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Learning with the AppInventor programming software through the use of structured educational scenarios in secondary education in Greece

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Abstract

The continuous technological development nowadays acts ancillary and supportively in student-centered learning, in both formal and informal education settings. Effective learning environments, such as the AppInventor software, could spark the students’ interest and allow them to develop programming skills and strengthen their algorithmic capabilities. In this paper, we present a study on the use of eight educational scenarios for the use of the AppInventor software into a secondary education lesson’s context. These scenarios were initially evaluated by secondary education informatics teachers. After that, they were implemented in two public Lyceums in Greece gathering teachers’ and students’ opinions. The results were very positive for the use of AppInventor during the teaching and learning process through the structured educational scenarios that were provided. According to the students’ and teachers’ opinions the content of these educational scenarios is presented with clarity and helps in learning the lesson’s content without being related with any previous knowledge of programming languages or environments.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Mr. Apostolos Sarimixailidis - Informatics teacher of the 5th General Lyceum in Nikaia- Greece, Mrs. Mairi Lampropoulou – Informatics teacher of the General Lyceum in Agioi Anargiroi-Greece and their 50 students that helped us with the implementation of the educational scenarios and also their useful comments and suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, University of Piraeus, 80, Karaoli & Dimitriou St., Piraeus, Greece

    Eleni Seralidou & Christos Douligeris

Authors
  1. Eleni Seralidou
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  2. Christos Douligeris
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eleni Seralidou.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

The educational scenarios questionnaire that was presented to teachers.

General demographics

  1. 1)

    Gender

  2. 2)

    Age

  3. 3)

    Level of education

  4. 4)

    Years of work experience

  5. 5)

    Type of school

  6. 6)

    Area

Evaluation of educational scenarios.

Quality of content

  1. 7)

    To what extent the educational scenarios are accurate in the presentation of the App Inventor program?

Relevance to learning goals

  1. 8)

    To what extent the activities of the educational scenarios are relevant to their learning goals?

  2. 9)

    Adaptation

  3. 10)

    To what extent the educational scenarios it is possible to be taught to students with a different level of learning?

Motive

  1. 11)

    To what extent the educational scenarios would spark the students’ interest?

Organization of presentation

  1. 12)

    To what extent the design of the educational scenarios enhances the App Inventor program learning?

Functional Interaction

  1. 13)

    To what extent you think the scenarios can be implemented to the classroom?

  2. 14)

    To what extent the educational scenarios are easy to comprehend by students?

  3. 15)

    To what extent the planned time for the implementation of the educational scenarios in the classroom is sufficient?

Suggestions

  1. 16)

    In your opinion, do the educational scenarios need improvements?

  2. 17)

    If you answered yes to the previous question, what improvements do you suggest?

Appendix 2

The educational scenarios questionnaire for the teachers that implemented the educational scenarios in their lesson.

General Demographics

  1. 1)

    Gender

  2. 2)

    Age

  3. 3)

    Level of education

  4. 4)

    Years of working experience

  5. 5)

    Type of school

  6. 6)

    Area

Experience of learning and teaching.

Structure and organization of educational scenarios

  1. 7)

    The content of the educational scenarios is presented in a clear way.

  2. 8)

    Topics and concepts to be taught follow one another in a clear and comprehensible way.

  3. 9)

    The worksheets activities are well organized and there were no problems in their implementation.

  4. 10)

    The worksheets activities cover the part of the lesson’s content that must be taught.

Teaching and leaning

  1. 11)

    The content covered by the worksheets activities is relevant to the content of the course “Informatics Applications”.

  2. 12)

    Worksheets do not just provide information, but they also provide time for explanations and interactions.

  3. 13)

    Worksheets include several examples that help comprehension of their content.

  4. 14)

    The organizing of the worksheets’ activities lead students to think of many different solutions.

  5. 15)

    The organizing of the worksheets’ activities leads to the connection of the taught topics with real life situations in which they could be applied.

  6. 16)

    By completing the educational scenarios worksheets’ activities the students acquire good knowledge of the App Inventor program.

  7. 17)

    By completing the educational scenarios worksheets’ activities, students are familiar with basic concepts such as object, variable, etc., relatively to the App Inventor programming environment.

  8. 18)

    After completing the worksheets’ activities, students are familiar with how to use the App Inventor environment.

Course’s requirements

  1. 19)

    The pace of introducing new concepts has been good.

  2. 20)

    The ideas and problems presented in the activities can be solved by the students.

  3. 21)

    The necessary abilities and technical requirements for solving the worksheets’ activities are satisfactory.

  4. 22)

    The planned time for the worksheets’ activities was enough.

  5. 23)

    There was an effective exchange of views among students.

Suggestions.

1st Educational Scenario

  1. 24)

    Do you think that the first educational scenario needs changes of improvements?

  2. 25)

    If so, where?

  3. 26)

    Do you think that the worksheets activities of the first educational scenario need changes or improvements?

  4. 27)

    If so, what changes or improvements you suggest?

Questions 24 to 27 are repeated in the questionnaire for the next seven educational scenarios.

Appendix 3

The educational scenarios questionnaire for the students.

General Demographics

  1. 1)

    School type

  2. 2)

    Class

  3. 3)

    Age

  4. 4)

    Gender

  5. 5)

    Have you been taught a programming environment in previous years of study?

  6. 6)

    If so, which one?

  7. 7)

    Did you know about the object-oriented programming before this lesson?

  8. 8)

    Have you used any object-oriented programming environment in previous years?

  9. 9)

    If so, which?

  10. 10)

    Did you know the App Inventor program before learning it in this lesson?

Experience of learning and teaching.

Structure and organization of the laboratory lesson

  1. 11)

    It was clear to me what I would learn in this part of the lesson.

