Critical Thinking Sheet (CTS) for Design Thinking in Programming Courses

Abstract

We present a quick design process, which encourages learners to sketch their design, reflect on the main algorithm and consider how to implement it. In-depth design processes have their advantages, but often are not practical within the time given to the student, and may not fit the learning outcomes of the module. Without any planning students often jump into coding without contemplating what they will do, leading to failure or poor design. Our single-sheet method, allows the learners to critically think of the challenge and decompose the problem into several subproblems (the appearance, functionality and algorithmic steps of the solution). We have successfully used this technique for three years in a second year computer graphics module, for undergraduate degree students studying Computer Science. We present our method, explain how we use it with second year computer graphics students, and discuss student's experiences with the method