Revitalizing the introductory programming course

Abstract

In this paper we present our approach to revitalizing the introductory level programming course at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This course has been re-designed to make computer programming fun and accessible to female students who sign up for the IT program with no background in computing and in particular analytical and problem solving skills. The approach has been used at other universities and represents a marked departure from the use of a single programming language to employ multiple programming tools. The results we have obtained confirm the viability of the approach and is inspiring students to spend more time learning how to design and develop interesting applications that appeal to female students. In addition, ZU students have expressed a great deal of satisfaction and responded positively towards the new approach of learning how to program.