What Motivates Engineering Students in IT in Bhutan to Learn Programming

This research to practice work-in-progress paper discusses some environmental and background factors that motivate the IT students of the College of Science and Technology (CST), Royal University of Bhutan (RUB), to learn programming. Programming is gaining popularity in Bhutan, especially due to the increasing number of opportunities in the IT field. CST is one of the few colleges at RUB providing IT courses to students pursuing undergraduate degrees. Previous studies have revealed that the competence and enthusiasm of first year IT Engineering students at RUB differ between individuals when it comes to learning programming, but the reasons for this are still to be determined. In this paper, we explore factors that influence students of CST to learn programming and what can be done by the college to instil more enthusiasm to learn to program. In this case study, a qualitative research methodology was used to analyse the experiences and opinions of eight IT students of CST. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and their responses were discussed and jointly analysed by the first three authors. The study revealed several factors such as knowing about future opportunities in IT and partaking in or wanting to partake in activities, social groups and other study related resources which were related to the students' motivation and their encouragement within their studies. Dissimilarities in the attitude towards programming were noted in students despite them having access to the same lecturers, college facilities and other activities. The findings also showed a correlation between the interest in IT and having family or friends engaged in IT related occupations. The study also found that students sometimes felt demotivated by certain factors, such as the initial difficulty of programming, especially among students without prior experience of programming. A similar feeling of discouragement was described when students felt that their peers performed better than them in classes and examinations.