Screencasts on Standard ML in German

The first exam in a lecture on functional programming saw a failure rate of over 68%, which I have written about in my previous post on why students fail entry-level programming exams. The resit had been scheduled on a date almost exactly six months later, with no additional lectures or support of any kind in between. Students that failed the initial exam were expected to work through the contents again, this time entirely on their own.

It should be obvious that the results would largely remain the same. If students did not understand the topic the first time around, chances are that being left to their own devices with the same material would not yield a different outcome. In fact, one should expect them to do even worse, considering the interference by additional lectures in the meantime.

This injustice inspired me to record several screencasts on Standard ML in German aimed at those students with little to no understanding of functional programming.

The series consists of 18 episodes ranging in duration from eight minutes to just over an hour, totaling nine hours. Each episode focuses on a topic such as data types, recursion and currying, giving examples on how to use these concepts in practice.

You can find the videos on their course page.