Analysis of Factors Contributing to the Difficulties in Learning Computer Programming among Non-Computer Science Students

Understanding computer programming has become necessary in today’s life. In response to that, higher education institutions have begun to provide programming courses to non-computer science students. Learning programming requires a comprehensive teaching approach to generate students’ logical, creative and critical thinking. Based on past related studies, several factors have been identified to contribute to difficulties in learning computer programming including educators, students' abilities and programming nature. This paper focuses on these three factors and surveys to discover more about how these factors influence non-computer science students' ability to learn computer programming. An online survey was conducted on engineering students who have taken programming courses, which amounted to 241 students in this study. The analysis was applied to generally examine these three factors that influence students in learning programming subjects. Results showed that although students find it difficult to learn programming, most of them have no critical issues with their learning process. With these findings, it is hoped that this study can be used to improve teaching methods for programming courses to increase students' understanding and interest in the subject.