Detection and Categorization of Errors by Novice Programmers in a First Year Java Programming Class: A Comparative Analysis

The increasing demand for Information Technology (IT) professionals including Java programmers is rising and hence the pressure on IT institutions to train more and more students in this technical area is becoming crucial. Although students are attracted to, and may enroll in IT related undergraduate degree programs, challenges associated with computer programming and related courses are making them to later change to other fields of study. This paper reports on a study to determine whether early tutorials could effectively reduce the programming errors made by novice students taking a Java programming class at the Meliksah University. The empirical work is based on a control experiment with a key objective of determining which of the two groups of novice students taking a Java programming class had fewer programming errors. The first group of students was given a tutorial on Java programming errors; the second was not. The preliminary result shows that the tutorial given to students in the first group had a positive impact on reducing their programming errors, and therefore improving student programming skills. The results also lead to some recommendations to improve instructor teaching and student learning of Java programming courses.