How Do First Year Students Learn C Programming in Bhutan?

This study explores how first year students in Information Technology Engineering at College of Science and Technology, Royal University of Bhutan, learn C programming. An online questionnaire was administrated to the students and asked about time spent in collaborative learning, individual coding and watching someone code. These data were analyzed in correlating to their exam scores. Students’ ways of preparing for exam and their concept on C programming are categorized. Our result indicate a relationship between how the different ways of working relate to their exam results. Further, the insights of the project point to that learning of theory of programming and practicing programming go hand in hand in a C programming course. Our intent is that this study will be helpful for future teachers and students in programming courses in Bhutan and in its region.