Next semester I am teaching an online class on Data Structures and Algorithms. The students will have had two programming classes in C++ and Java each. I am looking for a way to engage the students in the problem solving approach. So any assistance is appreciated.
Computer Games could be a good alternative for your for your purpuse, very motivational for the students. There are some papers about this way of teaching data structures and algorithms. I teach introduction to artificial intelligence by using computer games ( I do not mean serious games). I mean students create their own computer games and they implemennt the AI algorithms seen during the course (e.g. A*). I have had good learning results. Good Luck
I found that the website hackerrank.com (https://www.hackerrank.com/) has many interesting exercises regarding algorithms. Students may able to code by using any language such as C++, Java, Python, and so on. To do that, they must create their account before enjoy it. Moreover, this site will track their rank based on their performance. This rank may be also helpful for them if they want to show their effort/ability with their employers in the future.
If the students are begginers at these subjects try taking it step by step. A project would be nice to get them involved. You may try to give them little short codes to begin with and they can easily catch up with the programming logic. Consider using online simulators since they may not have knowledge in programming applications. That way everyone will be on the same track of the project. Good luck!
I agree with Enxhisa Shurdha. I faced the same problem some time ago. My students had attented, before the "Data Structures" course, "Stuctured Programming" using ANSI C, at the first semester, and "Object Oriented Programming" using C++, at the second semester. I started defining the basic operations on stacks (matrix implementation at the beggining, while after that, implementation with self referential structures). I gave to my students some fragments of code with the proper explanations while asking them to finish small projects. After that, we continued with queues, single linked lists, double linked lists and so on. Each one or two weeks the students have to make two or three small projects (200-300 lines) about the current subjects. The projects are geting more complex progressivelly as the weeks pass.
- Badges
- Science topic