Difficulties Facing Students in Learning Computer Programming Skills at

Learning programming skills is not an easy task as supported by many research studies. Like other students around the world, the students of the University of Tabuk struggle through computer programming courses. This research investigates and analyzes the problems faced by computer programming students at the University of Tabuk with two main objectives. The first objective is to find out whether the students at the University of Tabuk face problems in computer programming similar to the ones faced by the students in different corners of the world as reported in the literature. The second objective is to study the impact of sociocultural and environmental factors on learning computer programming skills by the students of the University of Tabuk. To perform our research, a case study and a questionnaire were designed. In order to ascertain whether our students face difficulties in programming, a case study with 10-questions test was performed. The results have shown that our students are in real difficulties. In the questionnaire, the questions reflect a wide range of views pertaining to educational facilities such as curriculum and teaching materials, lab equipments and class rooms’ environment, and the adequacy and proficiency of the professors and teaching assistants. This paper analyses the results of the questionnaires. The questionnaires provide insight into the environmental and socio-cultural effects and the difficulties experienced while learning and teaching programming.. Key-Words: Programming difficulties, learning, teaching, novices, and environmental and socio-cultural effects.