USING VISUALIZATION AS AN EASY WAY TO LEARN

PROGRAMMING LOGIC

LOO SZE PHEI

UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA MSc. (IT) 2009

I

PPEERRMMIISSIIOONN TTOO UUSSEE

This thesis presents a partial fulfillment of the requirement for a

postgraduate degree from Universiti Utara Malaysia. I agree that the university

library may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that the

permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for

scholarly purposes may be granted by my supervisor or, in their absence by the

Assistant Vice Chancellor of the College of Arts and Sciences. It is understood that

any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain

shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due

recognition shall be given to me and to Universiti Utara Malaysia for any scholarly

use which may be made of any material from my thesis.

Requests for permission to copy or to make other use of materials in this

thesis, in whole or in part should be addressed to:

Assistant Vice Chancellor

College of Arts and Sciences

Universiti Utara Malaysia

06010 UUM Sintok

Kedah Darul Aman.

II

AABBSSTTRRAAKK

Dalam Teknologi Informasi (TI) pendidikan, dari peringkat sijil pendidikan

di perguruan tinggi atau peringkat darjah institions sampai di universiti, kursus

pengaturcaraan sangat penting untuk membina pelajar berfikir logis dan untuk

melatih keterampilan program mereka dalam mencipta pelbagai jenis perisian.

Malangnya, kursus pengaturcaraan sering kali terdiri daripada tingkat kegagalan

lebih tinggi daripada program-program studi ilmu komputer lainnya. Dalam kajian

ini, masalah dalam mempelajari kursus pengaturcaraan telah dianalisis melalui kajian

literatur. Untuk meningkatkan dan untuk membantu memahami esensi

pengaturcaraan komputer, cara mudah untuk mempelajari logika pemrograman

dirumuskan berfokus pada penyediaan visualisasi untuk membantu belajar.

Pendekatan ini telah diterapkan pada prototaip Courseware, disajikan dan dievaluasi

oleh tahun pertama mahasiswa diploma ilmu komputer. Keputusan evaluasi

menunjukkan bahawa sebahagian besar pelajar dapat memahami materi yang

disampaikan dan mereka bersetuju bahawa menggunakan prototaip Courseware

dengan ciri visualisasi penggabungan membantu mereka untuk mengembangkan

kemahiran program mereka secara berkesan.

III

AABBSSTTRRAACCTT

In the Information Technology (IT) education, from certificate level in

colleges or educational institions until degree level in universities, programming

courses are essential to build students‘ logical thinking and to train their

programming skills in creating different types of software. Unfortunately,

programming courses often consist of higher failure rates than other computer

science courses. In this research, problem in studying programming courses will be

analysed through literature review. To improve and to aid the understanding of the

essence of computer programming, an easy way to learn programming logic will be

formulated focusing on providing visualization to aid the learning. This approach

will be applied on a courseware prototype, presented and later evaluated by first year

diploma computer science students. Brief on the results obtained.

Keywords: programming logic, programming language, visualization, courseware,

courseware prototype, questionnaire design, logical thinking, abstract

thinking ability.

IV

AACCKKNNOOWWLLEEDDGGEEMMEENNTTSS

First of all, my most profound thankfulness goes to my final project

supervisor Dr Nor Laily binti Hashim for her help, guidance and encouragement. I

would also like to thank her continuous faith and support in me. Without her

encouragement and guidance, it will not be easy for me to reach this extend in

completion my report.

Secondly, I would like to thank all my dearest family members, especially to

my parents, brothers who have given me their full support in my study. Their full

support remains the mainstay for me in overcoming all the difficulties in completing

this study. Next I would like to thank all the lecturers who have taught me before

throughout the Masters Degree course because the knowledge they imparted have

allowed me to be more knowledgeable and thus in a better position to complete this

research.

Lastly, I would like to thank all my friends who had given me emotional

support and taken care of me at times of difficulties, especially thanks to Ms. Lim

Hooi Szu, Ms Khor Jia Yun, Ms. Kam Su Ning, Mr. Tay Shu Shiang and Mr. Ang

Shao Long in advising and guiding me in the process of completing this report.

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Table 1.1 Examination Results Statistics in C Programming Language at

Tunku Abdul Rahman College

Table 3.1 Attributes Representation

Table 3.2 Project Schedule Plan

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Figure 2.1 Web site design of the courseware

Figure 2.2 Courseware Web site with command buttons

Figure 3.1 Methodology process diagram Move this Figure in the beginning of this

chapter

Figure 4.1 Human Digestive System

Figure 4.2 While condition false

Figure 4.3 Digestive System stop

Figure 4.4 While loop structure

Figure 4.5 While loop stop

Figure 4.6 Do While loop structure

Figure 4.7 Do While loop stop

Figure 4.8 While loop and Do While loop Comparison

Figure 4.9 While loop example

Figure 4.10 While loop example

Figure 4.11 While loop example

Figure 4.12 While loop example

Figure 4.13 While loop example

Figure 4.14 While loop example

Figure 4.15 While loop example

Figure 4.16 While loop example

Figure 4.17 While loop example

Figure 4.18 While loop example

Figure 4.19 While loop example

Figure 4.20 Do While loop example

Figure 4.21 Do While loop example

Figure 4.22 Do While loop example

Figure 4.23 Do While loop example

Figure 4.24 Do While loop example

Figure 4.25 Do While loop example

Figure 4.26 Do While loop example

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Figure 4.27 Do While loop example

Figure 4.28 Do While loop example

Figure 4.29 Do While loop example

Figure 4.30 While loop and Do While loop example comparison

Figure 4.31 For loop example

Figure 4.32 For loop example

Figure 4.33 For loop example

Figure 4.34 For loop example

Figure 4.35 For loop example

Figure 4.36 For loop example

Figure 4.37 For loop example

Figure 4.38 For loop example

Figure 4.39 For loop example

Figure 4.40 For loop example

Figure 4.41 For loop example

Figure 4.42 For loop example

Figure 5.1 Part A Q1 analysis (using traditional teaching approach)

Figure 5.2 Part A Q2 analysis (using traditional teaching approach)

Figure 5.3 Part A Q3 analysis (using traditional teaching approach)

Figure 5.4 Part A Q4 analysis (using traditional teaching approach)

Figure 5.5 Part A Q5 analysis (using traditional teaching approach)

Figure 5.6 Part A Q6 analysis (using traditional teaching approach)

Figure 5.7 Part B analysis (using traditional teaching approach)

Figure 5.8 Number of questions correctly attempted by students analysis (using traditional teaching approach)

Figure 5.9 Part A Q1 analysis (using courseware prototype)

Figure 5.10 Part A Q2 analysis (using courseware prototype)

Figure 5.11 Part A Q3 analysis (using courseware prototype)

Figure 5.12 Part A Q4 analysis (using courseware prototype)

Figure 5.13 Part A Q5 analysis (using courseware prototype)

Figure 5.14 Part A Q6 analysis (using courseware prototype)

Figure 5.15 Part B analysis (using courseware prototype)

Figure 5.16 Number of questions correctly attempted by students analysis (using courseware prototype)

X

LLIISSTT OOFF AABBBBRREEVVIIAATTIIOONNSS

DIT Diploma in Internet Technology

IT Information Technology

RAM Random Access Memory

SPM Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia

TARC Tunku Abdul Rahman College

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

In computer science context, programming can be defined as creating a sequence of

instructions to enable the computer to do something [1]. In IT education,

programming courses always been thought as the most difficult courses to study.

