Khuloud Ahmad, a doctoral stduent in the Computer Science Department, will give a final report on an indpendent study she has been working on for Prof. Paul Gestwicki entitled Measuring the Impact of App Inventor for Android and Studio-Based Learning in an Introductory Computer Science Course for Non-Majors

A reexamination of the traditional instruction of introductory computer science (CS) courses is becoming a necessity. In many universities, the CS department is suffering from low enrollment for the last several years compared to other majors. The problem was believed to lie in introductory course sequence in CS. Introductory CS courses tend to have high attrition rates and low success rates. Multiple studies have linked these phenomena with low student motivation, specifically with respect to attitudes towards overtly mathematics-oriented assignments and lecture-oriented pedagogy. Student’s criticisms are directed at the major for its lack of creativity, relevance, and interest. The purpose of this study is to implement an experimental introductory CS course for non-CS majors focusing on two pedagogic factors and to evaluate their effects on students’ motivation, achievement, and attitude towards CS. These factors will be 1) the use of a visual blocks programming language known as App Inventor for Android (AIA) and 2) the adoption of Studio-Based Learning (SBL). The hypothesis is that these factors will have a positive effect on students’ motivation, achievement, and attitude towards CS.