Presenting Basic CS Concepts - A Content Analysis of AP CSA Textbooks.

There is extensive support for the use of examples to promote learning. In the field of computer science education, code examples are common, and research has focused on the efficacy of worked examples. Less attention has been paid to other aspects of presenting code examples in instructional materials, such as their type, characteristics, and order. This poster seeks to address some of those issues through a content analysis of the presentation of the initial code for basic computer science concepts in CS textbooks. The study found that the most common presentation style was example code without comments. Further, authors were not consistent in their choice of code snippet styles across lessons. Further research is needed to probe the efficacy of these instructional design choices.