CodePilot

Scaffolding Online Novice Developer Collaboration

ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems — CHI 2017 CodePilot

Novice programmers often have trouble installing, configuring, and managing disparate tools (e.g., version control systems, testing infrastructure, bug trackers) that are required to become productive in a modern collaborative software development environment. To lower the barriers to entry into software development, we created a prototype IDE for novices called CodePilot, which is, to our knowledge, the first attempt to integrate coding, testing, bug reporting, and version control management into a real-time collaborative system. CodePilot enables multiple users to connect to a web-based programming session and work together on several major phases of software development. An eight-subject exploratory user study found that first-time users of CodePilot spontaneously used it to assume roles such as developer/tester and developer/assistant when creating a web application together in pairs. Users felt that CodePilot could aid in scaffolding for novices, situational awareness, and lowering barriers to impromptu collaboration.

Interactive Testing

testing

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