Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching - National University

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AGILE TEACHING: A CASE STUDY OF USING RUBY TO TEACH PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE CONCEPTS Majed A. Sahli and Gordon W. Romney Abstract Ruby, an object-oriented programming language, is an obvious choice for agile web development that is being confirmed in the web marketplace. It provides a hands-on training tool for computer science students studying programming language grammars, scanners, parsers, and Abstract Syntax Trees. A virtualized version of Ruby was used to implement a simple LL(1) calculator grammar. The power gained by using Ruby significantly facilitated the implementation of the parser over comparable C++ and Java implementations. Usage of this portable, “virtual lab” facilitated the integration of laboratory and classroom assignments in a teaching model that completes class instruction for a semester course in one calendar month. This is an example of agile teaching in Internet-time. Key Words Accelerated learning, agile problem driven teaching, agile software development, portable development environment, Ruby, virtual labs Introduction Ruby is a unique open-source programming language that is of growing popularity. Ruby is mostly paired with Rails, so it is common to use the name Ruby on Rails (RoR). Rails is a framework that when used with Ruby makes an easy and productive web development framework. While RoR has been a success in the web marketplace, being adopted by Yahoo!, Google, Twitter, J.P. Morgan, New York Times, John Deere, and others (Fernandez, 2008), not many educators notice the unique Ruby features that promote it as a useful education tool, especially in agile problem-driven teaching environments. The faculty at the National University (NU) School of Engineering and Technology (SOET) was among the early adopters of agility in pedagogy (Dey et al., 2009). The authors showcase the use of Ruby as a hands-on training tool for computer science students. The use case took place at NU, where courses are taught in a unique one-course-permonth format. The students learned the concepts of programming language grammars, scanners, parsers, and Abstract Syntax Trees (AST) by implementing a simple Left to right Leftmost derivation, LL(1), calculator grammar, introduced by Lee (2008). Using Ruby in a portable virtual lab enabled the students to successfully accomplish the goal of the project in an accelerated course format. Principles Behind Ruby Ruby was written by Yukihiro Matz Matsumoto (Matz), of the Network Applied Communication Laboratory in Japan, in 1993. It was first released to the public in 1996 as Ruby 1.0 (Vinoski, 2006). The popularity of Ruby has only grown since, with many improvements. The current stable Ruby version is Ruby 1.9.1, released January 30, 2009. Ruby is unique because the basic principles on which it was based were inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Matz believes that programmers need to enjoy programming. He 63
considers a programming language as a user interface for programmers, so he designed Ruby “to make programmers happy.” He based his design for Ruby on three main principles: conciseness, consistency, and flexibility (Matsumoto, 2000). These three principles make programming in Ruby not only fun but, more importantly, productive. This is where Ruby stands out to be the language of choice in agile problem-driven teaching environments. The principle of conciseness dictates that a language should do a lot of work quickly. The principle of consistency means that a programmer with basic knowledge can learn Ruby very quickly. Last but not least, the principle of flexibility means that Ruby will help express humans, not restrict them. A Ruby programmer can write arbitrary objects that are treated just like the built-in ones (Matsumoto, 2000). Ruby Genealogy Ruby is generally described as an object-oriented scripting language. This general description relates directly to the genealogy of Ruby. Programming languages genealogy reveals how Ruby was directly affected by several object-oriented and scripting languages, as shown in Figure 1 (Lévénez, 2009). Matz designed Ruby with the goal of having the right balance of functional and imperative programming (About Ruby, 2009). Ruby inherited powerful data abstraction features from Clu. It is as much dynamic and object-oriented as SmallTalk, Common Lisp, Eiffel, and Clos. Ruby is as versatile as Perl and as powerful as Python (Scott, 2006). Figure 1. Ruby Inherited Features from Different Programming Paradigms Key Ruby Features Ruby is purely object-oriented and is an interpreted language. These two characteristics put every feature of the language in perspective according to the principles behind it. Ruby did not introduce new features to the programming languages world, however, it did combine the best available features from existing paradigms. These features are the reason Ruby stands out and was chosen in this use case of agile teaching and learning. Six-Level Scoping Ruby has a spectacular six-level variable scoping system. This allows for flexible scoping and the ability to encapsulate variables at different levels. A variable can be of global, local, class, class instance, instance, or block scope. Each scope level is identified by a certain prefix or naming convention. There are no variable declarations in Ruby. This made the course project implementation easier, as there is no need to worry about variable types and declarations. However, one would argue that this could cause issues due to ambiguity about variables. In fact, 64
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Journal of Research in Innovative T
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Table of Contents Editor’s Column
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Editor’s Column National Universi
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training-based method for integrati
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The Editorial Board invites the rea
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The Influence of Social Worlds on E
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experience in a strong group settin
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Table 1 Example Scenario of a Burea
