Scientific African (Jul 2022)
A review on effective approach to teaching computer programming to undergraduates in developing countries
Abstract
Universities in developing countries and maybe a few in some developed countries are faced with the challenge of adopting an effective pedagogy for teaching Computer Programming Languages to students. This is due to lack of technological infrastructure and a number of peculiar limitations within these regions. The goal of this paper is two-fold, conducting a systematic review of related literature in Programming Languages and proposing a model for teaching Programming Languages effectively given sparse resources. On the systematic review, a search for literature from 4 databases using appropriate inclusion and exclusion techniques yielded 18 relevant research articles. Based on gaps found in literature, we propose an effective teaching approach that integrates teaching basic foundational aspects of programming, teaching students how to represent computing problems using these foundational concepts and using mobile compilers to compile their codes on the event that systems are not available. A few initial empirical results showing the effect of the adoption of a mobile tool for teaching Programming to undergraduate students are presented. This research recommends the adoption of an Online Console Compiler as the mobile Integration Development Environment (IDE). It also recommends some Programming Languages that should be adopted in teaching students from first year to fourth year using the National University Commission's (NUC) guidelines, course outlines from four Universities and data from Universities in developed countries. Care should be taken in the use of mobile phones as there are safety rules in some developed countries on the minimal set of acceptable systems for programmers. Recommendations for future research are discussed.
