student attitudes toward computers
At Penn State certain major areas within Business Administration require a computer programming course in the curriculum. The course usually taken is Computer Science 403, a FORTRAN programming course especially designed for business students. In recent years student complaints about CS 403 have been heard. Similarly, computer science faculty have had complaints about the students. There has been a problem. Research was begun to determine some of the dimensions of the problem. This investigation explored the attitudes of the students toward computers. By measuring attitudes it was expected that some explanation of the student unrest would materialize. Other possible contributing courses such as the FORTRAN language (rather than COBOL) and the level of student ability have been or will be separately studied. Some of the possible causes for the problem which were considered at the beginning of the investigation were: This was just one evidence of a general public distaste with computer technology. The course had a bad reputation which was communicated to students before they enrolled in CS 403. The course itself created negative attitudes. The instructor created negative attitudes. An information systems course created more positive attitudes.
student attitude computation business administrator computer programming program curriculum computer science faculty research measurement explanation language evidence general public technologies reputation information system posit