Teaching tales

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Joint Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

Szostak

2011

Many active learning techniques have been used and described over the years, including team-based learning (TBL). While this technique is well established, it is only recently that analyses that compare it to other teaching techniques have been reported. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of team-based learning on two major concerns for computer science instructors: the drop/attrition rates, and students' success in CS1. The results show some major improvements both in terms of the drop rate and students' success, as measured by final exam grades. For example, the number of students obtaining 50% or more on the final exam has increased from 54% to 75.5%. Moreover, the drop rate has decreased from more than 30% to 6.4%.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of team-based learning on a CS1 course

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Joint Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

Szostak

2011

“…The student population has also changed and the disconnect between the marks they obtain in university and their expectations vs. the work ethics they developed during high school do not help to create a positive image of the discipline as their marks usually do not reflect what they are used to [24]. Edmonston [6] also emphasizes how different students' perceptions of the educational experiences provided to them can be from the perceptions of the academics who provide these educational experiences, and how important it is to match those perceptions to increase the quality of learning. Finally, Beaubouef [1] also highlights the lack of practice and feedback, which is detrimental to students' success.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A proposal for a new communication medium in the classroom

Proceedings of the 15th Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education

Smithbower

2010

We propose an innovative way to facilitate student's communication during in-class collaborative exercises using an embedded device as a means to enhance students' interaction in the group. We first describe how the prototype version of the system has been built to be as versatile as possible. We discuss the current state of the system both from the student and the professor perspectives. We discuss the necessary developments this system must have to be used for a large class setting. We believe that, once moved from prototype to full working system, such a system has the potential to provide a unique pedagogical environment that could be adapted for disciplines other than computer science.

“…The student population has also changed and the work ethics developed by students during high school compared to their expectations when starting university do not help creating a positive image of the discipline when their marks do not reflect what they are used to [22]. Edmonston [7] also emphasizes how different can be students' perceptions of the educational experiences provided to them in computer science from the perceptions of the academics who provide these educational experiences, and how important it is to match those perceptions to increase the quality of learning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Proceedings of the 14th Annual ACM SIGCSE Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

2009

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.