2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work in progress study investigates the effectiveness of a teaching intervention focused on collaborative learning strategies, specifically, write-pair-share (WPS), and vertical non-permanent surfaces (VNPS), in reducing students’ anxiety with learning introductory programming courses. An introductory programming course is an important course for first-year engineering students. The ability to write programs to solve real-world problems is a vital skill for engineers. First-year students without prior programming experience may encounter challenges in introductory programming courses, which may lead to increased anxiety and academic hurdles. This study was implemented among students in a first-year programming course at a private university. Students enrolled in the introductory programming course were given modeling problems during the semester to assess their progress in developing programming solutions. In each modeling problem, students were required to submit a written solution to the problem, detailing their solution approach, and a coded solution to the problem using MATLAB as the programming language. The validated survey, “Attitudes Toward Mathematics Inventory (ATMI)” was revised to focus on programming rather than mathematics. Students completed the revised version of the ATMI survey at the beginning of the semester and at the end of the semester. Study data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-tests to determine significant improvement in students’ anxiety and confidence in their programming skills. Findings from this study suggest that effective teaching methods may improve students’ anxiety, confidence, and engagement in similar programming courses.