Many students could not grip on the programming logic in the process of

constructing a computer program. Programming logic is a method of reasoning in

computing program to perform complex computer functions. Thus, especially for

first year computer science students, they will find it is hard to study.

Nevertheless, programming is very important skill in computer science field. The

basic goal of the programming course is to provide students with a general body of

knowledge about programming languages and the ability to reason critically about

the application of programming languages in software development. This course also

serves as a foundation for further study in areas such as programming language

design and language processor implementation [2].

1.1 Problem Statement

As stated in [9], most of the students who start to learn the principles of

programming are taught by the old classic approach, which is based on using a

general-purpose programming language such as Pascal, Modula-2, LISP, or C, a

professional programming environment for the chosen language, and a set of

problems from the area of number and symbol processing. The authors found that

using general-purpose languages creates some obstacles for novice programmers,

where these languages are too big and too particular in its concepts and programming

principles. Besides that, they are oriented on number and symbols processing.

Moreover, these general-purpose languages provide little leverage for understanding

2

their basic actions and control structures, where the languages are not visual and

process of program execution are hidden. The main reason that causes high failure

rate in programming courses is that the students have difficulties to describe and get

a grip on how to apply programming kind of thinking [3]. Therefore, the most that

will be concerned in teaching higher education students programming language is the

visualization capabilities.

According to the examination result statistic of School of Arts and Science in Tunku

Abdul Rahman College (TARC) Penang branch campus, programming courses such

as C programming and Java programming, consist of higher students’ failing rate

than other IT courses. The following table shows the statistic of C programming

language unit’s failing rate from year 2007 to year 2009 examination results.

Table 1.1: Examination Results Statistics in C Programming Language at Tunku

Abdul Rahman College

Diploma Programmes Academic

Year

2007/2008

Academic

Year

2008/2009

Academic

Year

2009/2010

Diploma in IS Engineering 35% of

57 students

37% of

54 students

Diploma in Business IS 41% of

27 students

Diploma in Internet Technology 37% of

71 students

41% of

93 students

Certificate in Internet Technology 66% of

74 students

From the statistics showing in Table 1.1, it can be concluded an averagely 38%

failing rate for diploma level students in C programming language, which is

considered high among other TARC units. For certificate level students who are

taking Introduction to C Programming unit, the failing rate is even higher, that is

66% failing rate. The certificate level students consists of those students who do not

obtain 5 credits or more in their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM). Most of the students

have poor understanding level and some of them are poor in their English language.

3

Therefore, the examination result in C programming language is much higher than

the Diploma level students.

Due to the stated problem in learning programming language and the examination

result at TARC, this research will be focusing on formulating an easy way in learning

programming language. The way of learning programming language will incorporate

visualization capabilities since “a picture is more than a thousand words”, it will be

easier for students to capture the abstract thinking ability in programming language.

The visualization capabilities will be presented through a courseware prototype.

1.2 Objectives

The objectives of this research are:

• To formulate an easy way in learning programming logic by incorporating

visualization capabilities.

• To develop a courseware prototype in teaching programming logic which has

visualization features.

1.3 Scope and Limitation

There are many types of programming language significance to be learned by

computer science students. As stated in [11], the first tip on improving programming

logic is that student must start to learn ‘C’ programming language due to its

structured style of programming. As it starts with the main() method and the

execution begins from there and the execution flow proceeds as what users have

directed it to do. Moreover, most of the first year computer science students will

have to take C programming course, which is one of their core unit in their level of

study. Therefore, the focus of this research is on C programming course. Due to time

limitation, a courseware prototype for C programming focusing on repetition

structure as its contents, will be developed using Microsoft Power Point Presentation

2007 software. The survey will be conducted on first year Diploma in Internet

Technology (DIT) students in TARC, Penang Branch Campus.

4

1.4 Research Contribution

The result of this research is the formulation of an easy way to learn programming

logic via visualization. The formulation of an easy way to learn programming logic

can ease the job of many educators in teaching programming courses. Besides that,

this will help to build students’ programming thinking and abstract thinking abilities.

In addition, through the development of C programming courseware, it may help to

build the interest of students in learning programming courses. Thus, this approach

would significantly help to reduce the failure rate in programming courses when the

approach is applied to full content of a programming course syllabus

1.5 Structure of Thesis

This thesis consists of a total of five chapters. Chapter 1 contains the introduction

and explained the objective, significance, and scope and limitation for this research.

Chapter 2 presents a review of previous work on computer science students’

programming thinking, ways to learn programming logic and programming

education. Chapter 3 explains that methodology used in this research. Meanwhile,

chapter 4 describes the project development report, which includes the courseware

prototype development. In chapter 5, the results and significance of this research are

analysed. Finally, the conclusion about this research is being made as well as the

future work.

1.6 Conclusion of chapter

Programming language is an essential subject to be studied by computer science

students. Unfortunately, many students are not able to grip on the programming logic

that causes high failing in most programming language unit offered in universities or

colleges. The research objective of this thesis is to formulate an easy way to learn

programming logic by incorporating visualization capabilities in teaching material,

which will be achieved through the methodology discussed in chapter 3. It is

expected that at the end of this research, the result of this formulation is able to help

educators in presenting the programming logic to students and may help students in

understanding programming logic easily.

5

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter highlights previous research work on computer science students’

programming thinking, ways to learn programming logic and programming

education.

2.1 Programming Thinking

In [3], the authors discuss and analyze “programming thinking” using

phenomenography as their research approach. The study focuses on first year

students taking an object-oriented programming course and they were interviewed on

what it means to learn to program. Through the authors’ analysis, they have found

that there are certain levels of understanding that seemed necessary for reaching a

level of abstraction, where concepts can be used for analysis and design in object-

oriented programming tasks. It is thus important for educators to facilitate students to

discern such procedures.

A phenomenographic research approach was also used in [2] to reveal variation in

how the act of learning to program may be constituted amongst first year university

students. The analysis revealed that students might go about learning to program in

any of five different ways, which consists of the following, by coding, by

understanding and integrating, by problem solving and lastly by participating or

enculturation. This research is part of an emerging international agenda seeking to

investigate the practice of teaching and learning programming based on

constitutionalist learning theory.

Regardless of the languages used, computer programs are written in a fairly strict,

methodical, logical way [10]. Computers do exactly what programmers tell them to

6

do, nothing more and nothing less. The author stated that if there were an inborn

personality trait, it would be the ability to think logically. It means the ability to

combine various related pieces of information and deduce what must result. Another

meaning is the ability to think and express a series of steps that produce a desired

result.

