In the early stages of learning computer programming, Computer Science (CS) minors
share a misconception of
what programming is
. In order to address th
is
problem,
FMAS,
a
f
lowchar
t
-
based
m
ulti
-
a
gent
s
ystem
is developed
to familiarize
students who have
no prior k nowledge of programming
,
with the initial stages in learning
programming
.
The aim is to improve
students’ problem
solving skills
and
to introduce the
m to the
basic
programmi
ng algorithms prior to surface structure
,
using an automatic text
-
to
-
flowchart conversion approach.
Therefore, students
can
focus less
on language and syntax and more on
designing
solution
s
through
flowchart
development.
The way
text
-
to
-
flowchart conversio
n as a visualization
-
based approach is employed in FMAS to
engage students in flowchart development for subsequent programming
stages
is discussed in this paper. Finally, an
experimental study
is
devised to assess the success of FMAS,
and
positive feedback
is achieved
. Therefore,
using
FMAS in practice is supported
,
as the results indicate considerable gains for the experimental group over the
control group.
The results also show
that an automatic text
-
to
-
flowchart conversion approach applied in FMAS
succes
sfully motivated
nearly
all participants in problem
solving activities. Consequently, the results suggest
additional
, future
development of our proposed approach in the
form
of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) to mak e
the early stages of learning progr
amming more encouraging for students
