Coding Strip – Using Comics to Teach Core Computer Concepts

The article Coding Strip: A Pedagogical Tool for Teaching and Learning Programming Concepts through Comics https://sanghosuh.github.io/assets/pdf/codingstrip_vlhcc.pdf  describes the design process researchers at the University of Waterloo used to teach many of the core concepts taught in introductory computer science courses.

Building on the concept books like Lauren Ipsum https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/15607718 and Secret Coders https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/15934462 which use comics to teach the concepts of coding without any code, these researchers used tools like https://excalidraw.com/ to connect code to storytelling illustrated through comic panels. This website https://sanghosuh.github.io/codingtoon-sigse/ describes the design process, and provides demos, as well as use cases related to teaching coding with comics. 

The ideas in the article align with some aspects of culturally relevant pedagogy, specifically, storifying (See Step 3): https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies/  Further, depending on what content is used in the comics, the drawings can also help activate prior in students from what is being taught, to what students already know, so they have a better chance of understanding and retaining what an instructor may want them to know. https://blogs.iu.edu/luddyteach/2021/07/20/evidenced-based-teaching-in-stem-and-activating-prior-knowledge/

Additional Resource: Using Comics to Introduce and Reinforce Programming Concepts in CS1 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3408877.3432465