Difficulties in Learning Structured Programming: A Case Study in UTP

Abstract

This study is part of the whole study which is to introduce robotic approach in teaching and learning Structured Programming. Learning programming especially to new students who do not have any prior experience in coding can be a daunting tasks. Structured Programming subject that has been taught in traditional form mainly using input / output screen without students fully understand the concepts. The problems faced by students when they learn programming; they could not visualize how the programs work. Therefore, this study further investigates on the difficulties faced by students in learning Structured Programming. Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) has been taken as the case study where the course is currently taught using C++ programming language in which this language is not interactive enough (students write the program, compile and run a black screen). Questionnaire has been distributed to 226 undergraduate students who are currently taking the course. Descriptive and multiple regression analyses have been performed to analyze the data. The results showed that the factors including demography, students' perception, lecturer's teaching method, students' study method and students' ability and attitude contributed toward student's understanding in programming.