The Effect of Changing Programming Language to Student Success in Undergraduate Computer Science Curriculum

. We measure and compare the effects of changing the programming language in introductory level courses (Computer Science I and II) in undergraduate Computer Science (CS) curriculum. The study presents the example of University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) case, where we present the results of two approaches: Approach 1 where both CS I and CS II courses are taught in Java, and Aprroach 2 where CS I is taught in C++, and CS II in Java. The paper presents the data collected from four consecutive semesters and analyzes and compares the effect of using different programming languages on student success, as well as drop rates. The results show that changing the programming language in consecutive sequences of introductory level undergraduate courses in CS curriculum do not adversely affect the student performance, and in some presented cases it even helps students score better. Also, we find that this change causes once an improvement, and another time a deterioration in the drop rate, which suggests the requirement for more data to be collected in coming semesters. Key WordsProgramming language, CS I, CS II, C++, Java, undergraduate curriculum.