Implementing problem-solving method in learning programming application

Programming is a compulsory subject in majors related to informatics and computer science at the college and university level. Programming involves many aspects of learning, starting from analyzing problems, implementing solutions with specific programming language, running programs and fixing errors or bugs. Preliminary research related to difficulty of programming has been done by distributing questionnaires to 37 students at Informatics department. The result obtained was a score of 3.7 out of 5 scale, that means most of students agreed that programming is a difficult course. Programming requires ability and skill in analyzing problems and applying algorithm to programming language. This ability is difficult to obtain if students don't have lots of practices to solve problems. Thus this research developed a prototype of application to learn basic programming concept that utilizes problem-solving method. Problem-solving method was used because this method is very relevant to the concept of programming itself, which is to solve problem with particular algorithm. So the application has many exercises to be solved and can train basic programming skills. The prototype application is named LariJava. It was implemented in Informatics department, FMIPA Unsyiah. The implementation was analyzed by using Fishbein model. Fishbein model has attributes to measure and this research used 5 attributes, namely difficulty of programming, programming logic, learning situation, lack of example with solution, and ease of use for application interface. The questionnaire was distributed to random 37 Informatics students. The calculation of Fishbein model came out with Ao score which is 78.08. That score means users' attitude toward LariJava application was positive or users positively think that LariJava can help them to learn basic programming skill through problem-solving method.