Adaptation of team-based learning on a first term programming class

Abstract

First year computer science programming has always been a challenge for many students as the course expectation is not only for them to be able to understand programming concepts, but also to produce creative solutions to problems. Team-based learning seems a natural solution to increase the amount of practice each student will get, and to increase students' interest and confidence. The initial results of these two years of experimentation with teambased learning suggests that it helps reduce the dropping rate in the class to a reasonable level (10%) and give greater confidence to students in their ability to succeed. In this paper, we present how team-based learning has been adapted for our first semester programming class and we discuss the advantages of this techniques and difficulties encountered.

Effects of team-based learning on a CS1 course

“…The TBL technique used followed the format presented in [14]. The Readiness Assessment Process (RAP) ensures that students are ready to apply concepts.…”

“…The major difference (other than the course topics) for those TBL students was the teaching technique. While TBL was not part of CS2, some of the most interesting tools such as the scratch test cards (see [14] for a sample card) were used in preparation for the midterm and final exams. The same methods described previously for the lecture format in CS1 were also used for this class.…”

“…Larry Michaelson and his colleagues have described in detail how to successfully implement TBL [17]. While there has been great interest in applying this teaching technique in other disciplines [14,19,22,23], evaluation of the effectiveness of TBL has been predominantly done within the health sector [4,5,13]. These studies have reported high levels of engagement, comparable to case-based learning, and better academic performance, especially for weaker students.…”

“…These studies have reported high levels of engagement, comparable to case-based learning, and better academic performance, especially for weaker students. In computer science, some instructors have used components of TBL [22], whereas others have implemented the full TBL protocol in their classes [14,23]. While an increase in the enthusiasm of the class has been consistently reported, very few attempts have been made to quantify the effectiveness of TBL.…”

Proposal for a new strategy to practice programming

“…Using the expertise developed on active learning techniques and Team-Based Learning [6], which fundamentally embraces those theories, we are planning on creating games with various objectives.…”