Visual vs. Textual Programming Languages in CS0.5: Comparing Student Learning with and Student Perception of RAPTOR and Python

Abstract

Much debate surrounds the choice of programming language for teaching computer science. Our institution's replacement of a visual programming language (RAPTOR) with a textual programming language (Python) provided a novel opportunity to explore the impacts of the programming language on students' learning and perception of programming. We conducted a randomized comparative study that involved 1083 students who took our introductory computing course in the 2019-2020 academic year. A unique aspect of our work stems from our course being a general education requirement; thus, our study includes students with a wide variety of backgrounds and majors. This report presents a comparison of student performance in each version of the course, including the impact of the programming language on underrepresented groups, and provides a summary of student feedback. Our results show that students in our introductory course performed similarly overall, but overwhelmingly perceived Python to be more valuable.