Keywords

1 Introduction

Throughout the past decade, programming has been identified as a valuable skill that young students should attempt to acquire in order to meet the demands of a 21st-century workforce (Abiodun & Lekan, 2020; Vico et al., 2019). In the same vein, the paradigm shift that the educational sector experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic led many schools to reorient their pedagogical strategies by adopting ‘online teaching and learning’. Under these rapid changes, new opportunities to learn programming were presented, which emphasised the design and delivery of compelling learning experiences. This study focuses on a United Arab Emirates (UAE) national program to investigate the students’ practises of learning block-based programming, which is based on visual/graphical ways that matches the students’ age. The program was launched by a governmental organisation to teach Emirati children aged 7–14 the basics of programming, with the intentions of creating a new generation that is skilled with contemporary programming language skills.

With the wide spread of technology, many children are tech-savvy from a young age; however, they do not understand the true technical workings of computer technology (Kaplancali & Demirkol, 2017). Additionally, one could argue that most UAE schools do not allocate adequate material and time to teaching computing concepts and skills. This may be due to the priority given to other subjects, like math and science. Therefore, teachers could take advantage of the spread of online learning and direct it in a way to build students' knowledge in computing. In essence, this study attempts to highlight the critical need for programming skills for K-8 students and then investigate the effectiveness of using online learning environments to meet this need.

Investigating students’ practices in online learning environments is one of the current trends that many studies have discussed. However, inadequate attention has been paid to teaching programming to K-8 children (Lewis, 2020; Vico et al., 2019), especially in the online learning context in the UAE. It seems school leaders in the region are unaware of the fact that programming skills are crucial for all students and can be taught using different pedagogical approaches. Therefore, the current study attempts to address this gap in the literature. This paper highlights the importance of programming skills for K-8 students essential to cope with 21st requirements and investigates the students’ practice of learning programming in an online learning classroom, taking into account the students’ levels of understanding. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is driven by attempts to answer the following questions:

  • How effective are online learning environments for acquiring programming skills?

  • What are the students’ reflective perceptions of the online programming course?

2 Literature Review

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) proposed by Davis (1989) was adopted as a theoretical framework for this study. TAM focuses on two major elements that affect an individual's willingness to adopt new technology: perceivable ease of usage and perceivable usefulness (Boot & Charness, 2016). Students who perceive coding as too complex to learn, especially in such online learning environments, will be unlikely to learn it. Chao (2016) and Kong et al. (2018) argue that students may lack enthusiasm and confidence in programming learning because of the belief that programming requires sophisticated concepts. In contrast, students who perceive coding as providing needed future skills and as easy to understand will be more likely to learn (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
A block diagram has 6 components. Arrows point from external variables, to perceived usefulness and ease of use, and together point to attitude toward using, to behavioral intention to use, and actual system use. An arrow also points from perceived usefulness to behavioral intention to use.

Technology acceptance model (Davis, 1989)

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Papert (1972, 1980) also holds the view that children are programming the computer rather than computers programming the children in his constructionism theory that has been utilized and reported extensively in computing and technology literature. He believed that school children possess the capacity to learn and develop a deep understanding of programming, if they start learning from a young age. Recently, researchers have explored the adoption of online coding platforms, which may be especially well-suited for school students (Manita et al. 2021; Stephany et al. 2021). These platforms make coding simple for children to grasp; they rely on visual coding, which gamifies activities, uses goals, stories, and discoveries, and provides a more graphically appealing environment. Gray and Thomsen (2021) reveal in a recent study that the students who learn coding through digital play and playful approaches rapidly engage in the problem-solving process and make significant discoveries.

Programming is also a challenging subject for teachers to teach, and little attention has been paid to the teaching of programming in an online learning context (Nariman, 2021; Watson & Li, 2014). A recent study by Galdo et al. (2022) highlighted the fact that online education provides significant difficulties for students when it comes to programming. However, other researchers draw attention to the distinctive benefits of learning programming in an online context. These benefits include evaluating the students’ solutions in real-time and providing instant feedback (Daradoumis et al., 2019). Some authors (e.g., Abiodun & Leka, 2020) have attempted to compare the level of knowledge obtained during an online coding program versus that acquired via traditional methods coding. Despite the findings indicating that both interventions enhanced students’ computational thinking skills and competency, the class activities were limited in the online learning context by difficulty in grouping participants and technical problems caused by the Internet and power outages.

