Effectiveness of Using Interactive Technology in a Programming Course

1
Effectiveness of Using Interactive Technology in
a Programming Course

• Shyamal Mitra
• Department of Computer Sciences
• University of Texas at Austin

2
Outline

• Problem Statement
• Active Learning Techniques
• Assessment Methodology
• Results
• Lessons Learned
• Conclusion

3
Problem Statement

• CS 303E introductory programming course in Java
  for non-CS majors
• Required course for the Elements of Computing
  Certificate
• Largest section in the CS department with the
  highest drop rate
• Students who drop view programming as too
  challenging

4
Active Learning Techniques

• Students learn better if they are lead through a
  series of activities that challenge them
• Intersperse lecture with multiple choice
  questions
• Use Classroom Performance System (CPS) to provide
  assess students responses and provide feedback

5
Collaborators in this Study

• Shyamal Mitra CS
• Roberto Lopez - CS
• Dawn Zimmaro MEC
• Marc Johnson MEC
• Morrie Schulman - CIT

6
Assessment Methodology - I

• CS 303E course Summer 2004 involved 44 students
• Course Survey pre and post course survey using
  MSLQ questions
• Additional self assessment questions at the
  beginning and end of class
• Classroom Performance System (CPS)

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Assessment Methodology - II

• Minute Paper at the end of class
• Classroom observation
• Focus Group
• Performance on final exam questions coded as
  CPS or non-CPS questions

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Results - I

• Classroom observations
• students more attentive
• Student surveys
• Significant decrease in the Motivation and
  Self-Efficacy scores
• Students less confident in their abilities at the
  end of the semester
• Focus Group
• CPS was helpful if a detailed explanation of
  answer is also given

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Results - II

• Minute Papers
• CPS helped students who had already read through
  the material
• CPS Performance
• Average score was 50
• Final Exam Performance
• Non-significant correlation between CPS and Final
  exam performance

10
Lessons Learned

• Use of CPS is positive engages all students in
  the class and provides them with feedback
• Greatest help to students who had done their
  reading assignments
• To improve CPS performance add a small fraction
  of CPS scores to final grade

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Conculsion

• CPS is an effective tool for engaging students
  but has limitations
• time consuming
• cannot deal with open-ended questions
• cannot assess ability to write programs
• Paper based on this study in Frontiers of
  Education Conference, 2005
• http//fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie2005/index.htm