Tying student work and assessment directly to learning objectives in CS1

The general goal for most CS1 courses is that a student be able to develop a simple algorithm to solve a simple problem and then implement that algorithm in a highlevel object-oriented programming language. Many instructors refine the general goal into a set of specific objectives that are loosely related to student work. This paper presents a CS1 course where specific objectives directly relate to assessed work. Because objectives are either met or not met, the number of objectives met determines a student´s course grade rather than scores on individually graded assignments and exams. A high course grade requires that the student meet most or all of the objectives