A growing body of literature has investigated the effectiveness of teaching block-based programming, especially for younger students. Tsai (2019) explored students’ perceptions after learning block-based programming and noted that the students found visual programming to be a helpful tool since they could look up relevant material on the Internet and learn from their mistakes. Furthermore, teaching block-based programming may considerably reduce student dropout rates (Benotti et al., 2018) and protect young students from making programming syntax errors (Ouahbi et al., 2015). However, some authors questioned its usefulness, claiming that when students transition to text-based coding, they feel overwhelmed by the language’s structure (De & Do, 2021; Lewis, 2020). Yet, Stead and Blackwell (2014) reported that block syntax could be viewed concurrently with text syntax in most online coding environments, and proven testing with students aged 11–12 have demonstrated that beginning with blocks rather than text improves children's comprehension of text syntax. Together, these studies demonstrate that programming is crucial for all students; nevertheless, some conflicting findings imply that additional research is needed to determine the effectiveness of programming, particularly block-based coding, in an online learning context.

3 Methodology

This paper utilises a mixed-method approach, which includes collecting qualitative data from classroom observation and quantitative data collected from surveys. The mixed-method approach is ideal since it combines the advantages of both (Creswell, 2018). Observation is an appropriate method for this study purpose because it allows the researcher to explore the detailed learning experience of the students in programming through an online environment. The survey aims to validate the qualitative results and avoid the bias that may occur from the researcher as she observes and represents her own work. The sample consists of 913 Emirati students from different schools and Emirates aged 7 to 14. The students were placed into two categories according to their age, the first category had younger students, and the second one had older students. All students had no prior experience with programming and were not familiar with the platform (Table 1).

Table 1 Demographic data of participants
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Table 2 Practical lessons involved in the program for younger and older students
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The program included curriculums from Tynker coding platform. Programming 201 was selected for the younger category and programming 301 for the older one. The curriculum is comprised of nine lessons that include unplugged exercises that teach the students how to work on computational thinking problems and Python programming challenges by creating animated stories, and games (Table 2).

Students’ performance was primarily observed in the first phase of data collection, and students’ lesson progress was considered and added to the observation results. In the second phase, an anonymous survey with close-ended questions was created using SurveyMonkey. The answers measure the participants’ perceptions about learning programming in an online learning environment. To ensure the study’s validity, students who respond with a strong agreement or agreement were counted, additionally, the survey has both positive and negative items to reduce the effects of bias.

This program switched to online learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. As a result, changes have been made to provide the program in online settings. The goal was to prepare students to do the programming tasks remotely, familiarize them with the coding platform (Tynker), and introduce them to basic programming concepts. To do so, we sent them an introductory video that showed them the importance of the program and the basic functionalities that they would need to use during the program two days before the program. A pilot lesson was sent to them one day before the program to ensure that the students were ready for the first day and not have any problem logging into the platform. The program’s sessions were organized using Zoom and WhatsApp groups were used as a way of communication between students and trainers. During the program, the students had to attend one session daily in which the trainers explain all the new concepts of the lesson; after that, the students were heading to Tynker to start working on their lesson based on what they understood from the session. The trainers were following up with all students to make sure that they are working properly and help them overtake any technical difficulty. The program has been developed in accordance with the constructionist theory and its basic principle.

4 Data Analysis and Results

Students faced some technical difficulties that impaired their ability to work on the first day. Some of them were confused about the process of activating their Tynker accounts and accessing their class to begin working. However, with the trainers’ support and following the videos’ instructions, they had begun immersing and working by the end of the day. Regarding the Tynker platform, it allowed students to engage with the tasks in a setting comparable to a real-world environment. Furthermore, Tynker helped teachers collect data on students’ participation and development and track nearly every student’s action. Students’ quiz results indicate that most students completed assigned lessons and made significant progress toward learning to code; on the other hand, a few students fell behind because of the lack of passion in the online learning environment. As a result, these students withdrew due to their inability to navigate the platform and comprehend the coding fundamentals. Surprisingly, the results showed that the withdrawn students from the older category are more than the withdrawn younger ones; moreover, the younger students attended and achieved more progress during the program than the older ones (Table 3).

Table 3 Percentage of students’ attendance, progress, and withdrawal
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Five hundred eleven (511) responses were collected from the students, and frequencies and percentages for each question were analysed. The results showed that most students were satisfied with the programming learning experience and eager to join more online programs in the future. The data collected was extracted in PIVOT tables which provided visual charts and analysed accordingly. The first question of the survey measured the students’ overall evaluation on learning to program in the online classroom. The results showed that most of the students are very satisfied with their learning experience (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2
A line graph. It plots the frequency versus the question, what is your evaluation of the online programming learning experience, for 5 ratings. It has a steep decline from 440 to 60, from very good to good, and declines to 0 at normal, and plateaus through not good and not good at all.

