An empirical study of visual labs

Most research on instructional applications of visual programming has focused on the learning of programming skills. The authors report on the first in a series of experiments designed to test the effectiveness of visual programming for instruction in subject-matter concepts. Their general approach is to have the students construct models using icons and then execute these models. In this case, they used a series of visual labs for computer architecture. The test subjects were undergraduate computer science majors. The experimental group performed the visual labs; the control group did not. The experimental group showed a positive increase in attitude toward instructional labs and a positive correlation between attitude towards labs and test performance. The results suggest that visual programming is useful for instruction in non-programming, subject-matter concepts