According to [27], recent research has found that many novice programmers, who

are beginners in programming area, often hold non-viable mental models of basic

programming concepts, for instance the assignment and object reference. This can

limit their potential to develop programming skills. The authors stated that it should

be noted that cognitive conflict alone is unlikely to be sufficient to achieve a change

from non-viable to viable models. Therefore, the authors proposed a constructivist-

based teaching model that integrates cognitive conflict and program visualization

with the aim to support novice programmers in the formulation of appropriate mental

models. The result of using this new teaching model using cognitive conflict

integrated with visualization shows that it can help students developing viable

models of the relatively simple concept of value assignment.

2.2 Ways to learn programming logic

The author stated that he has 20 plus years in computer science field and has to learn

many languages, such as various Basic versions, Turbo Pascal, C++, Assembly, Blitz

Basic, Java, Javascript, ASP, Php, MySql, Actionscript and so forth [4]. Thus, he has

shared 10 tips that can be useful when people are about to learn a new language. The

tips start with the thought “It’s just another programming language”, where most

programming structure will be the same and already known, just with a different

syntax. Then start from simple Hello World program. Get an editor with syntax

highlighting and get some books are another tips. The fifth and sixth tips are to start

translating and start writing the projects made in an “old” language into the new one.

Then, submit the work to related portals on the Internet to let people rate and

comment on it. The tips for languages change time is that do not be neither “latest

released fantastic” nor “old released fantastic” person, decide when it is time to

switch to the new version. The author advised not to learn all programming

7

languages, rather to master in one. Lastly, nothing will last forever, where the best

language today, will obsolete in the future.

According to [10], this researcher has a strong belief that students cannot learn

programming just at school. Firstly, he suggests that students should utilize what the

school provides. The programming project given by teachers, they should do them

typically in teams. This was as close to real-world programming as the students

could get in the school environment. Internship programs through school with real

companies are also an opportunity for them to learn programming. Secondly,

students should make their own experience through “program it anyway”. Students

should write programs in their extra time. Students will learn more by just doing real

projects.

2.3 Programming Education

The authors in [9] believed that the effectiveness of the classic approach in learning

programming language is quite low in general. They found that using general-

purpose languages creates the some obstacles for novice programmers, where these

languages are not visual and process of program execution is hidden. Therefore, the

authors suggested a visually intuitive, simple, and powerful way to introduce

students to programming, which is called mini-languages. The authors agreed that

tmini-languages are a good foundation for general computer science instruction,

provide insight into programming for the general population, and teach algorithmic

thinking. Mini-languages can provide a solid foundation for learning a general

purpose language such as Pascal, C, or LISP. They also provide a sound basis for

systematic problem solving for people who will program only to customize their

spreadsheet, database, or CAD package, or another application program. It is the

acquisition of algorithmic thinking as an explicit, familiar and powerful tool. These

authors found that a more successful way for teaching the principles of programming

is by supporting a mini-language approach with a good programming environment.

Such an environment should keep both the micro-world and the student program

visible on the screen.

8

Research has revealed a significant gap between the thinking patterns and software

design habits of students of recent computer science university graduates, and those

of expert software developers [5]. Students prefer fast and simple writing and

computer science teachers often focus on syntax and specific examples that does not

encourage students to identify and use more complex structures. It is important to

adhere to proper programming rules. In order for students to acquire correct

programming habits, the author focuses on a study unit designed to teach software

designing skills in high school. One of the main objectives of the Software Design

Unit is to develop abstract thinking abilities among students. This unit is

accompanied by several teaching aids, which includes text book, teacher’s guide,

case study (project), exercises and solutions as well as PowerPoint presentations. The

unit aims to provide students with capabilities of analysing problems and abstract

thinking skills.

In [7] and [8], these authors developed a new lecture style for elementary

programming education named Program Reading Practice by using the Computer

Graphics Animation programs, which is named as WinTK. The objectives are to

improve C language course and to aid the understanding of the essence of computer

programming. In this practice, the teacher shows the visual subject or source code of

various kinds of computer graphics animation programs on the teacher’s instruction

screens. Then, the teacher instructs students to read and rewrite a similar source code

through modification or extension. These authors have done this practice for six

years and investigated various kinds of results in order to acquire the effect

objectively. In [7], the result from the questionnaire shows that 55% students have

confidence in programming and 51% students find it easy and normal to learn

programming.

Whereas in [8], the result shows that students can master the construction method of

computer programs in many cases by reading and re-writing these source codes.

They obtained from the questionnaire that 85% of students who want to study but not

using character based console mode framework but by using Graphics-Based

window framework. Although many students thought that Program Reading Practice

is very hard, they have developed excellent Final Work programs which have

exceeded their teacher’s expectancy.

9

Some students think that programming is difficult due to mathematics based material

is used in the course of programming education. Thus, they often lose interest in

studying programming. According to [20], it has been suggested that the educational

material that is not mathematics-based should be used in order to make students

interested in studying programming. For this reason, [6] are making efforts to use

animation that does not require mathematical knowledge in class assignments in

order to make students interested in programming practices. These authors in [21]

and [22] provided students with material such as fundamentals for creating basic

animation, explanations of graphics functions, basic animation creation method, its

application and its programming example in printed form (black and white). They

also have developed teaching material on the web and used them in programming

course. The computer language used in this class is C language and Ultra-C Pro is

used to support graphic functions, step by step execution and trace, to monitor

variables for debugging, and the execution is interpreter-based. In this trial,

feedbacks received from the students suggested that, although programming is

difficult, they enjoyed the animation creation. The result of this research shows that

students gained a considerable amount of ability to produce computer software

programming. But some problems exist such as the fact that indentation to make

code readable is not used, comments on the block or code to describe the contents of

the program are not added, and source code format and construction have problems.

The possible reason is believed to be that students are busy writing source code and

have no time to think about format or construction.

In recent research study, the researchers in [23] agreed that program visualization is

one of the most powerful educational tools in computer and information science

education. The authors also stated that visualization can provide a clear image for

understanding complicated concepts and revealing the dynamics of processes that are

usually hidden from the student’s eye. There several research teams exploring

different approaches to making visualization more useful in daily educational

practice. The authors in [24] found an approach named as engaging visualization,

which is to turn the students from passive observers to active learners by engaging

them into some activity related to the visualization. Whereas, Kumar in [25] stated

that another approach called explanatory visualization that is to enhance every

animated step of visualization with natural language explanations. The Adaptive

10

visualization researched by [26] is to match the level of detail in the visualization of

each construct or step to the level of student knowledge about it. In [23], the authors

have prepared a questionnaire that was broadly distributed among teachers of

programming-related subjects to guide our work on adaptive explanatory program

visualization. At the end of the survey, the authors found that a very high percentage

of respondents considered adaptive and explanatory visualization valuable in

programming education.

2.4 Courseware

Courseware is a term that combines the words 'course' with 'software' [28].

Originally, it was used to describe additional educational material intended as kits for

educators or as tutorials for students, usually packaged for use with a computer. The

term's meaning and usage is now referring to the entire course and any additional

material used in referring to an online or 'computer formatted' classroom, which

consisting of various lessons notes, tests, and other materials needed. The courseware

can be presented in different formats. Many courseware are only available online

such as through web pages, while others can download the PDF files or other types

of document files. Nowadays, many forms of e-learning are now blended with term

courseware.

