Leveraging KOALA for Programming Data Collection: A Half-Day Tutorial for Research Application

In the context of teaching programming, it is crucial for educators to have access to data regarding the learners' behavior within coding tools. Such data provides valuable insights into how students approach problem-solving and develop their programming skills, enabling improvements to teaching practices. Moreover, it plays a critical role in conducting research experiments, testing prototypes, and validating new ideas, providing a foundation for advancing educational tools and methods. However, many existing tools tend to be limited in terms of configurability and the types of data that can be collected, often presenting a significant barrier to entry for educators. In order to address these challenges, the KOALA tool was developed as a robust and configurable solution for collecting programming data within JetBrains integrated development environments (IDEs) developed by JetBrains. The aim of this tutorial is to present the KOALA tool, a plugin compatible with all JetBrains IDEs. This tool is designed to facilitate the collection of detailed student interaction data during the task-solving process, including step-by-step code changes and IDE events. Furthermore, it provides the capability to control and customize IDE settings, such as disabling features like auto-completion, enabling researchers to create controlled experimental environments tailored to specific studies. The tutorial will provide a practical demonstration of the tool's capabilities by utilizing it in an in-IDE programming course.