Application of a Blended Active Learning Model in Teaching Computer Programming to Non-Majors (Abstract Only)

Introducing computer programming to non-computer science students has been a challenge. Concerns deal mainly with various backgrounds and expectations of students, planning of course components, and the adoption of effective teaching methods. This poster presents a guided active learning model with blended approach to help teaching computer programming to non-majors. The model starts with an outline of course objectives and the selection of textbooks, online tools, classrooms, and lab rooms. Under the blended approach, the model consists of classroom modules, lab room face-to-face modules, and online modules. It considers active learning in: online modules before and after classes or labs, in-class module, and in-lab module. The model concludes with the course evaluation which feeds back to the start for future improvement. By using this blended active learning model for five years, it has proven to be effective in engaging students in the course study and flexible to integrate various educational techniques. In the future, we plan to further study its flexibility by integrating innovative e-text learning techniques into the model