College Manor College Mississippi Valley State University Plymouth State University Saint Edward’s University Saint Joseph's University Saint Lawrence College San Diego State University Sierra Nevada College Southwestern University Tompkins Cortland Community College University of Colorado University of Illinois University of Mississippi Virginia Tech And several high schools

The Punch Line Alice works And we can prove it…

Alice helps at-risk CS majors CS1 GradeTake CS2? No Alice Class Prior to CS1 C47% Alice Class Prior to CS1 B88%

Alice helps at-risk CS majors CS1 GradeTake CS2? No Alice Class Prior to CS1 C47% Alice Class Prior to CS1 B88%

"Programming in Alice is time consuming, but it's not frustrating.“ -Luis Rodriguez, Age 17

Commonly Asked Questions How much does the Alice software cost? – It is free! (and open source) Does Alice run on the Macintosh? –Yes! Download Mac version from Where can I go for instructor support materials? – Is Alice hard to install? –Just copy files to the hard drive; no “install”

Commonly Asked Questions, Cont. Isn’t Alice just a toy? (it looks so “Fisher-Price”!) –No -- Alice contains all the features of “real” languages –Students can write 3,000 line programs in Alice How do students go from Alice to Java? –They have learned the concepts in Alice, then learn syntax in Java –They have built confidence and are more persistent Is there any “hard evidence” that Alice works? –Yes! An NSF study on “at risk” CS1 students who used Alice… Increased grades from C to B Retention (into CS2) went from 47% to 88%

How Alice is being used In pre-CS1 – course for majors and students considering a CS major As conceptual introduction in CS1, followed by a transition to Java/C++/VB Introduction to programming course – non-majors (in business schools, for example) – attract students to become CS majors Computer literacy – problem-solving component Pre-AP in high schools

Going Forward Ph.D. student Caitlin Kelleher: a “shining moment” Getting middle school girls, who want to tell stories, to learn to program (and therefore build their confidence)

The Alice Software System Randy Pausch Carnegie Mellon University