Abstract—Computer programming is not an easy subject to
learn or teach, particularly to first-year students in higher
learning institutions. Numerous past studies have shown that
students faced difficulties in comprehending and applying the
programming concept when writing programs to solve
problems. A slight negative experience at the initial stage of the
studies is enough to disappoint the students. This then resulted
in lowering the motivation of students to learn programming
which impacted the students’ performance in the programming
course. Thus, an approach must be developed so that the
motivation to learn and practice programming remains high.
This article proposes the use of Turtle Graphics at the initial
stage of Java Programming course in Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia. Via this approach, by writing suitable programs, the
students are able to produce animations and graphics output.
Students’ motivation levels are then measured via the ARCS
model, which measure the students’ motivation based on four
aspects, namely attention, relevance, confidence, and
satisfaction. The results of this study found that the students
demonstrate high motivation in all four motivational aspects.
Index Terms—ARCS model, course content, graphics library,
novice programming, objects-first.
Marini Abu Bakar and Muriati Mukhtar are with the Faculty of
Information Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,
43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia (e-mail: marini@ukm.edu.my,
muriati@ukm.edu.my).
Fariza Khalid is with the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia (e-mail:
fariza.khalid@ukm.edu.my).
Cite: Marini Abu Bakar, Muriati Mukhtar, and Fariza Khalid, "The Effect of Turtle Graphics Approach on Students' Motivation to Learn Programming: A Case Study in a Malaysian University," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 290-297, 2020.
Copyright © 2020 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).