SUNY RESULTS

  • Used C as the programming language for the first five years

    • - No team ever completed its project, even when the instructor provided up to 60% of the project code

  • Five years ago the programming language was changed to Ada

    • - Initially about 50% of the teams completed their projects without instructor support code
    - With instructor support code, about 75% of the teams now complete their project

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From the Script: SLIDE 49 - SUNY Results

During the first five years this course was taught, the students used the C programming language. During that time, no team ever completed the project, even when they were given as much as 60 percent of the code! However, the professor and students all assumed that this was how things had to be.

Then, five years ago, SUNY changed the course's programming language to Ada.

As you can see, the results were amazing. Initially, almost half of the teams were able to complete the project without any code supplied by the instructor.

When the instructor does supply some support code, almost 75 percent of the teams complete the project.

These same results were evidenced when the students were allowed to choose which language they wanted to use. No team choosing C or C++ completed the assignment while every Ada team did. Language matters in software development.