Team-Based Learning: An Innovative Approach to Learn Programming Concepts Dr. Fernando Paniagua Associate Professor CSIT Department Innovations Conference – March 2016

Background EESTEM Connections Faculty Learning Community Monthly meetings Invited guests Presentation to Groups Projects

EE-STEM Program Goal Increase performance, participation and persistence of under-represented groups in STEM program by providing a professional growth opportunity for STEM educators that will improve classroom pedagogy and instruction

Hypothesis Applying team-based learning methodology to the Laboratory Exercises in CSIT 210 – Introduction to Programming – will increase student success in the class. Students majoring in Computer Science, need at least a B in this class in order to take the Advanced Programming Course (CSIT 211).

Challenges Build team-work abilities and skills Learn to be part of a team Understand that in the Industry, programmers always work on team. Have the experience of real team-work interaction while learning the material for the class

Formation of Team

Distribution of roles Project Manager Designer Programmer Tester

Project Manager: Submit the project on time Organize the communication mechanism between the team members Check that all the exercises asked in the project are completed Rate your team members

Designer: Decide the design technique (pseudocode, flow-chart, etc.) use to drive the logic of the project Check that the exercises are logically correct before coding Rate your team members

Programmer: Implement (code) the designed created by the team Check that the program is correctly documented (especially comment section) Rate your team members

Tester: Validate the output of the project using different set of input data Check that all the alternatives in the logic of the project are tested Rate your team members.

Team-Work Rules One role at a time Must complete the 4 roles in four different assignments Rate each team-member (scale 1 to 5) Everybody earns the same common points unless you have been rated with a zero from a team-member (no common points for you).

Assessment Compare success rate of CSIT 210 with previous semester

Assessment (cont.) Quality Survey

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Assessment (cont.)

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Assessment (cont.)

Sources Websites and Topics researched: Team-based Learning – Collaborative: http://www.teambasedlearning.org What is the Collaborative Classroom? http://www.arp.sprnet.org/Admin/supt/collab2.htm Perspectives on Hands-on Science Teaching. What are some strategies for helping students work in group? http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/science/eric/eric-7.htm Competitive vs. Cooperative Learning Formats: http://www.behavioradvisor.com/CoopLearning.html