From Hello World to Interface Design in Three Days: Teaching Non-technical Students to Use an API

In this preliminary report we describe ongoing research aimed at developing an effective method for giving business students the experience of using an API. Specifically, we seek a method that is accessible and useful even to students with no technical background. The approach we have taken is to teach students a small but sufficient amount of the Python language and then provide them with the API to a restaurant information system that we have developed specifically for the course. Student teams use the API to implement a simple information system tailored to the specific work flow of a restaurant of their choice. Anecdotal evidence suggests that students have found the programming experience useful and that further investigation of the proposed method is warranted. This paper describes the approach taken and the reasons behind the approach in enough detail so that the reader can assess its potential relevance to his or her own curriculum and find some guidance on how to develop similar approaches.