smol-tutor

SMoL Tutor

SMoL Tutor is a web app that corrects common misconceptions about basic concepts in modern programming languages. Specifically, the tutor teaches you, for example, how to answer the following questions:

• Why does the following program produce an error rather than 2 or 3?

let x = 2;
function main() {
  function getX() {
    return x;
  }
  let y = getX();
  let x = 3;
  return y;
}
console.log(main());

• Why is v evaluated to [1,2,[4]] rather than to [1,2,[3]]?

let x = [ 3 ];
let v = [ 1, 2, x ];
x[0] = 4;
console.log(v);

Read this blog post to learn more about the SMoL Tutor.

Tutorials

These tutorials are hosted with Google Apps Script. We do record your work in the tutorials to exercises for research purposes, but will not share it with any third parties. We do not record your identity.

Each tutorial typically takes 10-20 min (rarely exceeding 30 min). You can save the finished tutorials to PDF once you finish. However, you will lose your work if you close a tutorial in the middle.

Here are all tutorials.

Changes since 2023

• Added a secondary display for each code block. The secondary display presents the same code in a different syntax.
• Added a tutorial that ask students to think about program behavior in the context of refactoring.
• Added new syntaxes: Scala 3 (not applicable to stacker) and Pseudo (a pseudo-code syntax)
• Some questions now feature a “graphical” refutation text, which pinpoint misconceptions in the context of stacker (a notional machine).

Changes since 2022

• Added buttons for each code block to see JavaScript/Python translation.
• Replaced the copy-program-with-lang-line buttons with run buttons for running in the new web-based stacker. These buttons interact with the syntax-choosing buttons mentioned above.
• Added a summary of goal sentences at the end of each tutorial.
• Added a “print” button at the end of each tutorial. The buttons save the finished tutorials to a PDF.
• Ensured that all number literals have only two digits to avoid confusion with heap addresses.
• Replaced post-test questions such that their programs are isomorphic to the programs in their corresponding pre-tests.
• “In-lined” the previously external Google forms.
• Added some questions that ask for an explanation on why a program doesn’t produce an expected result.
• Improved README on how to customize the logging system.