AN ANALYSIS ON DISTANCE EDUCATION COMPUTER PROGRAMMING STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES REGARDING PROGRAMMING AND THEIR SELF-EFFICACY FOR PROGRAMMING

Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE April 2015 ISSN 1302-6488 Volume: 16 Number: 2 Article 9 AN ANALYSIS ON DISTANCE EDUCATION COMPUTER PROGRAMMING STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES REGARDING PROGRAMMING AND THEIR SELF-EFFICACY FOR PROGRAMMING Assist. Prof. Dr. Ozcan OZYURT Karadeniz Technical University, Technology Faculty, Software Engineering Department, Trabzon, TURKEY ABSTRACT This study aims to analyze the attitudes of students studying computer programming through the distance education regarding programming, and their self-efficacy for programming and the relation between these two factors. The study is conducted with 104 students being thought with distance education in a university in the north region of Turkey in spring semester of 2013-2014 academic years. Attitude Scale toward Computer Programming (AStCP) and Computer Programming Self-Efficacy Inventory (CPSEI) are used as data collecting tool. The study is conducted within the descriptive scanning model. The data collected during the study is analyzed with Mann Whitney U test, independent t-test and Pearson Correlation coefficient for answering the research questions. According to the results of the study the attitudes of the students regarding programming are generally positive and their self-efficacy for programming are at high level. There is statistically important difference in the attitudes of students regarding programming in accordance with their gender and grade level. Accordingly, their selfefficacy differentiates statistically by these two variables. Finally, it is concluded that there is a positive relation in average level between the attitudes of the students regarding programming and their self-efficacy for programming. Keywords: Attitudes Regarding Programming, Programming Self-Efficacy, Distance Education, Computer Programming. INTRODUCTION Computer programming is one of the most popular occupations in these days. There is Computer Programming Program under the Computer Technologies Department in the vocational high school of almost all the universities. These programs firstly have been founded as formal and evening education and they have continued their education and teaching activities. In recent years, in parallel with the developments in distance education technologies, distance education computer programming program has been opened in several universities and they still continue their activities. The main objective of computer programming programs is to prepare programmers having the technical knowledge and experience to be able to use information technologies and accommodate with the improving technologies. It is expected from the computer programming candidates to be graduated from this program to have computer programming skill at  111     upper level.Computer programming skill requires having some kind of thinking skill such as logical thinking and problem solving (Korkmaz, 2012; Lau & Yuen, 2009). Computer programming is mostly perceived as a difficult course by the students (Aşkar & Davenport, 2009; Başer, 2013). The fact that computer programming is perceived as a difficult course results in the fact that they develop mostly negative attitudes regarding programming (Başer, 2013). Negative attitude regarding programming has a negative effect on the success of students. Hence, the studies finding out that such factors as negative perception, motivation and especially low level of attitude can make negative effect on learning computer programming take the attention (Anastasiadou & Karakos, 2011; Hawi, 2010; Korkmaz & Altun, 2013). It can be said that beside attitude, self-efficacy perception also plays a role in success of the students in computer programming course. Self-efficacy refers to the trust on the skill that the individual has in order to be able perform a work (Horzum & Çakır, 2009). It is possible to encounter with the studies indicating the fact that it is highly possible that the student whose self-efficacy trust is lower will be unsuccessful in programming course (Altun & Mazman, 2012; Aşkar & Davenport, 2009). And the literature also includes information about there is a positive relation between attitude and self-efficacy (Demirtaş, Cömert, & Özer, 2011). There are studies in very limited number in literature about the attitude regarding programming and programming self-efficacy trust. Hongwarittorrn and Krairit (2010) reach the result that there is an important correlation between the attitudes regarding programming and the exam marks. There are generally studies concluding that the attitudes of students regarding programming are positive (Anastasiadou & Karakos, 2011; Başer, 2013; Korkmaz & Altun, 2013; Nurazian, Suzana, Haslızatul, & Isamassabah, 2007). Furthermore, although there are studies concluding that the attitudes of male students are higher than the female students’ (Başer, 2013; Chang, Shieh, Liu, & Yu, 2012; Stoilescu, & Egodawatte, 2010), there are also studies finding out that there is no relation between the attitude regarding programming and gender (Lau & Yuen, 2009; McDowell, Werner, Bullock, & Fernald, 2003). There are very limited studies about the self-efficacy perception for programming. According to Aşkar and Davenport (2009) self-efficacy perception for programming shows important differences by gender and departments, male and computer engineering students’ self-efficacy perception for programming are at higher level in comparison with other students. According to Jegede (2009) the number of the courses taken in previous times and the year end mark gotten from these courses determine the self-efficacy for programming, but experience year for programming has no effect. Altun and Mazman (2012), find out that programming self-efficacy perception does not vary by gender; on the other hand it varies by the courses about programming and programming experience year. Furthermore, literature also includes the studies concluding that the self-efficacy perception of the students for programming are at average level (Pereira, Zebende, & Moret, 2010; Hawi, 2010; Robins, Rountree, & Rountree, 2003).  112     It is seen that existing studies about the attitude regarding programming and selfefficacy density in engineering and computer education department. There are studies about student satisfaction of the students generally from the different departments, in specific students from computer programming who take education via distance education (Allen, Bourhis, Burrell, & Mabry, 2002; Ozyurt, 2014), and the attitudes of the students regarding their department and/or distance education (Lenka & Kant, 2012; Ojo & Olakulehin, 2006; Ozyurt, 2014; Ural, 2007) in literature. There is not any study searching the attitudes of the students studying at Distance Education Computer Programming Program regarding programming and their thrust on self-efficacy. However, in our day, many universities give the computer programming education thro (...truncated)