A comparative study of three instructional modalities in a computer programming course: Traditional instruction, Web-based instruction, and online instruction

This study is a quasi-experimental design to examine students' performance in integrating the web in different aspects of teaching and learning in an introductory programming course. This course is an introduction to problem-solving methods and algorithm development using a higher-level programming language (C++). This empirical, exploratory study examined the academic performance, motivation, satisfaction and course completion rate of students using three instructional modalities: (1) traditional face-to-face, (2) web-assisted, and (3) online. Participants were primarily entering first year college students attending an Historically Black College and University (HBCU) majoring in computer science. Data collected included scores on the departmental computer placement test, the proficiency examination, two multiple-choice examinations, three programming assignments, the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI), the course evaluation form, and the Motivated Strategies Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ).; This study supports the body of research studies that have concluded that online instruction is as effective as traditional face-to-face instruction. This study revealed that the instructional modality did not affect student motivation, self-regulation completion rate, and academic performance on the end of semester proficiency examination. However, in this study face-to-face, web-assisted, and online instructional modalities were equally effective for teaching computer programming.