Experiences and successes in teaching a language many CS students didn't want to learn: COBOL

Many computer science students see no value in taking a COBOL programming course until they begin to notice the number of job advertisements requiring the applicant to have knowledge of the language. Even if students are aware that knowledge of the COBOL language could help them to locate an entry level job, many still find the course to be less than exciting. The presentation of the COBOL course has evolved over the past four years from an introduction to COBOL programming, to introduction to COBOL via a software engineering approach, to introduction to COBOL, software engineering, and how it applies to real world events and situations. Over these years the response of the students to the course has improved, the amount of material covered has increased, and students are finding jobs which require knowledge of COBOL.