The Basic Instructional Program: Conversion into Mainsail Language.
Abstract
The BASIC Instructional Program (BIP) is a sophisticated computer-based laboratory for instruction in elementary programming in the BASIC language. It was developed as an experimental system on the IMSSS PDP-10 research computer facility in a specialized high-level programming language called SAIL, which is presently available only to the PDP-10 user community. Thus, a proposal was made to rewrite BIP in a more machine-independent language, so that it could be implemented on other(notably, smaller) systems. BIP is a tutorial programming laboratory designed for students who have had previous training in programming. These students work on their problems at an interactive terminal under the constant supervision of the instructional program, which offers hints or assistance at their request. BIP monitors each student's programming attempts, continually updates its model of the student's knowledge, and uses an information network representation of the curriculum to allow individualized selection of the programming problems given to the student. Since BIP runs in an interactive environment, the student receives immediate feedback about any syntax errors and information about other errors as soon as they are detected. These features keep the student from going too far down the wrong track without some warning. BIP's interpreter is built into the instructional program so that further assistance is available after the first error message.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1978
- Accession Number
- ADA165814
Entities
People
- Mary L. Dageforde
Organizations
- Stanford University