Effectiveness of Using Interactive Technology in a Programming

Course

Shyamal MitraDepartment of Computer Sciences

University of Texas at Austin

Outline

• Problem Statement

• Active Learning Techniques

• Assessment Methodology

• Results

• Lessons Learned

• Conclusion

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

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

Collaborators in this Study

• Shyamal Mitra – CS

• Roberto Lopez - CS

• Dawn Zimmaro – MEC

• Marc Johnson – MEC

• Morrie Schulman - CIT

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)

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

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

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

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

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