Learning Principles and the Secure Programming Clinic

Several academic institutions have run a clinic on robust and secure programming. Each time a clinic was run, it was associated with a specific class. Using pre- and post-class evaluation instruments, it is clear that the effect of the secure programming clinic on students’ understanding of secure programming was generally positive. However, in some instances the clinic was underutilized, and in other cases it could not be run at other institutions. The goal of this paper is to examine the structure of the clinic in light of five basic learning principles, and provide information about when a clinic will not improve students’ understanding, and when it will. We validate this by examining an instance of the secure programming clinic, and show how the learning principles explain the improvement in student grades, or lack thereof. From this, we draw conclusions about ways to make the clinic more effective, and when it will not be effective.