Measures of Student Engagement in Computer Science

Abstract

Data relating to university students' engagement is collected internationally via several large-scale student surveys such as the North American National Survey of Student Engagement. The instruments employed measure the extent to which students put their efforts into activities associated with effective learning. It is claimed that these process measures act as a reliable proxy for student attainment, and there appears to be some evidence to support this. So far, there has been little work done to investigate engagement instruments and the data they generate from a subject perspective. This paper brings together data relating to Computer Science (CS) across the range of major engagement surveys. The results of this meta-analysis appear to indicate that CS rates lower than average on many of the major engagement benchmarks and in some cases, considerably so. Particular benchmark areas giving cause for concern are identified prompting questions as to how these results should be interpreted and used in the context of a particular learning domain. We also critique aspects of the surveys themselves, suggesting that further research is needed to better understand their appropriateness for individual subjects or for groups of subjects with shared traits. The paper argues that more qualitative data is required and that other measures (such as student expectation and some subject-specific measures) are needed for a greater understanding of the CS student experience.

Exploring societal factors affecting the experience and engagement of first year female computer science undergraduates

“…The patterns of difference both within the CS cohort and in comparison to overall performance is similar to that observed in the data for senior students except that the gaps become larger and CS appears to fall further behind against the engagement measures as students progress through their degree [24]. This is in contrast to other subjects where gradual improvement on most measures is noted.…”

“…Given the likely largely systemic nature of reasons for drop out, and the need to support all students better towards successful completion of their studies, there has been a growing recognition that a greater understanding of the student perspective is needed and a variety of mechanisms now exists to gather information on aspects such as student engagement and experience [24]. A further dimension closely linked to these is expectation and this is particularly relevant to first year students who must adjust to a new way of studying and to both subject and university cultures which may be very different to what they are used to at school [9].…”

Rethinking Laboratorio Experimental Towards a Methodological Transition

“…[20]. As further work, they point out more qualitative data is required in order to better understand the ICTs students experience [21].…”

How CS academics view student engagement

“…Survey results are available to institutions and are also available to the general public on request through a report and tabulated aggregated data that can be searched by discipline. For a more detailed discussion of these survey instruments see [4,13,15]. Even though there are a variety of national student engagement instruments that use difference benchmarks and questions, the performance of Computer Science as measured by these instruments is remarkably consistent.…”