Page 18 and 19: hierarchy ensures a social position
Page 20 and 21: (see Figure 5). Each member is affo
Page 22 and 23: through four types of instructional
Page 24 and 25: Hierarchic (high grid, strong Group
Page 26 and 27: Figure 10. Didactic Task Structure
Page 28 and 29: Stansberry, S., & Harris, E. (2005)
Page 30 and 31: Utilizing current research-based co
Page 32 and 33: teachers. The instructor kept a mas
Page 34 and 35: References Coburn, C. E. (2001). Co
Page 36 and 37: Organizing for Instruction Carefull
Page 38 and 39: Accelerated Learning 33
Page 40 and 41: the learning process but rather to
Page 42 and 43: Csikszentmihalyi (1982) has written
Page 44 and 45: term (intersession) gets its name b
Page 46 and 47: Some Important Issues Scott and Con
Page 48 and 49: esponsibilities). A higher percenta
Page 50 and 51: them in such a way that the likelih
Page 52 and 53: makes a valuable contribution to ou
Page 54 and 55: North American Association of Summe
Page 56 and 57: E-learning 51
Page 58 and 59: Academic Learning Today Academic in
Page 60 and 61: In the original publication by the
Page 62 and 63: • Individual (1) — Group (2) co
Page 64 and 65: Challenges and Opportunities From t
Page 66 and 67: About the Authors Cynthia (Cindy) L
Page 70 and 71: the scope-by-name feature of Ruby e
Page 72 and 73: need to deal with. Students learned
Page 74 and 75: experiment with different options f
Page 76 and 77: the students evaluate the optimum s
Page 78 and 79: Using Bibliotherapy as a Tool for C
Page 80 and 81: different clients and their present
Page 82 and 83: supervisees with a brief synopsis o
Page 84 and 85: Stick Figure, by Lori Gottlieb As t
Page 86 and 87: psychological awareness to encourag
Page 88 and 89: on the Internet. To keep the classr
Page 90 and 91: The third portion of the discussion
Page 92 and 93: Henry, S. (2005). A different appro
Page 94 and 95: elementary-age students. Linked wit
Page 96 and 97: considered in multicultural literat
Page 98 and 99: In Finding One, the conclusion was
Page 100 and 101: Stephanie: “I learned that some p
Page 102 and 103: importance in society and in school
Page 104 and 105: published in the United States. Ret
Page 106 and 107: Reading Practices in Elementary Sch
Page 108 and 109: groups of students reading by apply
Page 110 and 111: Table 2 Participant-Reported Teachi
Page 112 and 113: Table 5A Teachers’ Reading Task P
Page 114 and 115: Because electronic texts are increa
Page 116 and 117: Conclusion As teachers work to impr
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Bilingual Education and Second Lang
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successful in hiring enough qualifi
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Five Innovative Strategies That Wor
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The third strategy is “Determinin
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the categories, synthesized and def
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Fereshteh, M. H. (1995). Multicultu
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Can Balanced Bilingualism Be Achiev
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As may be seen from this discussion
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Alternatives to Current Methodologi
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education when students are isolate
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Conclusion SL learning must be a tw
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Language as Tool for a Global Educa
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encouraging passive learning. Such
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Similarly, their actions or what go
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should therefore not be glued to th
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Supplementary Reading Since there i
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Bruce, M. G., Podemski, R. S., & An
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• Sentence combination (using con
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The Motivational and Attitudinal Ch
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Other researchers have challenged t
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education classes were taught in Ru
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Participants also described how the
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Implications and Suggestions for Fu
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National University Carlsbad, CA Em
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Assessment and Evaluation 161
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affordance of opportunities for sel
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An examination of the peer-comment
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language used in the description an
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promotes self-discovery (Saulnier e
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Appendix A Sample Language from an
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Student Evaluations of Courses and
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that there is a consistent positive
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(teaching) for all classes (11 item
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Figure 1. The Nonlinear Relationshi
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About the Authors Nataliya Serdyuko
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Best Practices 183
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The Textbook Elementary Statistics
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If the mean number of visits was as
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discussion in such courses is slow;
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Table 1. A grade list for a class o
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Sloboda, B. W. (2005). Improving th
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The Journal of Research in Innovati
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About the Author In the end of your
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