Variables in Practice. An Observation of Teaching Variables in Introductory Programming MOOCs

Motivation. Many people interested in learning a programming language choose online courses to develop their skills. The concept of variables is one of the most foundational ones to learn, but can be hard to grasp for novices. Variables are researched, but to our knowledge, few empirical observations on how the concept is taught in practice exist. Objective. We investigate how the concept of variables, and the respective naming practices, are taught in introductory Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) teaching programming languages. Methods. We gathered qualitative data related to variables and their naming from 17 MOOCs. Collected data include connections to other programming concepts, formal definitions, used analogies, and presented names. Results. We found that variables are often taught in close connection to data types, expressions, and program execution and are often explained using the 'variable as a box' analogy. The latter finding represents a stronger focus on 'storing values', than on naming, memory, and flexibility. Furthermore, MOOCs are inconsistent when teaching naming practices. Conclusions. We recommend teachers and researchers to pay deliberate attention to the definitions and analogies used to explain the concept of variables as well as to naming practices, and in particular to variable name meaning.