1.1 Introduction
BASIC is an acronym for beginners’ all-purpose symbolic instruction code. The language was developed to teach beginners the basic constructs of programming theory and as much, one of the easiest programming languages to learn. As a high level programming language program code written in written in BASIC must be translated to its equivalence in machine code before it can be executed on the computer. A BASIC interpreter is needed for this purpose. Computerized Aided Learning (CAL) of Basic Programming Language is a computer application that assists the learning process for students in educational and training institutions. In many universities, students use traditional handbooks, which include numerical files, which are transferred to a digital CAL format for portable and accessible materials.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
BASIC is the name of a high level programming language developed at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire USA under the auspices of professors John G Kemeny and Thomas E. Kutz during their academic years- 1963-64. The language was developed to teach beginners the basic constructs of programming theory and as much, one of the easiest programming languages to learn. As a high level programming language program code written in written in BASIC must be translated to its equivalence in machine code before it can be executed on the computer. In the world today, the computer has made a great impact. The computer has so influenced our life so much that people believe that the computer came from the underground world. Some say that the computer is a witch in form of a machine. This is due to the fact that the computer gives information, which is not expected of a machine. These people do not know that programs are written to be used friendly so that it will look as if it knows their problem.
The term Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) covers a range of computer-based packages, which aim to provide interactive instruction usually in a specific subject area and many predate the internet. These can range from sophisticated and expensive commercial packages to applications developed by projects in other educational institutions or national initiatives to simple solutions developed by individuals with no funding or support to tackle a very local problem. The amount of time and money invested in development is high and partly because of the very subject specific nature of the education market as well as the very personalized nature of the teaching process- particularly at FE and HE level- means that commercial success is difficult to achieve and work done in one subject area rarely transfers to others subject areas.
In general, the use of computer in education through CAL has been sporadic a great deal of effort was expended with little general impact. Many of those academics that took part in that earlier crusade are now cynical about effectiveness of computers in teaching. There are still good reasons to use CAL rather than internet based technologies. CAL is run either straight from a CD or floppy disk drive or over a local network so the constraint of the internet-slow download times for multimedia materials may not apply. This, couple with the fact that CAL technology has been around a bit longer, means that CAL packages have the potential to offer more advanced, interactive, multimedia learning experience than it is currently reasonable to expect from the web. This has been changing as web technologies develop and bandwidths improve but there are currently many things that can only be achieved with CAL rather than the web and CAL has been an integral part of the curriculum in many departments at Warwick for some time.
The challenges encountered that led to the execution of the research work is that there is no assurance that challenges or enquiry stated by the students will be attended to at the same time interval, the issue of misplacement of complaints forms or suggestion book, limited time constraints in solving student’s complaints and other related issues, and lack of feedback to students with regard to their complaints or enquiry.
1.3 Statement of Problem
Investigation revealed that the previous method of teaching BASIC programming language in various universities was not adequate enough to impact knowledge to students. Some of the problems associated with this method include the following:
- Lack of microphone when there are thousands of students in a lecture hall.
- Lack of material for the lecture.
- Insufficient reading materials given to students.
- Inconsistent of lectures from the lecturers.
- Failure to update academic program.
- Time consuming due to the logical nature of BASIC programming language learning
- Inability of some people to understand BASIC programming language during classroom learning due to lack of concentration
Therefore, the need arise for the development of software for computerized aided learning system on BASIC programming language in order to solve these problems.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to design and implement a Computer Aided Tutor for Teaching Basic Programming Language. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to develop an application software that will:
- Develop a systematic way to make the study of BASIC programming language more enjoyable;
- Create an interaction through the tutor, which gives the student the feeling of being aided by a teacher;
- Facilitate instant feedback to students with challenges of BASIC programming language;
- Eliminate time wasted when educating people on BASIC programming language; and
- Improves speed of learning in students, allows individualized teaching and provides students with restricted activities.
1.5 Significance of Study
The significance of this research work is to render help to students studying programming languages in instructions. Meanwhile, the following is going to be achieved from this study.
- It will provide or deploy self-interactive teaching.
- Help students to know more about BASIC programming language.
- Help students know other aspect of programming.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Design and Implementation of a Computer Aided Tutor for Teaching Basic Programming Language including other areas of coverage.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.8 Definition of Terms
This are the technical terms you will see in the concept of writing this project.
Internet: A network that links computer networks all over the world by satellite and telephone, connecting users with service networks such as e-mail and the World Wide Web
CD Plate: This is optical disk on which sound is recorded in a digital format by assigning numerical value to measurement of the sound.
Computer: Electronic device that accepts processes, stores and output data at high speeds according to programmed instruction.
Website: An address identifying the location of the file on the internet, consisting of the protocol, the computer on which the file is located, and the file's location on that computer.
Tutorial: A chapter of book or manual, or a sector of a computer program, designed to provide instrument or training using exercise and assignment.
