Tools and Techniques for Test-Driven Learning in CS1

Test-Driven Development is a design strategy where a set of tests over a class is defined prior to the implementation of that class. The goal is to use the tests to exercise the class being developed, to provide immediate feedback of the overall quality of the code, and to identify and correct bugs as they are written. Testing is usually performed with automated testing tools, such as JUnit, which give clear feedback about the status of the tests1. The test-first approach requires students to think about the problem, identify corner cases, analyze ways their code may fail, and evaluate the goodness of their design. This paper presents a tool for teaching CS1 using a Test-First approach that will allow students to construct their tests using a simple GUI interface. The goal is to give CS1 students the ability to do test-driven development independently.