Analyzing the Programming Process with Tangible Tools Using Co-occurrence Matrix

We developed a programing education tool “P-CUBE3”, which uses blocks with tangible information as its language. P-CUBE3 can control audio output by placing HIRAGANA (Japanese character) blocks on a “program mat”, and also implements an operation history acquisition system that can record the type of block, its position, and operation time. We conducted a hands-on programming lesson for visually impaired and sighted people, and analyzed the operation history data when they worked on a task program in the lesson. Participants in the lesson were classified into four groups according to whether they had programming experience or not and whether they had visual impairment or not. We classified the programming process into several patterns, and analyzed the relationship between the patterns using a co-occurrence matrix. We report on the characteristics of the programming process for the visually impaired and sighted.