Work in progress - using graphical programming languages in the introductory programming course

There is widespread evidence to show that many first year engineering students have either a strong dislike for programming or an inability to write effective programs. This poses a problem, since many engineering departments require their students to take some form of introductory programming as part of their first year in engineering. Several possible reasons exist for why many engineering students have such difficulty with programming and the related concepts: that many engineers tend to fall heavily on the ¿visual learner¿ side of the Felder-Silverman learning styles model and that they tend to rely on inappropriate or inadequate models for using these concepts. Since traditional, text-based programming languages, and the predominantly text-based way in which they are taught, do not align with the learning styles of these students, their ability to understand and implement the necessary concepts in an actual program may be drastically reduced. The text based nature of most languages taught as a first language also promotes the use of natural languages models for various looping and conditional constructs which do not fit. This paper discusses a work in progress investigating the use of graphical programming languages as a means for introducing programming concepts and catering to the visual learning style of most engineering students.