Evaluation of the online programming learning experience

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The next two questions were about the Tynker platform, how the students found it, and the frequency of using it (Figs. 3 and 4).

Fig. 3
A doughnut chart of the frequency of students entering the Tynker platform and completing the lessons through it. Daily, accounts for the majority of frequency.

Frequency of students entering the platform

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Fig. 4
A doughnut chart of the ease of learning through Tynker. Easy, accounts for the majority of frequency.

The ease of learning in the online Tynker

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The following part was about the trainers’ support. Most of students agreed that the trainers provided the needed support all the time (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5
A line graph plots the frequency versus the question did the trainers provide aid and support throughout the program, for 5 response categories. Always provided, tops with a value of 490, followed by 20 for provided support. It drops to 0 thereafter and plateaus through they didn't and they never.

Trainers’ support

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The last part of the survey asked the students about their eagerness to learn more programming in an online context, and how they rate their programming level after the program completion. The results showed that 99% of the students are satisfied with their programming level after this program, while only 1% of the students reported that their programming levels are still weak. Still, when they asked whether they prefer to join the future programs online or on campus, 55% of students preferred to participate in online programs, 44% of students showed their desire to join the program on campus, while 2% of the students showed their unwillingness in participating any future program (Figs. 6 and 7).

Fig. 6
A pie chart of the programming skills rate by frequency for 5 responses. Excellent, very good, good, and weak have decreasing shares. The response very weak, does not feature in the chart.

Programming skills rate

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Fig. 7
A pie chart of the eagerness to learn more programming by frequency for 5 responses. So excited, excited, neutral, not excited, and not excited at all are in the decreasing order of their shares.

Eagerness to learn more programming

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5 Discussion of The Results

This paper addresses the pedagogical concerns regarding learning coding in an online learning context; it aims to examine Emirati students’ performance following a two-week online coding session. By observing the students’ interaction during the program, the authors investigated the students’ performance and challenges of online programming activities. The analysis suggests that most students had positive attitudes towards online coding and got many benefits from it; for instance, they can work at their own pace and in their own style to learn and experiment with the subject. Instructors, in addition, have less administrative work to do, and they can use the course content in various ways. However, despite the many benefits of this learning mode, some students experienced some form of technical difficulty in programming and a lack of interaction with the online environment.

Turning now to the survey results, two survey questions obtained a 100% agreement. As can be observed by looking at the results, these items are as follows: the students’ programming skills have been advanced, and trainers have provided full support during the program. Additionally, the results showed 97% agreement of students’ eagerness to join more programming courses in the future. These agreements show that the participants have positive perceptions towards learning to code and agreed that they got many benefits from the online learning environment. However, when they were asked whether they wanted to attend more programs online or in the traditional classroom, they separated into two sections; 54.6 showed a willingness to participate in the future courses online, while 43.6 preferred to participate in the traditional classes. Other results from the survey show that some barriers prevented a few students from fully understanding online coding. This can be supported by the results that show that these students are not willing to join more coding programs. By comparing these findings to the literature, it is clear that despite the rapid expansion of online learning environments and the numerous advantages they provide in terms of creating courses that simulate more traditional classroom settings, particularly in programming, more research is needed to better understand the difficulties and barriers students face when they learn to code online, and how can we overcome them.

6 Conclusion

This study used a mixed-method approach to determine how Emirati students perceived programming in an online learning environment. The analysis of the qualitative results revealed encouraging results on students’ general perceptions of programming, with many achieving successes. While some reported technical challenges, the majority were more skilled than expected at resolving them. The findings indicated that students of this age could benefit from online learning programs. Also, the quantitative results validated the initial qualitative findings by elucidating all of the variables encountered by the Emirati students who participated in the program. The study suggests that a framework is needed to assist teachers in capturing student variety and implementing, evaluating, and determining what must be done in the online learning environment. Additionally, the authors recommend learning coding in various educational settings, such as the blended setting, where teachers are present and can facilitate the learning process.

This study added to the growing body of literature on the importance of programming skills for students and the impact of online learning environments in acquiring this skill, additionally, it paved the way for more research to integrate computational thinking and programming approaches in different learning approaches. The outcomes of this study may assist educational policymakers in better implementation of online learning, particularly in programming. The study can also help educators better prepare for the problems that students may confront with online programming and shed light on prospects for expansion within it, however, it has some limitations that may affect its generalizability. The participants included were all Emirati students having the same racial, cultural, and social backgrounds. Future studies are needed to conduct a similar investigation in different cultural contexts. The study also did not consider cheating and communication between students. It is necessary to determine whether online programming affects the quality of code presented by learners and the quality of communication with each other.