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“Do I press return?”

The introductory programming course at this university attempts to serve some 1500 students each semester. The attrition rate, due in part to the overload on the system and in part to the students' difficulties in “keeping up”, has, at times, approached 25%. In response to this situation we have revised and reordered the curriculum for use in an experimental course designed for the novice user. The course is directed toward discovering and addressing the confusions of new programming students. It facilitates our ongoing study of the novice programmers' response to graphics, friendly interface packages and the revised curriculum which includes the teaching of procedures and control structures at the beginning of the course. In studying these responses we have learned some techniques in aiding the novice user to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding the acquisition of programming skills. The course is constantly undergoing development in addition to being in its second semester as a departmental offering. It is detailed in this paper.