Remote Pair Programming

Computing students often learn to program individually or in variously-sized groups whilst studying in computing laboratories and face-to-face classes. Previous research indicates that learning via pair programming can lead to students improving the quality of their programming, enhancing their programming skills and increasing their self-confidence when programming. Pair programming also is well established as a mechanism that supports peer learning and self-assessment for novice and more experienced students of programming. Observed benefits include increased self-efficacy, sharing of expertise, improved communication and team-working - all enhancing employability. A considerable amount of existing work has examined pair programming benefits as they relate to campus-based students pairing face-to-face in a laboratory class - but how can distance learning students experience such benefits? This paper describes the preliminary results from a pilot study to investigate the benefits to distance learning students of engaging in Remote Pair Programming in their learning. Our investigation goes beyond academic learning to explore community, social and employability benefits, all of which are relevant to national measures of student satisfaction.