Engaging and Supporting Students in Exploratory and Collaborative Activities: The Use of e-ECLip and ACT Environments in Learning Programming

e-ECLiP aims to establish a learning environment which promotes students’ active involvement, contributes to the knowledge construction and the development of skills in programming through students’ engagement in exploratory and collaborative activities. The collaboration is facilitated through the ACT tool, a synchronous communication tool that supports mechanisms for adaptation and personalization of the communication as well as for students’ self-regulation. In the study presented, students of secondary education worked with e-ECLiP and collaborated through ACT in the context of a programming course. The results revealed that the educational setting used, the proposed didactical approach, and the context of the activities contributed positively in the comprehension of the loop construct and its application in solving simple problems. Also, the students admitted positively the supported synchronous communication tool and appreciated the provided facilities. It seems that the ACT tool can serve the context of the activities and the supported self-regulation mechanism can help students in improving their collaborative behaviour.