Do Sequence and Concurrency Matter?: An Investigation of Order and Timing Effects on Student Learning of Programming Languages

IS educators often struggle with curriculum issues including timeliness and completeness of the curriculum. While model curricula suggest that programming courses should be a part of an IS undergraduate degree, little guidance is offered as to the order and timing of these courses. A longitudinal survey of students in programming courses was used to assess whether sequence or concurrency explained any variance in perceptual performance measures. Sequence of programming courses did not hinder student performance, and concurrency actually improved performance for Visual Basic. Insights from the study provide guidance for curricular design issues regarding the sequencing and timing of programming courses.