Learning Web Development: Challenges at an Earlier Stage of Computing Education

Web development can serve as a rich and motivating context for introducing computation to new audiences. However, little is known of the difficulties that non-technical students face when learning web development. We report a study of forty-nine library and information science students taking an introductory web development course. By applying content analysis to their online help forums, we found that over ninety percent of help-seeking instances related to development, instruction, and technology. We applied a second level of content analysis to the development challenges, discovering that basic topics like images and links presented significant barriers to further learning. We present these findings and discuss their implications for computing education curricula