Reinventing homework as cooperative, formative assessment

Blaheta, Don

doi:10.1145/2538862.2538915

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…In educational research, formative assessment has been cited as one of the most powerful sources to improve student learning and class engagement [7]. Such mechanisms have been implemented in prior CS teaching using a revision cycle for homework questions to improve learning outcomes [2]. However, our focus on formative assessment was designed to improve teaching; thus, we used the journal as a direct, private channel for students to inform instructors about what was good or bad, difficult or easy, interesting or boring, regarding each week's assignments and content.…”

Section: Journalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the Flipped Classroom

Skirpan

Yeh

2015

Proceedings of the 46th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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Traditionally, the inverted (or flipped) classroom has students complete traditional, passive learning tasks (e.g., watching lectures) while at home and uses class time to actualize what is learned through labs, discussions, and exercises. In this paper, we present an instructional model for teaching computer science (CS) that compounds features of the flipped classroom with components of peer instruction and formative assessment. Outside of class, in lieu of a lecture, students worked collaboratively on learning challenges that introduced content through a series of hands-on exercises. During class time, we used hack-a-thons to create an active classroom environment to promote peer coding and cultivate the growth of relevant realworld technical skills. Class work was digitally synced to Google Drive in real-time to allow instructors the opportunity to customize on-the-spot feedback. Further, we used journals as a formative assessment measure to synthesize student interests and opinions into our continued design of the class. In this paper, we describe our pedagogical model and discuss the results and lessons learned from the class using mined data from Google Drive and student journal responses.

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Section: Journalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the Flipped Classroom

Skirpan

Yeh

2015

Proceedings of the 46th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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“…Rodriguez [28] examined how pair programming and student collaboration affected learning outcomes, finding that if pair programming is done properly, collaboration increases learning and understanding. Blaheta [4] studied cooperative learning and found that students had a positive reaction. Simon [24] found that peer instruction had a positive impact on student perception of learning.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weekly Programs in a CS1 Class: Experiences with Auto-graded Many-small Programs (MSP)

Allen

Vahid

Downey

et al.

2018 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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We describe an experiment in changing a CS 1 introductory programming course from the traditional one large programming assignment per week to seven small assignments per week: "many-small programs" (MSPs). The change was enabled by a program auto-grader that allowed easy creation of each new assignment in only about 30 minutes, and that gave students immediate score feedback. Students could earn up to 10 points per assignment, and we defined 50 out of 70 possible points as full program credit for the week (no extra credit). With that setup, we allowed collaboration. The change was made for one of three class sections (about 80 students per section) in Spring 2017 at our research university whose CS 1 course serves about 350 students/quarter (over 1,000 students/year, majors and non-majors), with a diverse student population. Our goal was to improve the student's overall experience in the course. Via student surveys, we found less stress, more confidence, and higher satisfaction. Students using MSPs were less anxious about the class (3.15 vs. 3.72; on 6-point scale; p-value = 0.02) and found the weekly programming assignments more enjoyable (4.13 vs. 3.37; on 6-point scale; p-value = 0.001). Students using MSPs scored a very substantial 20 percentage points better on the coding half of the midterm, for an overall midterm improvement of 10 percentage points (p-value < 0.001). Students using MSPs scored 8 percentage points better on the coding portion of the final, for an overall final improvement of 5 percentage points (p-value < 0.01). The instructor and teaching assistant reported their own high satisfaction. Since collaboration was allowed, for the first time in decades, the instructors spent no time dealing with academic dishonesty cases. Unlike most past terms, no student asked for an extension. As a result, the department has since changed all sections to use MSPs, with continued success.

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“…In practice, metacognitive homework strategies in engineering courses are those that encourage students to think about how they solve engineering problems. "Student-graded," "self-revised," and "dual-submission" homework methods all encourage student metacognition by requiring students to examine their work multiple times, though individual methods can vary widely in the specific ways students assess their problem solving [5]- [10]. Secondary benefits of homework methods that encourage metacognition can include decreased risks of cheating [11], [12], decreased instructor time spent grading homework assignments [12], and improved student attitudes towards homework [5], [6], though these are secondary in this study to demonstrated effects on student learning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%