Computer Supported Collaborative Learning for Programming: A Systematic Review

The objective of this paper is to present the current evidence relative to the effectiveness of computer supported collaborative learning as a pedagogical tool in teaching programming. A systematic literature review in the IEEE Xplore, Web of Science, and ACM Digital Libraries was performed with studies that investigated factors affecting the effectiveness of computer supported collaborative learning for students learning programming and studies that measured the effectiveness of computer supported collaborative learning for students learning programming. Twelve papers were used in the analysis. The results showed that the object oriented programming languages are the ones that have been most frequently adopted by educators who use computer-supported collaborative learning as tools to teach programming, that course critique surveys and questionnaires are the most frequently reported methods used to assess the effectiveness of computer-supported collaborative learning interventions, and that the amount of participants who have taken part in research to evaluate the value of computer-supported collaborative learning in teaching programming varies notably between studies. Finally, in total, 83.3% of the included papers report that computer supported collaborative learning is an effective teaching tool and can help programmers in their studies.