The Learning Curve: Computer Assisted Instruction and Programming

Abstract

The present study evaluates the learning curve of students who are learning to program in BASIC via classroom instruction supplemented by the use of Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) software tutorials. This study identifies the “difficult to understand” areas. It concludes that some topics are significantly more difficult to understand as compared to other topics. It further appears that as the level of topic difficulty increases, the additional complexity offsets the effects of the learning phenomena, leading to a slower pace of learning more advanced topics. The understanding of such problems may be helpful for system resources planning and control.