There are many types courseware teaching C programming language via the Internet

nowadays. In [29], [30] and [31], the courseware provided in the web sites consists

of all text based learning materials. The authors of the web site categorized the C

programming topics by using hyperlinks. Online users are allowed to click on the

desired link phrased with C programming topics, in order to learn more about the

explanation of the topics. Examples are provided in the Web sites for online users to

learning how to write the programs. Exercises are provided for online users to

practice on how to write the C programs after every topic. Figure 2.1 illustrates the

web site design of the courseware.

11

Figure 2.1: Web site design of the courseware

In [31], the authors create command buttons for online users to easily refer to back

and forth of the topics that they desired to read, as shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: Courseware Web site with command buttons.

The courseware created by these authors contains too much of text. Besides that, it is

not visually attracted. Thus, it is difficult to learn by novice programmers who cannot

capture how the programming logic actually works.

12

2.5 Conclusion of Chapter

As a conclusion from all the literature reviews that have been discussed,

programming thinking is not easy to develop, because it requires a person to be able

to think logically and has to create abstract thinking capabilities. Moreover, it is very

difficult for beginners in learning programming language from changing non-

practical mental to practical mental without incorporating any visualisation feature

into the teaching the materials. Therefore, in the recent research, most of the

researchers proposed different ways in improving programming education. It can be

concluded that, as stated in Section 2.3, many authors found that visualization is

valuable in programming education to help student in griping the programming logic.

13

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes in detail the methodology used in this research in order to

achieve the objectives stated in chapter 1. The methodology used is adopting the

waterfall model, which is an System Development Life Cycle approach that assumes

the various phases of a project can be completed sequentially, which means one

phase leads (falls) to the next phase [19]. There are total six phases in this

methodology is shown in Figure 3.1 Section 3.1 describes the problem analysis from

literature review. Section 3.2 describes the formulation of an easy way in learning

programming language. Section 3.3 explains the tools used in developing the

courseware prototype. Section 3.4 explains the questionnaire design process. Section

3.5 explains the evaluation process of the prototype. Section 3.6 describes the

process of data preparation for analysis. Finally, in 3.7 explains the tool used to

analyse the evaluation data.

3.1 Problem Analysis from Literature Review

The methodology used in this research begins with problem analysis from literature

review. From reading many existing studies it, can be seen that many computer

science students have programming thinking problems. Many students cannot think

logically and do not have abstraction thinking abilities. As programming logic is a

very abstract process, students will have problems in understanding the programming

logic. Besides that, it is an undeniable fact that each student is born with different

levels of inherent programming abilities [12].

14

3.2 Formulate an Easy Way in Learning Programming Language

After analysing the problems in studying programming language, an easy way to

learn programming logic is formulated focusing on providing visualization to aid the

learning. Educators who are responsible to elementary programming education in

universities or colleges usually use diagrams or animations to explain the basic

programming concepts and algorithm. As researched by the authors in [12], they

assumed that visualization could assist those students of lower program

understanding levels in grasping image manipulations and then understanding the

program concepts, based on the positive correlation between the image manipulation

ability and the understanding level of programming concepts.

Since most of the problems faced by students in developing the programming is

thinking problem, through reading the existing studies and from the researcher

experience, visualization can be an easy and effective way to allow students to

understand programming logic. Besides visualization capabilities, by relating

programming logic with human anatomy, such as human digestive system, which is

common knowledge for everyone since primary school, it will be easier for students

to understand the programming logic. Moreover, to make it easier for students to

visualize the programming logic and the programming structure examples should be

related to simple mathematic functions, such as addition function. At the end of this

process, an easy way in learning programming logic is by using visualization, as well

as, incorporating human anatomy and simple mathematic functions will be

formulated.

3.3 Develop Courseware Prototype

An easy way in learning programming by using visualization approach will be

applied on a courseware prototype. This courseware can be developed with any

suitable graphical software. However, in this project the research will be using

Microsoft Power Point 2007 due to time constraint. PowerPoint is a tool that helps

user to plan, organize, design and deliver professional presentations [16]. It is

designed to work with a projector to display presentations that will bedazzle the

audience and instantly sway audience to the presenter point of view [18]. According

15

to [18], it is useful for teachers or conference speakers who want to back up their

lectures with slides. It also allows user to create handouts for the audience and

speaker notes to help user deliver the presentation. Animation tool is provided that

add on predefined special effects to objects on a slide in order to make the slides

show more visually attracted. Custom Animation tool in Power Point was fully

utilized in the courseware prototype developed in order to achieve the visualization

feature in the courseware prototype.

The programming language selected to develop the prototype is C programming.

Since C programming topics are very wide and due to time limitation problem, the

courseware prototype developed will be focusing on C programming repetition

structure, which includes the while loop statement, do while loop statement and for

loop statement. A courseware prototype on C programming repetition structure will

be developed at the end of this process, which will be reported with print screen

samples in Chapter 4.

3.4 Questionnaire Design

To design a relevant questionnaire to evaluate students’ interest in learning

programming language from traditional teaching method and through visualization

courseware prototype, questionnaire design guidelines have to be followed.

According to [13], most individuals are willing to participate in a survey, but if the

questions require too much effort to answer, this sense of cooperation may vanish.

The author stated that a question may be unstructured or structured. Unstructured

questions are open-ended questions that respondents answer in their own words and

it is useful in exploratory research. On the other hand, structured questions are

questions that may offer multiple-choices, or a scale, which are easier for

respondents to answer, as well as, easier to analyze and tabulate than open-ended

questions. Besides that, the author also stated that in general, respondent cooperation

is improved if the majority of the questions are structured. Since the evaluation form

will be conducted to many students during tutorial hours, structured questions will be

selected in designing the evaluation form.

16

According to [13], there are two concerns in designing multiple-choice questions.

The first is the number of alternatives that should be included and second is the order

or position bias. Multiple choice questions should include choices that cover the full

range of possible alternatives. Instructions should clearly indicate whether the

respondent is to choose only one alternative or select all that apply. In the

questionnaire designed of this study, there are instructions included in each part of

questionnaire to guide students how to response to questions stated.

Multiple choice questions can be set to have itemized rating scale, which has a

number or a brief description associated with each response category. The categories

are typically arranged in some logical order, and the respondents are required to

select the categories that best describe their reactions to whatever is being rated. One

of the most widely used itemized scales is called the Likert scale, which named after

its developer, Rensis Likert. The end-points of a Likert scale are typically “strongly

disagree” and “strongly agree.” The respondents are asked to indicate their degree of

agreement by checking one of five response categories. The advantage of adopting

this scale is that it is easy for the researcher to construct and administer the scale.

Besides that, it is easy for the respondent to understand. In Part A of the

questionnaire designed in this study is adopting the Likert scale to evaluate interest

on the programming unit.

