Beyond Course Availability: An Investigation into Order and Concurrency Effects of Undergraduate Programming Courses on Learning.
Andrew Urbaczewski, Lise Urbaczewski · 1997
The objective of this study was to find the answers to two primary research questions: Do students learn programming languages better when they are offered in a particular order, such as 4th generation languages before 3rd generation languages?; and Do students learn programming languages better when they are taken in separate semesters as opposed to simultaneously? Students from nine introductory programming classes over two semesters at a large Midwestern university were used as subjects for this experiment; 275 students responded to a survey at the end of the semester. Subject responses were divided into three groups, depending on the class being rated. These classes were: introduction to Visual Programming, introduction to COBOL programming, and introduction to C programming. To test hypotheses, linear regression was used, running the data against two separate dependent variables, grade and comfort factor. Mixed results were found for the different types of classes. (AEF) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** BEYOND COURSE AVAILABILITY: AN INVESTIGATION INTO ORDER AND CONCURRENCY EFFECTS OF UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMMING COURSES ON LEARNING U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES fNFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) D1 This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. O Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. INTRODUCTION Andrew Urbaczewski Indiana University Lise Urbaczewski Indiana University The process of undergraduate MIS education is constantly evolving. As educators, we find ourselves in a constant state of curriculum redesign, often to meet the demands of the various recruiters that visit our campuses each Fall looking for new talent in the expanding field. Quite often, these new technologies are programming languages. It is common today to hear recruiters ask for students skilled in C++,Visual Basic, Powerbuilder, or Java before entering the job market. In accordance with Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) curriculum design guidelines (ACM 1991), we incorporate these technologies into our curriculums, keeping the content as current as possible. However, in the rush to design our curriculums to give students maximum exposure to required technologies, perhaps we overlooked factors to maximize learning efficiency in our students. A debate exists today over the proper method of programmer instruction. Research has been conducted in the past to find the optimal sequence for offering programming instruction. Veteran programmers learned the older second and third generation languages (2GLs and 3GLs) before they learned 4GLs because no 4GLs existed. Students now are often afforded the opportunity to learn a 4GL or object-oriented programming language without ever learning a 3GL. Empirical research in the past has found mixed results (Manns and Carlson 1992, Rosson and Alpert 1990), while authors have made PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY