Teaching Programming

I describe below the overall structure of my course. I am assuming that the reader has some familiarity with Pascal or a similar language. At the same time as it is being delivered, I am also introducing various features of the language, in particular, useful library procedures and functions. Programming tools, such as the editor and the debugging aids, also have to be covered in parallel. I have omitted most of this material, for the sake of brevity and clarity! I take the best part of an academic year to cover the course, spending around 2hrs 40mins (4 teaching periods) per week. Scattered throughout the year I include brief sessions with other packages and also 6-week module looking at relational databases. This breaks up the programming and allows other syllabus material to be covered.