To avoid problems in question wording, Malhotra in [13] offers five guidelines in his

research. First is to define the issue, second is to use ordinary words, third is to avoid

ambiguous words, fourth is to avoid leading questions, and lastly is to use positive

and negative statements. The statements in measuring attitudes and lifestyles’

questions, which respondents indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement

using Likert scales, can be worded either positively or negatively. For instance, “You

obtain a good result in programming unit.” is worded in positive way.

Questions set in the questionnaire should be arranged in a logical order, organized

around topic areas. The opening questions should be interesting, simple, and

nonthreatening. Questions that ask respondents for their opinions are always good

openers because most people like to express their opinions. Some studies require a

prescreening of the respondents to ensure that they are eligible to participate in the

17

survey. Thus, qualifying questions are used as opening questions. For this study, in

order to survey on students’ interest and understanding level in programming unit,

the qualifying question has been asked to make sure they have experience in writing

computer program.

According to [13], three types of information can be obtained from a questionnaire.

The first type is basic information, which relates directly to the research problem.

Second type of information is classification information, which consists of

socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The third type of information is

identification information, which includes name, address, and telephone number.

Questions that could be perceived as difficult should be placed late in the sequence

after a relationship has been established and the respondent is involved in the process.

As a rule, a series of questions should start with a general introduction to a topic,

followed by specific questions related to the topic.

3.5 Evaluation of Prototype

The courseware prototype developed will be presented to first year DIT students in

TARC, Penang branch campus. An evaluation form, which is a questionnaire, is

designed in the previous to analyze students’ interest in learning programming

language and their understanding level on C programming repetition structure. A

questionnaire enables quantitative data to be collected in a standardized way so that

the data are internally consistent and coherent for analysis [13]. This form of survey

method will reduce interviewer biasness, where these types of questions work very

well in self-administered conditions. It is probably the most widely-used data source

in educational research [15]. Many experts have estimated that as many as half of the

research studies conducted use questionnaire as a part of their data collection

process. Therefore, it is suitable format of evaluation to evaluate 90 students in DIT

course during tutorial hours. The questionnaire design will be discussed further in

chapter 4.

Before the presentation of the courseware prototype, DIT students will be divided

into two batches, the control group and tested group. The control group students will

be evaluated on a traditional way in learning programming language and

18

understanding level of repetition content. Later, the tested group students will also

be evaluated on the presentation of courseware prototype in learning programming

language and understanding level. Before distributing the questionnaires to these two

batches of the students, the students will be briefed on the overview of the project

and the programming language unit that they will be evaluated on in the

questionnaires. Besides that, the students will be briefed on the meaning and the

requirement of the questions in the evaluation form before students give their answer.

The evaluation forms from the two batches of students will be obtained.

3.6 Data Preparation

There are 2 batches of evaluation forms collected from DIT first year students. One

batch of the evaluation forms are collected from the students who are evaluating on

programming unit teach by using traditional method. Another batch of evaluation

forms are collected from students who are evaluating on the courseware prototype

presented.

In the data preparation phase, data collected from the evaluation forms are entered

into Microsoft Excel 2007. Microsoft Excel 2007 is a powerful spreadsheet program

that allows users to organized data, complete calculations, make decisions, graph

data and develop professional looking reports [17]. The data in a worksheet is

organized into a rectangular grid containing vertical columns and horizontal rows.

The data collected this study is organized into different 11 attributes (columns) and

45 records (rows) for each batch of evaluation forms collected. The 11 attributes are

divided into 2 parts, which consists of Part A and Part B attributes, following the 2

parts of questions contained in the evaluation forms. The attributes used in this

questionnaire is described in more detail in Table 3.1. Part A contains 6 attributes,

which are used to keep track of the answer given by the students in the evaluation

form of Part A,which are questions from Q1 to Q6 respectively. Part B contains 6

attributes, which are used to keep track of the answer given by the students in

evaluation form of Part B, which are questions from Q1 to Q5 respectively. Each

record in Part A attributes are ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly

Agree) assigned in a double-review process by physicians. Whereas, each record in

Part B attributes are valued with True or False, based on the answer given in the

19

evaluation form Part B questions are correct or incorrect. The detail description about

each attribute is shown in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1: Attributes Representation

The complete evaluation data collected will be reported in chapter 4.

3.7 Analyze Prototype Evaluation data

Finally, the result of the evaluations will be analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2007

software, which is using the chart tool provided in Excel. A chart is visual

representation of data that is used to convey information in an easy-to-understand

and attractive manner [17]. Different types of charts are used to represent data in

different ways. The pie chart is selected to analyze the data collected from the

evaluation forms, which is suitable to show the relationship or proportion of parts to

a whole. Therefore, it is suitable to show the percentage of students’ answers for part

A questions. Whereas, Clustered column chart is selected to analyze the part B data

collected from the evaluation forms, due to it can clearly present the number of

correct and wrong answers that students are able to attempt. At the end of this

research, a comparison of the students’ interest in learning programming language

No. Attribute Representation

1

P

a

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t

A

Q1. Experience in writing computer program.

1 – Strongly

Disagree

2 – Disagree

3 – Normal

4 – Strongly Agree

5 – Agree

2 Q2. Obtain a good result in the current programming

unit.

3 Q3. Taught material has been presented clearly

4 Q4. Taught material has helped in developing

student’s knowledge of the unit.

5 Q5. Taught material has helped in developing

student’s programming skill.

6 Q6. The teaching method is visually interesting.

7 P

a

r

t

B

Q1. Number of repetition. True – Correct

answer

False – Incorrect

answer

8 Q2. Find the final value of variable.

9 Q3. Tracing the question.

10 Q4. Tracing the question.

11 Q5. Find the final value of variable.

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21

3.9 Project Schedule

The project schedule planned started from 5/7/2009 until week 18/10/2009. Every

Time Frame represents one week.

Table 3.2: Project Schedule Plan

Weeks

Steps

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91

0

1

1

1

2

1

3

1

4

1

5

1

6

Literature Review ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Analyse Problem ● ●

Formulate way ● ●

Develop

Courseware

Prototype

● ● ● ●

Evaluation of

Prototype

● ●

Data Preparation ● ●

Analyse Data ● ● ●

Documentation ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

22

CHAPTER 4

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT REPORT

This chapter describes the details in the project development process. The Microsoft

Power Point 2007 software’s custom animation tool is fully utilized in every slides of

the courseware prototype, in order to make the presentation more visually attractive

and to easily express the programming logic. Section 4.1 explains the courseware

prototype development with print screen samples provided. Section 4.2 explains the

questionnaire designed for this study. Finally in section 4.3 explains the preparation

of data collected from students’ evaluation.

4.1 Courseware Prototype Development

The following figure illustrated the courseware prototype on C programming

repetition structure.

Figure 4.1: Human Digestive System

Figure 4.1 shows the human digestive system, which is used to relate to the while

loop structure. When human are alive (condition), we will have to repeatedly take in

food (input) everyday. The body digestive system will help us to digest (process) the

23

food and later produce output from our body. These processes are similar to

computer programming logic. While the condition is true, the programming

statements written within the while loop structure will be repeatedly carried out by

the computer system. The programming statements may be input statement,

processing statement or output statement. The custom animation tool in Microsoft

Power Point was used in showing the process of human digestive system, from food

input to pass motion.

