Causes of Failure of University Students in Computer Programming Courses : The Case of Wachemo University

Abstract

Computer programming courses are among the important components of the curriculum to be studied, not only in the school of Computing and Informatics, but also in most of the field including Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering Science departments. In this research, a study was conducted to investigate and explore the views of students for the failure and difficulties they faced in learning fundamental programming courses. There are many factors that influence the high rate of failure of students in computer programming courses. This paper focuses on the teaching and learning methodologies and strategies that are implemented in teaching of programming courses. This is a major factor for consideration; hence an investigation into the causes of failure of students in computer programming courses from the learner perspective with regard to the teaching methodology used by teachers to teach these courses is relevant and very important concept. Computer programming courses form part of the core concentration areas for students especially studying in school of computing and informatics as an undergraduate degree program. Computer programming students are expected to prove capabilities in the principles of programming and logic that are being taught in the course; even though some of these concepts are highly intellectual and multifaceted. Their opinions to the usefulness of the teaching methods being implemented in computer programming courses were required for. The needs and concerns about the teaching and learning methods are highlighted in the survey and discussed thereby leading to the making of suggestions about the ways to improve the teaching and learning methods that are used in computer programming courses in order to advance understanding of computer programming, when studied by students thereby minimizing failure rates of those students.

Programming learning and teaching of pre-service computer science teachers: Challenges, concerns, and solutions

“…They expressed that CS teachers should prioritize giving students the ability to create algorithms. Demilie (2019) also noted that teachers should prioritize creating algorithms by using flowcharts for students to acquire problem-solving skills through programming teaching. Pre-service CS teachers focused on unplugged activities (computerless coding) as another essential issue for programming teaching.…”

Why University Students Fail in Most Computer Programming Courses: The Case of Wachemo University-Student-Teacher Perspective

“…Students' difficulty in computer programming is not unique to only computing and informatics schools of Wachemo University but extents across other Science and Engineering field students too'. Research works conducted about failures in computer programming courses have most often focused on the failure or the weakness of the student to understand the concepts in detail what it mean (Demilie, 2019)(In, In, Of, & In, 2016. Many of these students find computer programming to be hard and disheartening especially when they are beginners and even when they take advanced computer programming language courses.…”

eRequirement Elicitation Techniques for a C-Programming Learning Application

“…Therefore, there is a need to produce computer science and engineering graduates with good programming skills (Chaka, 2020). However, learning programming is challenging for beginners (Cheah, 2020;Demilie, 2019). Many students claim it is difficult to understand the concept of programming and its execution behaviour (Islam et al, 2019;Qian & Lehman, 2019).…”