Creating and Evaluating a Useful Web Application for Introduction to Programming

Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to build a web application to teach students programming in Python through code puzzles that do not require them to write any code, to answer the research question How should a quiz application for introduction to Python programming be developed to be useful? The web application's utility and usability are evaluated through the learnability metric relative user efficiency. Data was collected and analyzed using Google Analytics and BigQuery. The study found that users were successfully aided with theoretical sections pertaining to the puzzles and even if programming is mainly a desktop activity there is still an interest for mobile access. Although evaluation of relative user efficiency did not serve as a sufficient learnability measure for this type of application, conclusions from the data analysis still gave insights into the utility of the web application.