Programming divergence between the tutorial game and a student-created game.
Creativity from Divergence in Programming
On a CTPA graph, the CT patterns for the standard or official tutorial of a given game overlap the analyzed CT patterns of the submitted game in different colors. CTPA computes the divergence between a student’s work and the tutorial approach by calculating the difference between those two graphs [1, 2]. In the above figure, the difference or space between the tutorial (green) and the submitted artifact (brown) visually displays the divergence of a student’s Frogger game from the tutorial “norm.” Because each axis on the CTPA graph represents one element in a vector, the CTPA graph represents a nine-element vector; each vector element represents a CT programming pattern that could be chosen by the student as part of their programming solution. Thus, the divergence of a student-created artifact from the tutorial “norm” can be calculated as the difference between two, nine-element vectors; one vector is derived from the tutorial, and the other is derived from the submitted artifact. The divergence calculation can significantly inform the measurement of creativity within programming and possibly other scientific areas.
- Koh, K. H., Bennett, V., Repenning, A., Computing Indicators of Creativity, ACM Creativity & Cognition 2011, The High Museum of Art · Atlanta, Georgia, USA, November 3-6, 2011.
- Bennett, V., Koh, K. H., Repenning, A., Computing Creativity: Divergence in Computational Thinking, ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Conference, (SIGCSE 2013), March 6-9, 2013, Denver, Colorado, USA