Abstract:

Learning basic computer programming skills is important for engineering and technology students in their early years of university education. This paper presents a methodology to teach computer programming for Engineering students who are not specialists in Computer Science. Engineering students who are not Computer Science specialists need to know computer programming concepts as a basic tool for their future work, despite the fact that these concepts are not usually considered in core courses for their engineering degrees. In our work as teachers, we have detected that these students usually need reinforcement in Computer Programming courses and, especially, in their motivation to study this engineering tool.

In the methodology presented in this paper we combine different paradigms, such as structured programming and object-oriented programming, as well as gamification techniques. In the methodology, students learn how to precisely formalize the problems to be solved, which we consider to be an essential part in computer programming. The methodology has been used in several engineering courses such as Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Degrees, and the tasks involved in the methodology are inspired by real-world engineering problems with the aim of motivating students to obtain efficient and effective solutions.

In addition to the previous work, the method has been adapted to the case of teaching Computer Programming in various Secondary Education courses. In this case, we have detected that many students find it difficult to specify in a formal way the exercises and laboratory work that are normally specified in natural language. The proposed methodology in this case explores the possibility of combining the teaching of structured programming with visual object-oriented programming in order to take advantage of the benefits of both paradigms, including the design of activities and mechanisms to improve the skills of problems formalization. In the implementation of the methodology we use gamification techniques to motivate and reinforce learning, as in the case of the university level.

As a main result of our work, we found a quantitative improvement in the qualifications of students with respect to previous academic courses in which the methodology has not been applied. Additionally, students have been more motivated during the teaching-learning process and they have assimilated the basic programming concepts in a more effective way.

Keywords:

Introductory Computer Programming, Problem Solving, Pedagogical Innovations, Learning and Teaching Innovations.