Is it Visual? The Importance of a Problem Solving Module within a Computing Course

This paper looks at student's view of the usefulness of a problem solving and programming module in the first year of a 3-year undergraduate program.The School of Science and Technology,University of Northampton,UK has been investigating,over the last seven years the teaching of problem solving.Including looking at whether a more visual approach has any benefits(the visual programming includes both 2-d and graphical user interfaces).Whilst the authors have discussed the subject problem solving and programming in the past [1] this paper considers the students perspective from research collected/collated by a student researcher under a new initiative within the University.All students interviewed either had completed the module within the two years of the survey or were completing the problem-solving module in their first year.