An investigation of the impact of student support initiatives on the retention of computer science students Clem O’Donnell 1, James Murphy 2, Abdulhussain E. Mahdi 1, 2, Michael English 1 1 ICT Learning Centre, University of Limerick, Limerick, (Republic of Ireland). 2 Peer-Supported Learning Centre, University of Limerick, Limerick, (Republic of Ireland).

Potential reasons for High Failure and Low Retention Rates in Computer Science (CS) Students having limited maths skills and problem solving abilities. Students having misconceptions of the type of subjects they must master for success in CS leading to frustration. Limited course time may be allocated to practicing programming. A perceived lack of human (peer-to-peer) interaction within CS courses causing frustration resulting in a lack of student persistence. Students lacking fundamental project management skills. Compared to other disciplines, CS courses can be seen as very demanding, time consuming and ultimately frustrating to students. EDULEARN14 Conference Barcelona

ICT Learning Centre Student Support Initiatives Drop-In Times: where the centre is manned by knowledgeable tutors that help students better learn their programming and ICT subjects. Targeted Sessions: group workshop style sessions that concentrate on the fundamentals of ICT subjects including all programming levels. Peer to Peer Learning Sessions: focused on early stage CS programming students. Peer mentors are selected and trained in problem based learning techniques by which they implement group learning sessions fostering community and learning between peers. Student Competition Facilitation: to enhance CS student learning levels. Pre-University ICT Camps: developed to promote ICT as a potential study area, where a fun and engaging impression of what CS study will entail is given to pre-university students. EDULEARN14 Conference Barcelona

Study Methodology Our retention analysis focuses on first year students from 2 core CS courses progressing to the following year in the same course. The results show the impact that student engagement with our support initiatives may have on retention levels within this CS cohort. “At Risk” students are those that attained a grade C or less in programming during the first semester of their initial undergraduate year. Engagement with the support initiatives is defined as those students that used the various supports four times or more during their first year of undergraduate study. Quantitative Retention data is based on the 4 academic years 2009/10 to 2012/13. Qualitative data regarding the perceived effectiveness of our support initiatives is based on survey responses from all students obtained at the end of each academic year from 2010/11 to 2013/14 using both 5-point Likert scale and open ended responses. EDULEARN14 Conference Barcelona

Retention – Quantitative Results - 1 EDULEARN14 Conference Barcelona Fig.1 shows that engagement with our supports results in a marked impact on retention with a negligible difference between those that barely engaged and those that did not. Breaking this down between the “at risk” (Fig.2) and “not at risk” (Fig.3) student groups show a definite impact of the activities on their continuation in the course of study.

Retention – Quantitative Results - 2 Fig.4 clearly shows the issue regarding engagement with the support initiatives, that being that this engagement must be student led. A breakdown of engagement levels between “at risk” and “not at risk” students, Fig.4, shows that those “at risk” students are those that choose in greater numbers not to engage. The focus of the centre has been to actively encourage these students to participate in the activities within the centre. EDULEARN14 Conference Barcelona

Qualitative Results – Student Perceptions of supports The data in Fig.5 is from survey responses over the 4 academic years 2010/11 to 2013/14. It shows the percentage student ratings for the core support initiatives implemented were very positive with overall positive survey ratings, i.e. good, very good or excellent, of 93% for Drop-In, 87% for targeted sessions and 80% for peer to peer learning sessions. Open ended responses were also very positive (see paper for examples) 63% of respondents thought that engaging with our supports would result in them achieving a higher test score in their final exam(s). 78% thought that their use of the additional support had helped them to better understand the more difficult content of their module(s). EDULEARN14 Conference Barcelona

The Findings The retention study within this paper suggests that CS students, and in particular “at risk” students that do engage at a persistent level with the additional learning supports have a higher chance of progression into the second year of their course. The qualitative feedback buttresses these findings, with a very high percentage of respondents rating the core supports in a positive fashion and more recent feedback suggesting that students perceive that this support is helping them to better learn the difficult aspects of their CS courses. A concern is that the levels of engagement within the “at risk” group is not high enough and more effort must be made to engage this group in using the supports outlined. EDULEARN14 Conference Barcelona

Further Work Over the past 2 years the ICT Learning Centre has had success with two more interactive formats; namely Greenfoot and paired-programming sessions. The Greenfoot sessions offer the students the opportunity to learn Java programming in a parallel activity to those that are part of the core module activities. Initially trialled as part of the centre’s CyberCamp activities aimed at 2 nd Level students and thereafter with 1 st year undergraduate students, it proved to be both popular and successful in getting basic programming concepts across to students. This initiative will be added as a general activity to the ICT Learning Centre programme for AY2014/15. Similar success with a paired-programming initiative again using 1 st year programming students has also been achieved and documented during the last year. A continuation of this paired-programming trial with a group of CS 2 nd year students is planned for the coming year. The aim of both these initiatives is to drive home the idea that engagement with the core material can be fun and productive and to entice more “at risk” students to engage with our centres activities. EDULEARN14 Conference Barcelona

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