|
Mr. Muhammed Yousoof gave a very interesting seminar
on the 21st of May, 2007 presenting his own studies
on finding a solution to ease learning of programming
for students. He said, “Learning programming
is difficult for many learners. Some researchers
have found that the main difficulty relates to
cognitive load. Cognitive overload happens in programming
due to the nature of the subject which is intrinsically
over-bearing on the working memory. It happens
due to the complexity of the subject itself. The
problem is made worse by the poor instructional
design methodology used in the teaching and learning
process”. Various efforts have been
proposed to reduce the cognitive load, e.g. visualization
software, part-program method etc. There have been
many computer based systems created to try and
tackle the problem. However, there has been little
success in alleviating the problem. More has to
been done to overcome this hurdle. In this seminar,
an attempt was made to understand how cognitive
load can be managed so as to reduce the problem
of overloading. He proposes a mechanism to measure
the cognitive load during pre-instruction, post-instruction
and in instructional stages of learning. This mechanism
is used to help the instruction. As the load changes,
the instruction is made to adapt itself to ensure
cognitive viability. This mechanism could be incorporated
as a sub domain in the student model of various
computer based instructional systems to facilitate
the learning of programming. Mr. Yousoof is in
the middle of designing this program which he hopes
will be of special use to Dhofar University, where
many students are struggling with their studies
in computer programming, both in the College of
Arts and Applied Sciences and the College of Engineering,
and could use some help in making their learning
an easier task.
|
