Effectiveness of Using Interactive Technology in a Programming Course Shyamal Mitra Department of Computer Sciences University of Texas at Austin

Outline Problem Statement Active Learning Techniques Assessment Methodology Results Lessons Learned Conclusion

Problem Statement CS 303E introductory programming course in Java for non-CS majors Required course for the Elements of Computing Certificate Largest section in the CS department with the highest drop rate Students who drop view programming as too challenging

Active Learning Techniques Students learn better if they are lead through a series of activities that challenge them Intersperse lecture with multiple choice questions Use Classroom Performance System (CPS) to provide assess students’ responses and provide feedback

Collaborators in this Study Shyamal Mitra – CS Roberto Lopez - CS Dawn Zimmaro – MEC Marc Johnson – MEC Morrie Schulman - CIT

Assessment Methodology - I CS 303E course Summer 2004 involved 44 students Course Survey – pre and post course survey using MSLQ questions Additional self assessment questions at the beginning and end of class Classroom Performance System (CPS)

Assessment Methodology - II Minute Paper at the end of class Classroom observation Focus Group Performance on final exam – questions coded as CPS or non-CPS questions

Results - I Classroom observations –students more attentive Student surveys –Significant decrease in the Motivation and Self- Efficacy scores –Students less confident in their abilities at the end of the semester Focus Group –CPS was helpful if a detailed explanation of answer is also given

Results - II Minute Papers –CPS helped students who had already read through the material CPS Performance –Average score was 50% Final Exam Performance –Non-significant correlation between CPS and Final exam performance

Lessons Learned Use of CPS is positive – engages all students in the class and provides them with feedback Greatest help to students who had done their reading assignments To improve CPS performance add a small fraction of CPS scores to final grade

Conculsion CPS is an effective tool for engaging students but has limitations – time consuming –cannot deal with open-ended questions –cannot assess ability to write programs Paper based on this study in Frontiers of Education Conference, 2005 –