Abstract
AbstractPrevious research studies on introductory programming courses in engineering education in Portugal and Serbia have indicated that although high motivation and high expectations seem to be reported by students, many students may fail the course. This prompted a further inquiry into student attitudes, behavior, and achievement, and it also led to the introduction of C Tutor, a widely known program visualization tool, into courses in both countries. As a result, in the present study, self‐reported student achievement (grades), self‐reported student progress (knowledge improvement and confidence), and self‐reported usage and helpfulness of C Tutor were investigated. Anonymous data about students and their experience in the course, which also included the usage of C Tutor, were collected in a survey in Portugal and Serbia. Quantitative methods, including descriptive statistics, clustering, statistical testing of independence, and partial correlation analysis, were applied in analyses of survey data. The distribution of grades differed between the two countries, but overall attitudes were similar. Various uncovered patterns involving student attitudes and usage of C Tutor may serve as a starting point for new research studies.
Highlights
Learning programming may be a challenging task, even for students at the university level
The present study considered only introductory programming courses in the context of higher education
As the present study explored patterns related to the usage of C Tutor, courses with a relatively low number of students familiar with C Tutor were excluded from the investigation
Summary
Learning programming may be a challenging task, even for students at the university level. Within the scope of a bilateral research project between Portugal and Serbia, it was observed that pass rates were rather low in some introductory programming courses [5] and that enrolled students generally reported low entrance knowledge [6]. These negative trends might have far‐reaching implications, as many struggling students may drop out at the Comput Appl Eng Educ. Beginning of their studies, or even if they manage to complete introductory courses, the level of attained knowledge may be barely sufficient for advanced courses Such negative outcomes could be disquieting for programming teachers, especially as students in the two countries may start their programming courses with high expectations and strong motivation [6]. The collected survey data were explored in search of any major patterns that may be related to one or more of the posed questions, especially to those regarding C Tutor
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