Classroom Practice with Learning Support System for Program Design Using Mock Technique Based on Testability

The importance of automated testing skills for programmers has increased in recent software development. However, novice programmers have few opportunities to learn how to design software components suited to automated testing. Therefore, we constructed a learning support system that can conduct an exercise to analyze and improve program design from the viewpoint of testability. However, our previous system did not support design improvement using mock techniques, and test target components to be practiced are limited. Furthermore, component design with mock techniques is related to learning object-oriented design concepts. It is an important element for learners to perform their software development using the test-driven development (TDD) approach. Therefore, in this study, we extended the system to support learning for designing the test target component using mock techniques. We experimented with the learning effect of the system on supporting learners to analyze and improve the design of the test target component using mock techniques. We also confirmed the system’s applicability by introducing it into a TDD exercise in a real classroom.