Abstract
Twelve subjects, six with programming experience and six without, learned a subset of the IBM 5110 Computing System BASIC programming language commands. Subjects used an instructional text which contained example programs for them to run and problems for which they had to write, run, and debug simple but realistic programs. All of the subjects were either full or part time students at a local community college. Subjects with programming experience completed the course in almost half the time, asked fewer questions, scored significantly higher on the quiz, and completed more programs on the first attempt than did subjects without programming experience. Based on the results, subjects’ suggestions, and experimenter observations, a number of recommendations about the language were made to improve the ease with which subjects could learn and use this version of BASIC.
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