Cole-Programming: Shaping Collaborative Learning Support in Eclipse

In the teaching of those subjects related to computer programming competences, a teaching/learning methodology based on problem solving is often used, which sometimes involves the application of techniques such as pair programming. In addition, to perform the programming-related tasks, it is common to use professional integrated development environments. Thus, it may be interesting to integrate tools in these environments so that they can support the teaching/learning process. This paper discusses how we have adapted an existing eclipse-based system for learning programming, so that now it has support for collaborative tasks. The new features have been specially designed to solve programming-related assignments and integrated into the learning environment. We also analyze the first impressions gathered from students in the initial experiences made on the system.