Abstract:

Learning a computer programming language can be an intimidating experience for most novices. At first glance, the lines of code of a programming language can look like a very complex syntax and together with the abstract concepts involved can represent barriers that for some turn into fear of coding
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This paper presents and instructional design aimed to introduce students to the basic concepts of programming using visual programming alone as well as visual programming to program robots. Furthermore, the instructional design was applied in a case study: an introductory programming course for non-Computer Science students. Weekly observations as well as surveys at the beginning and at the end of the course were made to provide insights on students’ motivation, engagement, self-perceived skills, and self-perceived emotions such as confusion, frustration, anger, boredom, curiosity, happiness, surprise and fear. The results are analyzed and discussed in relation to the influence on students’ ability to overcome the barriers mentioned above as well as students’ learning experience.

Keywords:

Learning programming, visual programming, robots programming, learning with robots.