Designing Arduino Instruction for Novice Agriculture Students: Effects on Interest, Self-efficacy, and Knowledge

HighlightsAn instructional treatment for teaching novice Arduino users was developed, tested, refined, and found to be effective.The revised instructional treatment significantly increased novice users’ interest, knowledge, self-efficacy, and skills in using Arduinos.Incorporation of small ‘practice activities’ during the lesson portion of the instructional treatment was proven effective.The results support the use of the program evaluation model and self-efficacy theory as effective frameworks for instructional development. Abstract. This study employed the program evaluation model and self-efficacy theory to develop, evaluate, revise, and re-evaluate an instructional treatment (lesson and hands-on activity) intended to increase the interest, self-efficacy, and knowledge of novice Arduino users in two colleges of agriculture. Arduino is a line of programmable, open-source microcontrollers widely used in education and research. Program evaluation provides an iterative model of instructional development where the results of a pilot-test are used to guide refinement of instruction and materials which are reevaluated in subsequent test(s). Self-efficacy theory posits that positive mastery, vicarious, and social persuasion experiences lead to increased confidence in task performance and subject matter interest. In the pilot-test study at University A (n = 27), the initial instructional treatment resulted in significant (p < 0.05) and large increases in students’ breadboarding self-efficacy and Arduino knowledge, but not in programming self-efficacy or interest in learning about Arduino. After revising the instructional treatment to include four hands-on tasks as part of the lesson, the re-test study at University B (n = 20) resulted in significant (p < 0.05) and large increases in students’ interest in learning about Arduino, breadboarding self-efficacy, programming self-efficacy, and Arduino knowledge. The results of this study indicated the utility of program evaluation as a curriculum development model and the efficacy of incorporating small hands-on activities into lessons for novices learning new technical skills. Finally, use of self-efficacy theory as a framework for curriculum development was validated. Keywords: Arduino, Microcontrollers, Novice programmers, Program evaluation model, Self-efficacy theory, Teaching.