See the Collaboration Through the Code: Using Data Mining and CORDTRA Graphs to Analyze Blocks-Based Programming

Abstract

This paper describes an exploratory study that leveraged data mining, qualitative analysis, and Chronologically-Ordered Representations of Discourse and Tool-Related Activity (CORDTRA) diagrams to identify and analyze key moments in students' collaborative app building during a 12-week computing curriculum. Our analysis showed that two key practices emerged: 1) Students leveraged their past work and tutorials to support their app development, both on their own and with peers; and 2) Students largely developed their own parts of group apps without feedback from peers or referencing prior work. We discuss how patterns revealed in this mixed-methods approach affected how students constructed code, with an eventual goal of identifying how these patterns shaped students' final projects.