Research

Co-creating a Python toolkit to develop students’ programming proficiency

Principal investigator: Rehan SHAH
Co-investigator(s): Muhie Sultan Faisal Al Haimus (SEMS undergraduate) , Yash Vaghela (SEMS undergraduate) and Ilanthiraiyan Sivagnanamoorthy (SEMS undergraduate)

In response to student feedback from previous runs of the first-year undergraduate SEMS mathematics module, Dr. Rehan Shah, in conjunction with three former students (Mr Muhie Sultan Faisal Al Haimus, Mr Yash Vaghela and Mr Ilanthiraiyan Sivagnanamoorthy) from his modules, have co-created a Python Common Errors and Practice Questions toolkit guide to help new incoming first-year students, who may need additional guidance and support with Python within their undergraduate mathematics modules, particularly those with no previous programming experience.

The Common Errors toolkit serves as a supplementary resource for students to use alongside their existing Python tutorials on Jupyterhub and documents the standard errors that students most often make, along with ways to rectify these. This is supplemented by a set of additional practice questions and Python exercises to give students a chance to hone and refine their basic programming skills.