Empirical evaluation of distributed pair programming

Pair programming, in which two individuals share a single computer to collaboratively develop software, has been shown to have many benefits in industry and in education. One drawback of pair programming is its collocation requirement, which limits its use to situations where the partners can physically meet. A tool that supported distributed pair programming, in which the partners could pair from separate locations, would remove this impediment.This paper discusses the development and empirical evaluation of such a tool. A significant feature of this tool is the presence of a second cursor that supports gesturing. Students who used the tool in their introductory programming course performed as well as collocated students on their programming assignments and final exam. These students also spent less time working by themselves. They also felt that the gesturing feature was useful and used it regularly.