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A 32-item self-efficacy scale for computer programming was developed, primed to the C++ programming language. The scale was administered to 421 students at the beginning and end of an introductory course in C++ programming. There was growth in self-efficacy between two administrations of the scale 12 weeks apart, particularly for students who initially had low self-efficacy. (Author/AEF)

Describes research that was conducted to investigate the needs and characteristics of noncomputer professionals who use word processing software on personal computers. A model of the intermittent user's performance is presented, and two experiments are described that examined differences in mode of interaction and the use of online help. (30 references) (LRW)

The Internet Public Library (IPL), now known as ipl2, was created in 1995 with the mission of serving the public by providing librarian-recommended Internet resources and reference help. We present [...]

Reports on an experiment where novice and expert programmers made decisions about Fortran code segments. The results show that, although expert programmers are better able to extract and use functional information, they don't differ significantly from novices in their ability to use syntactic concepts. (Author/EM)

Most programs today are written not by professional software developers, but by people with expertise in other domains working towards goals for which they need computational support. For example, a teacher might write a grading spreadsheet to save time grading, or an interaction designer might use an interface builder to test some user interface design ideas. Although these end-user programmers may not have the same goals as professional developers, they do face many of the same software engineering challenges, including understanding their requirements, as well as making decisions about design, reuse, integration, testing, and debugging. This article summarizes and classifies research on these activities, defining the area of End-User Software Engineering (EUSE) and related terminology. The article then discusses empirical research about end-user software engineering activities and the technologies designed to support them. The article also addresses several crosscutting issues in the design of EUSE tools, including the roles of risk, reward, and domain complexity, and self-efficacy in the design of EUSE tools and the potential of educating users about software engineering principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the U.S. government calling for electronic health records (EHRs) for all Americans by the year 2014, adoption of an interoperable EHR is imminent in America's future. However, recent estimates for EHR implementation in the ambulatory care environment are just over 10 percent. This second part of a two-part study (see part one here ) examines EHR acceptance factors in an academic-based healthcare system. Innovation diffusion theory and the Technology Acceptance Model provide a combined theoretical framework for this case study. An online questionnaire was administered to 802 faculty, fellow, and resident physicians to explore the factors affecting attitudes toward EHR adoption. In this study, age, years in practice, clinical specialty, health system relationship, and prior computer experience were not predictors of EHR acceptance. In order to facilitate successful adoption of health information systems, social and behavioral factors must be addressed during the EHR planning phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a focus on improving the quality of patient care, the President George W. Bush called for electronic health records (EHRs) for all Americans by the year 2014; however, recent estimates for EHR adoption in the ambulatory care environment are just over 10 percent. The objective of this study was to determine the individual characteristics and the social and technical factors that may contribute to physician acceptance of EHRs. This first paper of a two-part study presents a framework grounded in Diffusion of Innovations theory and the Technology Acceptance Model, which was developed using case study and survey methods, and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). Model variables explained over 73 percent of the variance in attitude toward EHRs, and acceptable model fit was achieved. Lack of user acceptance continues to impede diffusion of EHRs, and this analysis supports the impact that leadership and other organizational changes have on user adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust is a key concept in business, particularly in electronic commerce (e-commerce). In order to understand online trust, one must first study trust research conducted in the offline world. The findings of such studies, dating from the 1950's to the present, provide a foundation for online trust theory in e-commerce. This paper provides an overview of the existing trust literature from the fields of philosophy, psychology, sociology, management, and marketing. Based on these bodies of work, online trust is briefly explored. The range of topics for future research in online trust in e-commerce is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research compared the learning of an application program whose interface was implemented using buttons with text labels, icons, or a fully redundant combination of icons and text labels. The objective was to: 1) evaluate the success of novice computer users in initially learning to use the application and in later use in a delayed session and 2) measure users' attitudes toward the application. Each session was divided into four blocks, and performance in the blocks was measured in terms of correctness of the tasks performed, time to perform tasks, and number of times the help facility was accessed. In addition, at the end of each session the participants' perceptions of the ease of use and usefulness of the software were measured. The results showed that in the first session performance was best on the label-only and icon-label interfaces. Performance on the icon-only interface was much poorer in session 1, particularly in terms of time and help references, but improved in session 2 to the point where it approached the performance on the other interfaces. Retention of skill between the initial and the delayed session was worse for the icon-only interface, but the effect was short-lived. Perceptions of ease of use were consistently better for the icon-label interface than for the other two interfaces. Perceptions of usefulness were higher for the icon-only and icon-label interfaces than for the label-only interface in the first session. Perceptions of usefulness became more positive for the icon-only group in the delayed session, but did not change for the other groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehension of computer programs involves identifying important program parts and inferring relationships between them. The ability to comprehend a computer program is a skill that begins its development in the novice programmer and roaches maturity in the expert programmer. This research examined the beginning of this process, that of comprehension of computer programs by novice programmers. The mental representations of the program text that novices form, which indicate the comprehension strategies being used, were examined. In the first study, 80 novice programmers were tested on their comprehension of short program segments. The results suggested that novices form detailed, concrete mental representations of the program text, supporting work that has previously been done with novice comprehension. Their mental representations were primarily procedural in nature, with little or no modeling using real-world referents. In a second study, the upper and lower quartile comprehenders from Study 1 were tested on their comprehension of a longer program. Results supported the conclusions from Study 1 in that the novices tended towards detailed representations of the program text with little real-world reference. However, the comprehension strategies used by high comprehenders differed substantially from those used by low comprehenders. Results indicated that the more advanced novices were using more abstract concepts in their representations, although their abstractions were detailed in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the learning of second and subsequent programming languages. Concept and construct of the programs; Minor problems of programmers on the syntax and semantics of subsequent languages; Programming language plans develop by the programmers.

There exists a large and growing population of non computer professionals utilizing word processing software on personal computers. Noncomputer professional users of word processing technology are sometimes referred to as intermittent users. The purpose of this research was to understand the word processing characteristics and needs of this important group of users. We developed a mode that describes their word processing performance and carried out two contorted experiments. We found that intermittent users behave bike experts when executing a very somali set of routine tasks but tend to be quite novice-bike in most other tasks. Their editing behavior can be described as non optimal and relatively stable. Help systems and interface design are important factors of word processing technology that improve the performance of intermittent users. Our study indicates that intermittent users prefer and perform better with a menu-driven interface, in addition, we found that even a rudimentary help system can be a great aid to the intermittent user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on an experiment on the organization and use of programming knowledge. Novice and expert programmers made timed decisions about the structure and function of short and familiar FORTRAN code segments, similar to those in introductory programming textbooks, it was found that experts were faster and more accurate than novices, in spite of the simplicity of the materials. Functional decisions, which require analysis of the code, were slower than syntactic decisions for both groups, but were significantly slower for novices than for experts. This result suggests that the ability to extract and use functional Information is characteristic of expertise in programming. Novices are less adept at using functional information, even when dealing with very small, simple programs appropriate to their own level of experience. The results of this study suggest that the difference between novice and expert programmers lies in the quality as well as the quantity of their knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]