New motivations are required for freshman introductory programming
María Feldgen, Osvaldo Clúa · 2004
The perception of software engineering practice prevailing in today's students changed a lot from the image we had of the profession when we began our studies. Freshmen perceive the profession they chose from their experience, where Web and games were the most outstanding examples. The first course in programming traditionally addresses examples drawn from math and physics, and when motivation is required, from what we consider is the real world of professional development. But this real world is not the image that freshmen have as to what they will be doing for a living. So these kind of examples have lost their motivating power. Programming seems to be no more a vocational training for students pursuing a software engineering degree. We introduced Web and game programming examples instead of classical programming exercises in our first programming courses. This approach proved to be more motivating to our students.