THE PERSPECTIVE OF HIGHER ARTS AND DESIGN EDUCATORS ON TEACHING COMPUTER PROGRAMMING E. Morais, C. Morais, J. Paiva University of Porto (PORTUGAL) Abstract A review of arts and design undergraduate programmes offered by Portuguese public higher education institutions found out that 50 out of the 105 programmes include at least one unit concerning computer programming in their curricula. A preliminary study partially based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), conducted through an online survey, sought to find out how lecturers in those programmes regard the subject of computer programming. A sample of 68 educators participated, split between 43 that reported no knowledge of computer programming and 25 that reported programming proficiency, 14 of which were engaged teaching the subject. A noticeable gender discrepancy was found concerning proficiency, raising the question of whether there’s a relation to the anxieties of female students regarding programming found in a related study. Commenting on the relevance of the subject, some educators stressed that coding is both a fundamental problem-solving tool and a means to teach logical thinking, while others highlighted the creative potential of programming. Given the push to demystify computer programming, institutions can be encouraged to reduce the gender imbalance in the programming competency of educators. More research concerning educators’ attitudes towards programming is welcome, both through practice characterization case-studies and through a deeper understanding of technology acceptance models applied in higher arts and design education. Keywords: higher education, arts education, design education, utaut model, technology acceptance, computer programming, creative code, educator survey 1 INTRODUCTION According to official data published by the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education [1] there were 105 undergraduate arts and design (including architecture) programmes offered by public higher education institutions during the academic year 2016-2017. Examination of these programmes’ curricula led us to the conclusion that 43 such programmes include at least one mandatory computer programming unit, either explicitly named (ex. ‘Programming I’), or so determined through a review of the syllabus (as in units such as ‘Interactive Technologies, ‘Algorithmic Composition’ or ‘Digital Representation Systems for Architecture’), while a further 7 programmes offer at least one elective unit teaching programming to their students. Of the approximately 15500 students enrolled in public arts and design undergraduate programmes, according to that same data [1], we estimate that approximately half – 7650 students – will be either required or have the opportunity to learn computer programming. ‘Learning to code’ is commonly discussed as a requirement for digital literacy [2], and even though a history of the inclusion of computer programming in arts and design curricula is outside the scope of this paper, equipping students with strong digital literacy is indeed one of the most common arguments for that inclusion [3]. Still, there remains a gap in scholarship about how higher arts and design educators themselves orient themselves towards the subject of computer programming. This paper presents our preliminary attempt at facing that gap, by applying a technology acceptance model to a sample of educators that teach at those arts and design undergraduate programmes that include computer programming in their curricula. The chosen model for conducting our study was the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), which was built and synthesised from a review of eight pre-existing technology acceptance models [4]. The original formulation of UTAUT, shown in Figure 1, hypothesizes users’ Behavioural Intention to use a technology to be determined by three constructs: Performance Expectancy, defined as users’ belief using the technology will help them achieve their goals; Effort Expectancy, defined as users’ belief the technology is easy to learn and