An "introduction to computing" experiment that failed

Abstract

In 1975 the University of North Carolina at Wilmington began offering an undergraduate degree program in Computer Science. At that time an experiment was begun to let students essentially choose their own introductory programming language. This was accomplished by having one language-independent lecture course and several accompanying language laboratories from which students could choose. How the implementation was carried out; its level of acceptance by majors, non-majors, and faculty; and its advantages and disadvantages are discussed.