A taxonomy of exercises to support individual learning paths in initial programming learning

Initial programming learning is known to be difficult to many students. To improve this situation it is necessary to support students learning effectively. This means that learning activities should be adapted to each student learning pace and specific needs. This is difficult considering that classes often have a large number of students. The definition of individual learning paths adaptable according to the student performance might help to improve the situation. To support the definition of learning paths it is useful to have a large set of exercises, organized according to a taxonomy that includes different dimensions and parameters relevant to the choice of appropriate exercises at any moment. To present this taxonomy is the main objective of this paper.