Figure 4.2: While condition false

Figure 4.3: Digestive System stop

Figure 4.2 and 4.3 shows that while the human die, which means alive equal to false,

the digestive system will stop and the human in a coffin. To relate the while loop

structure, while the loop condition equal to false, the programming statements within

the while loop structure will stop running and continue with to statements followed

after while loop structure. The custom animation tool in Microsoft Power Point was

used to show the condition change to false and human body start to contract, and

then the coffin appear with the word “STOP” display on screen.

24

Figure 4.4: While loop structure Figure 4.5: While loop stop

Figure 4.4 shows that while loop structure starts from start value statement, followed

by while loop condition. The actions Statement(s) are repeated written within the

braces and Update statement right before the close braces. When the program

executed reach the close braces, the execution will be moving back to while

condition for checking, if the condition is true, then process keeps on repeating. The

custom animation tool in Microsoft Power Point was used in creating the arrow from

end braces moving back to while condition checking in order to show the looping. As

shown in Figure 4.5, while the condition becomes false, the while loop statements

execution will be stopped and the execution will be continued with the statements

followed by the close braces.

Figure 4.6: Do While loop structure Figure 4.7: Do While loop stop

Figure 4.6 shows that do while loop structure starts from start value statement and

the do while loop condition is written immediately after the close braces. The actions

(Statement(s)) to be repeated written within the braces and update statement right

before close braces. When the program executed has reached the close braces, the

25

condition check will be executed, if the condition is true, then program execution

will be moving back to the do statement and continue executing the statements right

between do while structure. The custom animation tool in Microsoft Power Point was

used in creating the arrow from end braces move back to while condition checking in

order to show the looping. This process will keep on repeating until the condition

becomes false, as shown in Figure 4.7. The do while loop statements execution will

be stopped and the execution will be continued with the statements followed by the

close braces. In Figure 4.5 and 4.7, Custom animation tool in Microsoft Power Point

was also used in showing the condition change to false and the “STOP loop” phrase

appear on screen.

Figure 4.8: While loop and Do While loop Comparison

Figure 4.8 shows the comparison between while loop and do while loop. This figure

shows that the positioning of the condition (label in number 2) for while loop and do

while loop is different. The condition statement comes before update statement in

while loop. This shows that the condition will be checked before the statements

within while loop are executed. Whereas, the condition statement for do while loop

was written at the end of close braces. This shows that the statements contain within

the do while will be executed before checking the condition. As a result, the do while

loop statements will be carried out at least one time before the condition is checked.

26

Figure 4.9: While loop example Figure 4.10: While loop example

Figure 4.9 shows the while loop structure example that will display the “@” symbol

on output screen with the condition of variable num is less than 10. The while loop

statement start with the variable num (loop counter) set to 1. Meanwhile, the RAM

location shows the num variable holding the value 1. Figure 4.10 shows the

continuation process for checking the condition whether variable num is less than 10

or not, where the condition is true.

Figure 4.11: While loop example Figure 4.12: While loop example

Figure 4.11 shows that after checking the condition is true, the execution of while

loop will be continued to the next statement within the while loop structure. After the

printf() statement executed, an “@” symbol will be printed on the output screen,

which will be shown through the entrance customize animation tool. Figure 4.12

shows the execution continued to the next statement, which is an Update statement in

while loop structure. After running this statement, the num variable in RAM will be

updated to hold value 3.

27

Figure 4.13: While loop example Figure 4.14: While loop example

Figure 4.13 shows that after updating the counter, the execution will be looping back

to the while loop condition checking statement. Figure 4.14 the condition checking

process is retrieving the counter value from the RAM and check against the condition

whether it is less than 10. The result of the condition check is true.

Figure 4.15: While loop example Figure 4.16: While loop example

Figure 4.15 shows that the execution continued from Figure 4.14, after the condition

check is true, second “@” symbol will be printed on the output screen and the

counter is updated to value 5, as shown in the RAM location. The execution will be

looping back to while loop condition checking statement again. Since the condition is

true, the printf() statement will be executed and the third “@” symbol will be printed

on the output screen, as shown in Figure 4.16. Then the update statement will be

executed and the num variable in RAM will be updated to hold value 7.

28

Figure 4.17: While loop example Figure 4.18: While loop example

Figure 4.17 shows that the execution continued from Figure 4.16, after the condition

check is true with num value 7 less than 10, the printf() statement will be executed

and the fourth “@” symbol will be printed on the output screen. The counter is then

updated to value 9, as shown in the RAM location. The execution will be looping

back to while loop condition checking statement again. Since the condition is true,

the printf() statement will be executed and the fifth “@” symbol will be printed on

the output screen, as shown in Figure 4.18. Then the update statement will be

executed and the num variable in RAM will be updated to hold value 11. The

execution will be looping back to while loop condition checking statement again.

This time the value of num (11) is greater than 10, it will return false. This will cause

the execution of while loop structure to stop.

Figure 4.19: While loop example

Figure 4.19 shows at the end of the while loop process. The final value of the

variable num stored in RAM location is 11 and the final output printed on the output

screen is five “@” symbols.

29

Figure 4.20: Do While loop example Figure 4.21: Do While loop example

Figure 4.20 shows the do while loop structure example that will display the “@”

symbol on output screen with the condition of variable num is less than 10. The do

while loop statement start with the variable num (loop counter) set to 1. Meanwhile,

the RAM location shows the num variable holding the value 1. Figure 4.21 shows the

continuation process which will execution the printf() statement directly without

checking the condition.

Figure 4.22: Do While loop example Figure 4.23: Do While loop example

Figure 4.22 shows that after the printf() statement executed, a “@” symbol will be

printed on the output screen. Then, the update statement follows will be executed.

After running this statement, the num variable in RAM will be updated to hold value

3. Figure 4.23 shows the condition check process, where num value 3 is less than 10,

so the condition check will return true. The execution will be looping back to do

statement.

30

Figure 4.24: Do While loop example Figure 4.25: Do While loop example

Figure 4.24 the continuation process from figure 4.23, whereby the printf() statement

will be executed, and the second “@” symbol will be printed on the output screen.

Then, the update statement follows will be executed. After running this statement,

the num variable in RAM will be updated to hold value 5. The condition is check

again, where num value 5 is less than 10, so the condition check will return true. The

execution will be looping back to do statement. The execution continued to the

printf() statement again and the third “@” symbol is printed on the output screen, as

shown in Figure 4.25. Then, the update statement follows will be executed. After

running this statement, the num variable in RAM will be updated to hold value 7.

The condition is check again, where num value 7 is less than 10, so the condition

check will return true and loop back to do statement.

