Revitalizing Introductory Computer Courses for Non-CS Majors: A Comparative Study

In order to better expand the academic horizons of non-Computer Science (CS) majors, the universities across Macao usually offer introductory courses on computer science and computer applications. There are often problems when these students enter an introductory computer course on conceptual learning (CL), because of lack of different experience levels with science topics. This paper aims to present and summarize a variety of performances on CL for non-CS majors at the Macao Polytechnic University (MPU), majoring in such disciplines as Social Work (SW), Public Administration (PA), Chinese-Portuguese/English Translation and Interpretation (CPETI), Science in Nursing (SN), particularly associated to CL. The paper also includes the descriptions and results of work done at the MPU. We have collected the assessment information of each class (continuous assessment and final examinations), more than 2,000 non-CS majors over the past 16 years at MPU. Based our statistics, for a high percentage of these students, they will feel certain difficulty of CL, but the degree of difficulties, the students from studies reflect the different characteristics, Through the questionaries and classroom conversations, the possible reasons and problem solutions are discussed in the end of this paper..