Practical Software Engineering Education

A new programming course to prepare novices for the traditional Computer Science 1 course (CS1) is proposed. The course uses 3D interactive animation in a novice-friendly environment to introduce object-oriented programming concepts and help students develop problem-solving skills. Pedagogical issues are presented that involve the use of visualization and graphics concepts, the notion of state, and programming language concerns. A study of practice and experimentation with this course is underway. The evaluation plan for this study is briefly described and some early results are summarized, along with observed benefits and concerns.