Improving the Technical Infrastructure of a Programming Course

Decreasing interest in computer science and programming has caused trouble to many institutions recently. To tackle this issue an active improvement of the first programming course was started four years ago. In this paper the adopted action research approach is described together with the improved results from the course. The improvement actions have so far focused on the technical infrastructure of the course including the used programming language, development environment, weekly assignments, course project, and teaching materials. Even though the technical infrastructure still has deficiencies, the limit of improvement possible with efforts focusing on the technical aspects is approaching, and continued improvement requires moving the improvement focus on the pedagogical aspects.