  2. 12)

    The topics and concepts I had to learn followed each other in a clear and comprehensible way.

  3. 13)

    The activities were well organized and there were no problems in their implementation.

  4. 14)

    The content of the activities covered the part of the lesson’s content that we needed to be taught.

Teaching and learning

  1. 15)

    I will continue to use the App Inventor program.

  2. 16)

    The worksheets given to me helped me to understand the basic concepts of the lesson’s content.

  3. 17)

    I can see that the content covered by the worksheets is relevant to the content of the “Informatics Applications” lesson.

  4. 18)

    I did not receive plain information from the worksheets, but there was also enough time for explanations and interaction.

  5. 19)

    The way the activities where structure led me to review my views about some of the lesson’s concepts.

  6. 20)

    The worksheets included several examples that helped to better understand their content.

  7. 21)

    The worksheets helped me to get a good picture of what I needed to learn.

  8. 22)

    The worksheets’ organizing helped me think many and different ways of resolving each activity.

  9. 23)

    The worksheets’ activities organizing helped me connect what I learned with real life situations in which they could be implemented.

  10. 24)

    After completing the worksheet activities I think I have acquired good knowledge of the App Inventor program.

  11. 25)

    After completing the worksheets activities, I think I understand basic concepts such as object, variable, etc., that are related to the App Inventor programming environment.

  12. 26)

    After completing the worksheets activities, I think I have understood how to use the App Inventor environment.

Course’s requirements

  1. 27)

    To participate I needed to know programming.

  2. 28)

    The pace of introducing new concepts has been good.

  3. 29)

    I was presented with ideas and problems in the worksheets activities which I could work to find a solution.

  4. 30)

    The desired abilities and technical requirements for solving the worksheets activities have puzzled me.

  5. 31)

    The planned time for the activities was enough.

  6. 32)

    Working with my classmates helped me.

  7. 33)

    There was an effective exchange of views.

What did you learn from this part of the lesson?

  1. 34)

    I comprehended the content I learned through the worksheets activities.

  2. 35)

    I was led in situations where I had to think about ideas and ways of solving

    problems.

  3. 36)

    I had the opportunity to work with my classmates.

Suggestions

  1. 37)

    You think that the worksheet activities need improvement;

  2. 38)

    If so, what improvements do you suggest?

Appendix 4

Sample Worksheet Activity – Educational Scenario 2.

2nd Activity

  1. 1.

    Go to Blocks Editor.

  2. 2.

    For the button add the command when...do.

  3. 3.

    Add the values “18” and “Excellent”, of number and text form, using the right blocks.

  4. 4.

    Add one simple if block.

  5. 5.

    Find the block that checks a number, in the Math category, and add it to the white surface.

  6. 6.

    Find the comparison blocks, in the Logic category, and add the adequate one to the white surface.

  7. 7.

    Find the assign value block for label 2 and add it to the white surface.

  8. 8.

    The acts sequence that must be implemented is: on button click, check if the textbox has a number and if that is greater of the number 18. If it is greater, print the message “Excellent”.

  9. 9.

    Run the app in the emulator and check the results.

  10. 10.

    For your help you can use some of the blocks below (Image 1).

Image 1
figure 16

Blocks that can be used in the App’s blocks editor

Full size image

Sample Worksheet Activity - Educational Scenario 5.

2nd Activity.

To add functions to the objects of the first activity interface, the following steps are required:

  1. 1.

    Go to Blocks Editor.

  2. 2.

    Add a when...do block for the button.

  3. 3.

    Add an assign value block for the list object.

  4. 4.

    Add the blocks that are necessary for creating a list object and an empty list (make list – create empty list).

  5. 5.

    Add and initialize a global variable where the elements of the list are going to be stored.

  6. 6.

    The necessary sequence of acts is: initialize the variable by creating an empty list. On button click load the label values to the list and print the list elements.

  7. 7.

    Select the adequate blocks from Image 2 below and add them to the blocks editor in order for the App work as asked on step 6. Attention! You don’t have to use all the blocks displayed in the image.

  8. 8.

    Save and execute the App and check the results.

Image 2
figure 17

Featured blocks

Full size image
  1. 9.

    Could you upgrade the App so on a button click to delete the list elements? What blocks do you need?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Sample Worksheet Activity - Educational Scenario 7.

3rd Activity

  1. 1.

    Create a new project with the name ergasia7_c.

  2. 2.

    Add a Textbox, a Label and a clock.

  3. 3.

    Create the interface of the image below (Image 3), setting the properties of the clock as they are presented in Image 4.

  4. 4.

    You need to use the right blocks in order for the right time to appear on button click.

  5. 5.

    You can find help in the blocks listed in the image bellow (Image 5). You don’t have to use all the blocks and maybe some of the blocks must be used more than once.

  6. 6.

    Save and execute the App on the emulator.

Image 3
figure 18

Interface screen

Full size image
Image 4
figure 19

Object-properties screen

Full size image
Image 5
figure 20

Featured blocks

Full size image
  1. 7.

    Add another button. On button click the value of the textbox must be erased.

Sample Worksheet Activity – Educational Scenario 8.

1st Activity.

Create an interface.

  1. 1.

    Create a new project with the name workshop_scenario.

  2. 2.

    Create the interface of the image bellow (Image 6) using the components of Image 7 and set the right properties for them, according to the following table (Table 2).

Image 6
figure 21

Interface Screen

Full size image
Image 7
figure 22

Components

Full size image
Table 2 Objects’ values and properties
Full size table
  1. 3.

    You can adjust any other property you choose.

  2. 4.

    Save and execute the App in the emulator.

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Seralidou, E., Douligeris, C. Learning with the AppInventor programming software through the use of structured educational scenarios in secondary education in Greece. Educ Inf Technol 24, 2243–2281 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-09866-7

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