A SURVEY OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE COURSES IN MALAYSIA'S PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

Exposure to the programming languages and different programming paradigms are important to computer science education to learn and build students’ algorithmic thinking skills. Therefore, this paper provides info on the tendency of programming languages taught in each programming course in Malaysia’s public universities. Furthermore, it gauges the emphasis of programming paradigm in CS/IT curriculum in each university. Courseware or supporting materials used in programming courses as the teaching aids to assist students in understanding the programming concept and application were also identified. Teaching methods in teaching programming languages were examined based on the seven most widespread programming language teaching methods. It is also reported the current approach of programming skills assessment based on the three common forms of performance-based assessment. In obtaining the information, a survey was conducted and the data was collected from a Questionnaire with determination of sampling frame, size and fraction. Total of 51 respondents from 19 universities participated in this survey. Respondents are among programming lecturers who have 1 to 20 years experience in teaching programming. It shows that C is still taught in most universities, even though the Object-oriented paradigm is popular and meets the demands for a modern education. Textbooks, exercises and solutions as well as power point slides are the common teaching aids in delivering programming knowledge and skills in class. In the survey, it also shows that Take-home assignments and Exam (short-answer questions) are still the popular performance-based assessments. Meanwhile, the Sample-task oriented is the most commonly used in Malaysia’s public universities as this method can give more understanding to students on how programs are built and due to the needs in the process of problem solving.