Computer based instruction in computer programming: a symbol manipulation-list processing approach

Since February, 1969, a computer based course in computer programming has been running at an "inner city" high school in San Francisco, California. Each day ninety high school juniors and seniors in classes of fifteen interact with a course designed to teach the fundamentals of computer programming for business applications. For fifty minutes a day each student is on-line with a computer located thirty miles away on the Stanford University campus. The purpose of this paper is to describe the rationale and the major components of the software system used to implement the project.