COBOL on Broadway: an Innovative Approach to Teaching Programming Concepts

Students often have a difficult time grasping programming concepts the first time they are exposed to a programming language. This paper shows how role-playing can be used to demonstrate COBOL programming logic to students. The students role-play parts of a COBOL program to participate in the execution of the programming statements. “Seeing” how the program executes and data is stored seems to enhance the students’ understanding of the program.