Undergraduate student preference activities and sources to learn programming

Abstract

Knowing students' preferred methodologies to learn programming would be essential in developing teaching skills at university. This work presents findings from a survey of choices on several activities and reliable sources used to learn programming courses in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia. The survey was done based on feedback from 100 undergraduate students with computer science background as well as regular computer users. An interpretive approach adopted using multidimensional proximity scaling and multiple response techniques. As a result, it was proven that both male and female students have different preferences for activities and reliable sources that were in learning programming. This would be useful for investigating techniques and approaches in using preferred activities and reliable sources to improve undergraduate students programming skills.