A hands-on approach to teaching systems programming

Historically, the teaching of systems programming has been undertaken using a variety of techniques. In order to provide students with the best possible learning experience, an approach which allows the students “hands-on” experience on some computer system is desirable. Such a “hands-on” approach has proved to be successful in a course in systems programming for over three years at West Virginia University. The approach is discussed in detail and the results of the three years' experience using this approach on an IBM 1130 computer system are presented.