Figure 4.26: Do While loop example Figure 4.27: Do While loop example

Figure 4.24 shows after looping back to do statement, the printf() statement will be

executed, and the fourth “@” symbol will be printed on the output screen. Then, the

update statement follows will be executed. After running this statement, the num

variable in RAM will be updated to hold value 9. The condition is check again,

where num value 9 is less than 10, so the condition check will return true. The

31

execution will be looping back to do statement. The execution continued to the

printf() statement again and the fifth “@” symbol is printed on the output screen, as

shown in Figure 4.27. Then, the update statement follows will be executed. After

running this statement, the num variable in RAM will be updated to hold value 11.

Figure 4.28: Do While loop example Figure 4.29: Do While loop example

Figure 4.28 shows the continuation process from figure 4.27. The condition is check

again, where num value 11 is greater than 10, so the condition check will return false.

This will cause the whole do while loop to stop execution. Figure 4.29 shows at the

end of the do while loop execution, the final value of the variable num stored in

RAM location is 11 and the final output printed on the output screen is five “@”

symbols. The final counter value and final output are the same as while loop structure

example.

Figure 4.30: While loop and Do While loop example comparison

Figure 4.30 shows the comparison between while loop and do while loop. The while

loop example shows that checking of condition will be carried out first. In this

32

example, showing variable num value 1 is greater than 0, therefore the condition

returned false. This will cause the while loop to execute at all. Thus, the printf()

statement will not be executed at all, as well as the update statement. Therefore, the

final value of num will not be changed, which is value 1, and there will be no “@”

symbol printed on the output screen. Whereas, for the do while loop example, the

printf() statement will be carried out first, so that the output screen will display one

“@” symbol. Then, the update statement will be executed and this will cause the

change in num value in RAM location, which holding value 2. After the updated

process, the condition will then be checked. The variable num value 2 is greater than

0, therefore the condition will return false. This will cause the do while loop

execution to stop.

Figure 4.31: For loop structure Figure 4.32: For loop structure

Figure 4.31 shows that for loop structure can be relate to the situation when a person

falls sick. When a person falls sick, the person has consumed medicine for a few

times, for example 6 times. In this example, it shows that the count will start at

number 1, while the condition is less than or equal 6. Every time the sick person

consumes a medicine, the count will be plus 1 time. The count will be checked after

each addition, to make sure the sick person does not consume more than the dosage

recommended by the doctor. The count will be updated until 6 times, and then the

sick person will have to stop consuming the medicine, as shown in Figure 4.32.

33

Figure 4.33: For loop structure

Figure 4.33 shows the for loop structure consists of counter start value, conditional

statement and the update statement written within the bracket of for statement

sequentially.

Figure 4.34: For loop example Figure 4.35: For loop example

Figure 4.34 shows the example of for loop that will display the “This is value %d”,

where %d is referring to the variable num value (loop counter) stored in RAM

location, on output screen with the condition of variable num is less than 10. The for

loop statement will start with the variable num set to 1. Meanwhile, the RAM

location shows the num variable holding the value 1. Figure 4.35 shows the

continuation process which will check the condition before executing the statements

within the for loop structure. The condition for the first check returned true, which

will direct the execution to the printf() statement. After the execution of the printf()

statement, the output screen will display the message “This is value 1”.

34

Figure 4.36: For loop example Figure 4.37: For loop example

Figure 4.36 shows the continuation process from Figure 4.35. The execution will

loop back to the for statement and the update statement will be carried out. The num

value will be updated to 3, which is shown in the RAM location. The checking

condition process continued, as shown in Figure 4.37. It returns true and the printf()

statement is continued to print “This is value 3” on the output screen.

Figure 4.38: For loop example Figure 4.39: For loop example

Figure 4.38 shows the continuation process from Figure 4.37. The execution will

loop back to the for statement and the update statement will be carried out. The num

value will be updated to 5, which is shown in the RAM location. The checking

condition process continued, and the checking returns true. Then the printf()

statement is continued to print “This is value 5” on the output screen. Figure 4.39

shows that the execution will loop back to the for statement and the update statement

will be carried out again to update the num value to 7, which is shown in the RAM

location. The checking condition process continued, and it returns true. Then the

printf() statement is continued to print “This is value 7” on the output screen.

35

Figure 4.40: For loop example Figure 4.41: For loop example

Figure 4.40 shows the continuation process from Figure 4.39. The execution will

loop back to the for statement and the update statement will be carried out. The num

value will be updated to 9, which is shown in the RAM location. The checking

condition process continued, and the checking returns true. Then the printf()

statement is continued to print “This is value 9” on the output screen. Figure 4.41

shows that the execution will loop back to the for statement and the update statement

will be carried out again to update the num value to 11, which is shown in the RAM

location. The checking condition process continued, and this time it will return false.

This will cause the whole for loop process to stop execution.

Figure 4.42: For loop example

Figure 4.42 shows the final value of the counter variable, num, stored in the RAM

location is 11 and the final output will consists of 5 lines, as printed “This is value 1”

until “This is value 9”.

36

4.2 Questionnaire Design

In this study, first information to be obtained from students is programming language

evaluating and course title. To avoid bias problem, students’ information such as

name and student’s identification are not requested. Part A questions are continued to

obtain basic information relate to the study, which refers to students’ interest in

programming language unit. The last part of the questionnaire is designed to test

students on their understanding level in programming language presented through

traditional way and courseware prototype presentation. Refer to Appendix A for the

evaluation form created that incorporates the guidelines given in [13] and with

reference to [14].

4.3 Evaluation Data Collection

The evaluation data collected from two batches of students are tabulated into two

tables by using Microsoft Excel 2007 software. The evaluation data collected from

the batch of students who evaluated on traditional way in teaching programming

language are entered into to the table labelled as programming language unit

evaluation (using traditional approach), as shown in Appendix B. Whereas, the

evaluation data collected from the batch of students who evaluated on the courseware

prototype incorporating visual capabilities in teaching programming language are

entered into to the table labelled as programming language unit evaluation (using

courseware prototype), as shown in Appendix C. Each of these tables consists of the

11 attributes, as stated in Table 3.1.

T

a

w

u

T

r

f

T

w

u

The data co

analyzed usi

stated in Tab

will be obt

understandin

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reported in s

for evaluatio

5.1 Evaluat

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C

RESULTS

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49

5.3 Conclusion

High failure rate problem in programming courses happened in almost every

educational institution. This is due to the difficulties to deliver abstract and logical

thinking materials to students by only using traditional teaching approach. After the

completion of this research, an easy way in leaning programming logic by using

visualization is formulated. With this approach that has been presented through the

courseware prototype, 45 first year DIT students in TARC are requested to carry an

evaluation on their interest in learning programming and tested their understanding

level in C programming repetition structure. It can be seen that majority of the

students can understand most of the repetition structure teaching materials delivered

to them through the use of courseware prototype that incorporate visualization

capabilities. Thus, it leads them to understand the repetition structure well and enable

each of them to score at least 3 questions correctly in the Part B of the questionnaire,

which is test their understanding level on the repetition structure taught. Moreover,

another essential fact results from the survey is that every student agree that using

courseware prototype with incorporation of visualization features will help them to

develop their programming skill more efficiently.

As a conclusion, visualization incorporated into traditional teaching method is

helpful in improving students understanding level in learning programming logic.

