The experience factor in early programming education

Like most computing departments, the Information Technology (IT) Department of the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences (GCCIS) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) offers an introductory programming sequence. Students typically spend their first three quarters completing the sequence. We have found that students enter the sequence with varying degrees of experience ranging from none at all to significant programming experience. Those with previous exposure to programming could have received this experience in many different ways: programming courses in high school, programming that is tangential to other high school courses, clubs, self study, and work experience. In 2003, the authors discussed the preliminary results of a study examining the impact of prior experience on students entering an introductory programming sequence [6]. The preliminary results indicated that prior programming experience did have an impact on student performance in the first course in the programming sequence; however it did not seem to have a significant impact on student performance in subsequent courses. By the end of the sequence, students seemed to have equivalent performance. The data, however, were incomplete. Not all students had completed the sequence by the end of the school year. This paper will reexamine the data now that students have completed the courses.