Event-driven programming is simple enough for CS1

Abstract

We have recently designed a CS 1 course that integrates event-driven programming from the very start. Our experience teaching this course runs counter to the prevailing sense that these techniques would add complexity to the content of CS 1. Instead, we found that they were simple to present and that they also simplified the presentation of other material in the course. In this paper, we explain the approach we used to introduce event-driven methods and discuss the factors underlying our success.