• Thank you for your previous support of the Alice project.

• Let’s see what you’ve helped make possible….

Getting students interesting in computing again

PI: Randy Pauschpausch@cmu.eduCarnegie Mellon University

Alice

www.alice.orgFor more information…

For the last 25 years…• We have taught computer programming the same

way:– Students types his/her program with the keyboard– There is a frustrating need to get the syntax correct– The program produces textual output

• 25 years ago, producing textual output was cool; it isn’t now.

The Java Program:class HelloWorldApp {

public static void main(String[] args) { System.out.println("Hello World!");}

}

Prints Out:Hello World!

We have lost over 50% ofCS majors in the last 7 years

• http://www.cra.org/CRN/articles/march06/vegso.html

TotalMedianPerDept.

Projected Jobs vs Projected Bachelor's Degrees

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

Professional ITOccupations

Engineering Life Science Physical Science

Per

cen

tag

e

Projected % New and Replacement Jobs Projected % Bachelor's Degrees

The Alice System (www.alice.org)

• Allows students to learn computer programming more easily– Drag-and-Drop editor for creating programs– Programs are 3D movies or games

• Alice has been formally shown to improve learning and retention in college students

• The approach of “telling stories with 3D movies” has been formally shown to motivate middle school girls

• Provided free (open source) by Carnegie Mellon

• Runs on Windows, Mactinosh, and Linux

Live Demo

We steal from the best…

• Walt Disney Imagineering’s “Player” for interactive 3d content

• Alan Kay/Squeak for the drag-and-drop interface

Alice has always been free.Alice will always continue to be free.

Pedagogically: Why Alice Works

1. No syntax-based frustration

2. Data is visible; changes are animated; you can see what is happening

3. Highly motivating

Seven textbooks have beenwritten based on Alice.

Roughly 10% of US Colleges Already Teach With Alice

• Highest penetration at Community Colleges (where need is greatest)

• Primarily Used for “CS1”, “pre-CS1”, and “computer literacy” courses.

Last 12 months, at www.alice.org

• 3.5 million page views• 528,000 unique visitors• 158,000 IP addresses performed 440,540

downloads of the system.• (this excludes CD/textbook distribution)

linux1%

windows90%

macintosh9%

Alice helps at-risk CS majors

Declared CS majors at Ithaca College and St. Joseph’s University

CS1 Grade Take CS2?

No Alice Class

Prior to CS1C 47%

Alice Class

Prior to CS1B 88%

Alice helps at-risk CS majors

Declared CS majors at Ithaca College and St. Joseph’s University

CS1 Grade Take CS2?

No Alice Class

Prior to CS1C 47%

Alice Class

Prior to CS1B 88%

M. Moskal, D. Lurie, and S. Cooper, Evaluating the Effectiveness of a New Instructional Approach. In Proceedings of 2004 SIGCSE Conference, (Norfolk, VA).

Java Code Alice Code (Java Mode)

Alice is “real programming”

Alice and Middle School Girls

• Recent Ph.D. dissertation by Caitlin Kelleher (starting on faculty this fall at Washington U. in St. Louis!)

• Present programming as a means to the end of storytelling.

• She measured the benefits of this storytelling approach

Evaluation with Girls Scouts

But we believe the approach works for both genders and all ages.

Formative: ~250 usersSummative: 88 users

Formative: Storyboards

“D kneels down to see if they were ok”

Storyboard ActionsActions in Storyboards

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

dialog locomotion manipulation camera body position expression

action category

nu

mb

er o

f ac

tio

ns

Summative: Three Activities in Alice

1: Scene Layout

2: Editing Programs

3: Running Programs

Users of Storytelling Alice spend 42% more time programming (as opposed to doing scene layout)

Average % Time Spent on Alice Activities

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

Scene Layout Editing Program Running Program

Generic Alice

Storytelling Alice

p < 0.001

p< 0.001

Storytelling Alice motivates reluctant programmers

Scene Layout vs. Program Editing

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Time (%) Editing Program

Tim

e (

%)

on

Scen

e L

ayo

ut

Generic Alice

Storytelling Alice motivates reluctant programmers

Scene Layout vs. Program Editing

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Time (%) Editing Program

Tim

e (

%)

on

Scen

e L

ayo

ut

Generic Alice

Storytelling Alice motivates reluctant programmers

Scene Layout vs. Program Editing

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Time (%) Editing Program

Tim

e (

%)

on

Scen

e L

ayo

ut

Generic Alice Storytelling Alice

Time on task is a strong predictor of learning

Scene Layout vs. Program Editing

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Time (%) Editing Program

Tim

e (

%)

on

Scen

e L

ayo

ut

Generic Alice Storytelling Alice

Sneaking Extra Time

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Show non-main world

Alice Program

Per

cen

tag

e o

f U

sers

Generic Alice Storytelling Alice

Users of Storytelling Alice are more likely to sneak extra time to continue programming.

p < 0.001

What’s Next?

• We have made inroads in college and high school

• Caitlin Kelleher’s work shows the way forward

Production Values Matter

Best Selling PC Games of all time:1. The Sims (16 million) 2. Myst (9 million) 3. Starcraft (9 million) 4. Half-Life (8 million) 5. Age of Empires II (7 million) 6. World of Warcraft (5 million) 7. The Sims 2 (4.5 million) 8. Diablo II (4 million) 9. Doom (3 million) 10.Half-Life 2 (3 million) 11.StarCraft: Brood War (3 million) 12.Warcraft II (3 million) 13.Warcraft III (3 million) 14.Age of Empires (3 million) 15.Diablo (2.5 million) 16.Civilization III (2.5 million) 17.Quake (1.8 million) 18.Battlefield 1942 (1.5 million) 19.Civilization IV (1.2 million)

Best Selling PC Games of all time:1. The Sims (16 million) 2. Myst (9 million) 3. Starcraft (9 million) 4. Half-Life (8 million) 5. Age of Empires II (7 million) 6. World of Warcraft (5 million) 7. The Sims 2 (4.5 million) 8. Diablo II (4 million) 9. Doom (3 million) 10.Half-Life 2 (3 million) 11.StarCraft: Brood War (3 million) 12.Warcraft II (3 million) 13.Warcraft III (3 million) 14.Age of Empires (3 million) 15.Diablo (2.5 million) 16.Civilization III (2.5 million) 17.Quake (1.8 million) 18.Battlefield 1942 (1.5 million) 19.Civilization IV (1.2 million)

And more female than male players!

Production Values Matter

The Future: Alice v3.0

• Available in 2008.

• Goal: Alice as the system to teach introductory programming.

• Driven by Caitlin Kelleher’s findings about storytelling – Students are motivated to make movies (or videogames)

• Electronic Arts (EA) has given us $300,000 and permission to use the characters and animations from “The SimsTM 2” in Alice v3.0

• Heinz Foundation has given us $200,000

• Alice v3.0 will us Java as the student language– Drag & drop interface *or* typing code (whichever you prefer)

We have already done the hard engineering: this scene uses Sims II characters, and is

rendered in an early prototype of Alice v3.0

Live Demo