Help Students Help Themselves CS291CS490 Mentoring Program

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Help Students Help Themselves- CS291/CS490
Mentoring Program

• Lisa L. Fan, Ph.D
• Department of Computer Science,
• University of Regina

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CS291/CS490 in U of R

• Started winter 2000
• Basically followed the Stanford model
• senior undergraduate students are selected
• introductory CS course (CS210) has been targeted
  for the mentoring program
• one mentor student is assigned to a group of
  CS210 students

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CS291/CS490 in U of R (cont.)

• Enrollments for the program

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Very Positive Comments from Students about the
Program

• Why students have this positive response to the
  program?

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History of the Program

• Started in 1983 at the Computer Science
  Department in Stanford University
• at first, partly as a cost saving measure to
  address large enrollments for CS introductory
  courses
• many other benefits soon became obvious
• matured and standardized in the mid 90s
• Other universities started to offer similar
  program in the 1990s

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Benefits of the Program

• Benefits to the CS210 students
• individual attention
• less intimidating learning environment
• available help whenever needed
• Benefits to the CS291/CS490 students
• opportunity to have teaching experience
• 3 credit hours
• help themselves to enhance the knowledge
• Benefits to the CS department
• training ground for future teaching staff
• improved learning environment

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Philosophy of the Program

• Knowledge is jointly constructed and transformed
  by students and faculty. Students are not only
  passive vessel to be filled
• Cooperative learning and team work, provide a
  less intimidating learning environment
• More direct and continual interaction and feed
  back on course work and programming techniques
• Increased communication and enhanced opportunity
  to learn more about computers
• Mentors provide role models for junior students

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The Stanford Model
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The U of R Model
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Section Leader Selection

• Responsibility the course instructor
• Must have taken CS210
• grade should be above average
• Two parts interview
• - technical skills analytical, programming, and
  debugging
• - interpersonal team player with fellow mentors,
  instructors , also can independently work with a
  group of students

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How to Organize the Program

• Training lectures to train teaching skills
• Organization and Coordination
• weekly meeting
• weekly journal to report activities
• require draft solutions before IG
• discussion group on Yahoo
• informal evaluation around midterm
• final course report summarize learning and
  teaching experience

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Marking for CS291/CS490

• Professional conduct and attitude
• attendance for the weekly meeting
• students evaluation
• Professional competence
• C coding skills
• presentation of the lab material
• Comprehensive learning Course Report

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Should the Program Continue?

• CS210 student responses 87 Yes
• Yes, much better asking environment.
• very helpful when you have to learn C on your
  own.
• it provides you with a personal, casual
  atmosphere to learn.
• it helps because we can ask questions that I
  might feel a kind of simple or stupid.
• Yes, less intimidating.
• CS291/CS490 student responses 100 Yes

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Students Comments on Interactive Marking Positive

• gave us an idea on how to get higher marks
• If there is anything questionable it can be
  explained
• gives people a chance to justify choices
• being able to see mistakes and understand
  mistakes
• allow you to find out where things went wrong
• it makes one know if the student did the
  assignment or not

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Planning for Improvements

• Marking consistency within mentors - quality
  control
• Screen process for mentor selection
• Workshops more training contents

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Teaching is a life long art, that involves
continuous learning not just for the students but
for the teacher as well.- Joseph Katz and
Mildred Henry
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Questions?