With this formulation, it may provide educators an alternative in teaching

programming logic, which may help them easily express the abstract thinking of

programming logic in their teaching material. Thus, it may create an effective way in

delivery the teaching materials to students.

5.4 Limitation and Future Work

Some future work that can extend this research is to create a complete courseware for

C programming language, which may incorporate the traditional teaching method in

teaching the principles of programming languages and visual capabilities in showing

the actual execution of programming logic hidden from the user interface.

50

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54

Appendix A

Programming Language Unit Evaluation Survey

Please indicate the extent to which you believe these statements describe your

experience in programming language unit (Part A) and your understanding level

(Part B).

Programming Language evaluating: _________________________ Course

title: _____________

Part A

Instruction: You should fill in your responses with a tick “ ” in the appropriate

column. If you think a statement is a good description, please mark “strongly agree”.

If you think it is a poor description, then please mark as appropriate.

N

o.

Questions Strongly

Agree

Agree Normal Disagree Strongly

Disagree

1. You have experience in

writing computer program.

2. You obtain a good result in

programming unit.

3. The taught material has been

presented clearly.

4. The taught material has helped

you develop your knowledge

of the unit.

5. The taught material has helped

you develop your

programming skill.

6. The teaching method is

visually interesting.

55

Part B

Instruction: Based on your C programming knowledge, answer the following

questions. Please circle “ ” on the appropriate answer.

1. The while loop statements will be carried out how many times?

num = 1;

while(num<=10){

….

num++;

}

a. 0

b. 1

c. 9

2. What is the final value of the variable age?

age = 13;

while(age<=20){

printf(“I’m a teenager!\n”);

age+=3;

}

a. 16

b. 19

c. 20

3. What is the output of the following program statements?

x=1;

do{

printf(“I Love U\n”);

x+=2;

}while(x<3);

a. I Love U

b. I Love U

I Love U

d. 10

c. 11

d. I Love U I Love U

c. nothing

d. 21

c. 22

a.

56

c. I Love U

I Love U

I Love U

4. Trace the output of the following for loop program statements.

for(count=1; count<6; count++){

printf(“$ ”);

}

a. $ $ $ $ $ $

b. $ $ $ $ $

c. $ $ $ $

5. What is the final value of the variable count in Q4?

a. 7

b. 6

c. 5

d. $ $ $

c. nothing

d. 0

c. 1

57

Appendix B

Programming Language Unit Evaluation (using traditional approach)

No.

Part A Part B

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5

1 1 3 3 3 3 4 T T T T T

2 3 3 2 3 4 4 T F T T T

3 4 3 2 2 2 5 T F T T T

4 3 3 2 2 2 1 T F F T F

5 3 2 2 4 3 1 T F T T F

6 3 3 2 3 2 3 T F T T F

7 5 4 4 5 3 3 T F T T F

8 4 4 3 4 5 3 T F T T F

9 4 3 3 4 4 2 T F T T F

10 4 3 3 4 4 3 T F T T F

11 3 3 4 3 3 3 T F F T F

12 4 4 4 5 5 3 T F T T F

13 4 4 3 4 4 3 T F T T F

14 4 3 3 2 2 2 T F T T F

15 4 2 2 2 2 1 T F T T T

16 3 2 2 3 2 1 T T T T F

17 1 4 3 2 2 1 T F T T F

18 2 2 4 2 2 4 T F T T F

19 4 3 3 3 3 4 T F T T F

20 3 2 4 3 3 4 T F T T F

21 3 3 2 3 3 2 T F T T F

22 2 2 5 4 3 3 T F T T F

23 2 2 2 2 4 3 T F F T F

24 3 2 3 3 3 3 T F F F T

25 4 3 4 4 3 2 T F T T F

26 3 3 4 4 4 3 T F F T F

58

27 2 2 3 3 3 3 T F T T F

28 4 3 4 4 4 4 T F T T F

29 3 2 2 3 3 2 T F F T F

30 3 3 3 4 4 3 T F T T F

31 3 2 3 3 3 2 T F F F F

32 5 3 3 3 3 2 T T T T T

33 5 3 3 4 4 3 T T T T T

34 4 4 3 3 3 2 T T T T T

35 4 3 3 4 4 3 T F T T F

36 4 4 3 3 3 3 T F F T F

37 4 3 4 4 5 4 T F T T F

38 3 3 3 4 4 3 T F F T F

39 3 2 2 3 3 2 T F T T F

40 3 3 3 3 3 3 F F F T F

41 3 1 2 2 1 1 F F F F T

42 3 3 3 4 4 3 T F F T F

43 2 2 3 2 2 2 F F T T F

44 3 3 2 3 2 1 F F T T F

45 3 3 4 4 4 3 T F T T F

59

Appendix C

Programming Language Unit Evaluation (using Courseware Prototype)

No.

Part A Part B

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5

1 3 4 5 5 5 5 T T F T T

2 3 3 4 5 4 4 F T F T T

3 5 4 5 5 5 5 T T F F T

4 5 5 5 5 5 5 T T F T T

5 4 4 4 4 4 4 T T T T T

6 5 4 5 5 4 5 T T T T T

7 5 5 5 5 4 4 T T T T T

8 4 4 5 5 5 5 T T F T T

9 4 4 5 5 5 5 T T F T T

10 4 4 5 5 5 5 T T T T T

11 4 3 3 3 3 5 T T T T T

12 4 4 5 4 5 5 T T T T T

13 4 2 3 4 4 4 T T T T T

14 5 4 5 5 5 4 T T T F T

15 4 4 5 5 5 5 T T T T T

16 4 4 5 5 5 5 T T T T T

17 4 4 4 4 4 4 T T T T T

18 5 5 5 5 5 5 T T T T T

19 5 5 4 5 5 5 T T T T T

20 5 5 5 5 5 5 T T T T T

21 5 5 5 5 5 5 T T T T T

22 3 3 5 4 5 5 F T T T F

23 4 5 4 5 5 4 T T T T T

24 4 5 4 5 5 4 T T T T T

25 4 3 3 3 3 4 T T T T T

26 4 5 4 5 4 5 T T T T T

60

27 5 5 5 5 5 5 T T T T T

28 4 4 4 4 4 4 T T T T T

29 4 3 3 3 3 4 T T T T T

30 5 4 5 4 5 5 T T T T T

31 5 5 5 4 4 5 T T F T T

32 4 3 4 4 4 4 T T T T T

33 4 3 4 4 4 4 T T T T T

34 4 4 4 4 4 4 T T T T T

35 5 5 5 5 5 5 T T F T T

36 4 4 5 5 4 4 T T F T T

37 5 5 5 5 5 5 T T F T T

38 5 5 5 5 5 5 T T F T T

39 5 4 4 4 4 5 F T T T T

40 4 4 4 4 4 5 T T T T T

41 4 3 4 4 4 5 T T T T T

42 3 3 4 4 4 4 T T T T T

43 3 4 4 4 5 5 T T T F T

44 4 4 4 4 4 5 T T T T T

45 4 3 4 4 4 4 T F T T T