First course in computer science, a small survey

Furugori, T.; Jalics, P.

doi:10.1145/800104.803372

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Smith and Rickman (1976) were also seeking a replacement for FORTRAN, developing a well-designed set of criteria, including pedagogical factors, resource constraints, and political issues through which they 'graded' ALGOL W, APL, Assembler, Basic, COBOL, EULER, Structured FORTRAN, LISP, Pascal, PL/I, and SNOBOL. Furugori and Jalics (1977) reported that the results of their survey indicated that over half of the respondents still used FORTRAN in their introductory courses, while PL/I was used in a quarter of the schools. Finally, in 1978, Schneider indicated a trend toward the use of Pascal in classes.…”

Section: The 1970smentioning

confidence: 99%

The History of Computer Language Selection

Parker

Davey

2012

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology

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Abstract. This examines the history of computer language choice for both industry use and university programming courses. The study considers events in two developed countries and reveals themes that may be common in the language selection history of other developed nations. History shows a set of recurring problems for those involved in choosing languages. This study shows that those involved in the selection process can be informed by history when making those decisions.

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Section: The 1970smentioning

confidence: 99%

The History of Computer Language Selection

Parker

Davey

2012

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology

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A Motivation Guided Holistic Rehabilitation of the First Programming Course

Nikula

Gotel

Kasurinen

2011

ACM Trans. Comput. Educ.

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It has been estimated that more than two million students started computing studies in 1999 and 650,000 of them either dropped or failed their first programming course. For the individual student, dropping such a course can distract from the completion of later courses in a computing curriculum and may even result in changing their course of study to a curriculum without programming. In this article, we report on how we set out to rehabilitate a troubled first programming course, one for which the dropout statistic and repercussion was evident. The five-year longitudinal case study described in this article began by systematically tracking the pass rate of a first programming course, its throughput, as proposed by the Theory of Constraints. The analyses of these data indicated three main problems in the course: programming discipline difficulty, course arrangement complexity, and limited student motivation. The motivation problem was approached from the Two-Factor Theory point of view. It investigated those factors that led to dissatisfaction among the students, the hygiene factors, and those factors that led to satisfaction, the intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. The course arrangement complexity was found to be a hygiene factor, while the lack of extrinsic and intrinsic motivators contributed to the high dropout rates. The course improvement efforts made no attempt to change the inherent characteristics of the programming discipline, but introduced holistic changes in the course arrangements over a five-year period, from 2005 to 2009, to eliminate the hygiene factors and to increase motivational aspects of the course. This systems approach to course improvement resulted in an increase in the pass rate, from 44% prior to the changes to 68% thereafter, and the overall course atmosphere turned positive. This paper reports on the detailed changes that were made and the improvements that were achieved over this five-year period.

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A study of the first course in computers

Gruener¹,

Graziano²

1978

SIGCSE Bull.

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This paper describes the first course in computers as taught at community colleges, colleges, or universities. The paper is divided into two major parts. The first part describes four Approaches and three courses. The four Approaches refer to the mix of language constructs and computer concepts; the Approaches underlie the presentation used in teaching the three courses. The second part discusses the frequency of occurrence of these courses based on a survey performed by Addison-Wesley.

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First course in computer science, a small survey

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

The History of Computer Language Selection

The History of Computer Language Selection

A Motivation Guided Holistic Rehabilitation of the First Programming Course

A study of the first course in computers

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