Naaz Sibia - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Naaz Sibia
Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2
Many students are first exposed to computing in a programming course such as CS1. This course aff... more Many students are first exposed to computing in a programming course such as CS1. This course affects their understanding of computing and may affect their intention to major in the program. We investigate the intention to major in computing in relation to demographic factors and factors related to academic success. We deployed surveys at the beginning and end of a CS1 course to gauge students' level of prior experience in programming, elicit demographic factors such as gender and parental education level, and identify their intention to major in computing. Grades from CS1 and CS2 were also collected. Our results suggest that most students do not change their intention to major in computing after taking CS1. Students who were more likely to intend to major in programming at the beginning of the course were those with prior experience, those who identified as men, or students who had a parent with a bachelor's or post-grad degree. We also find that students' grades correlate to their change in program intention. This reinforces the need to change perceptions about computing early, prior to CS1.
Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1
Previous work has reported on the advantageous effects of prior experience in CS1, but it remains... more Previous work has reported on the advantageous effects of prior experience in CS1, but it remains unclear whether these effects fade over a sequence of introductory programming courses. Furthermore, while student perceptions suggest that prior experience remains important, studies have reported that a student's expectation of their performance is a more accurate predictor of outcome. We aim to confirm if prior experience (formal or informal) provides short-term and long-term advantages in computing courses or if the advantage fades. Furthermore, we explore whether the expectation of performance is a more accurate predictor of student success than informal and formal prior experience. To explore these questions, we deployed surveys in a CS1 course to gauge students' level of prior experience in programming, prediction of final exam grades, and self-efficacy to succeed in university. Grades from CS1 and CS2 were also collected. We observed a persistent (1-letter grade) gap between the performance of students with no prior experience and those with any experience, but we did not observe a noteworthy gap when comparing student performance based on formal or informal experience. We also observed differences in self-efficacy and retention rates between different levels of prior experience. Lastly, we confirm that success in CS1 can be better reflected and predicted by some controllable factors, such as students' perceptions of ability. CCS CONCEPTS • Social and professional topics → Computer science education; CS1.
1st International Workshop on Data Systems Education
Motivation: Prior literature has identified student reflections as a way to encourage students to... more Motivation: Prior literature has identified student reflections as a way to encourage students to express their thoughts in a structured and focused manner. Objectives: Our goal is to examine the impact of reflections in a third year database systems course, which employs an active learning approach and classroom environment. Specifically, we are interested in seeing whether reflecting on key concepts covered in a preparatory component before lecture had an impact on student's immediate and long-term performance. Methods: Students were divided into two groups, and asked to reflect on different topics after watching lecture videos before completing their homework exercises for 3 weeks. Results: We observed that students who reflected on lecture concepts performed better on homework exercises that covered those same concepts than students who did not reflect on those same concepts. Moreover, students who reflected performed better in subsequent assessments than students who did not reflect at all. Implications: Reflection as a part of the preparatory component in flipped classrooms is a useful component in conceptual understanding. Further research and investigation should be pursued into ways of prompting reflection, and assessing this component in database courses.
Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2, 2022
With the widespread usage of mobile devices, users can now choose to provide input through voice ... more With the widespread usage of mobile devices, users can now choose to provide input through voice or text. As researchers frequently ask students open-ended questions, we want to explore a natural mode to obtain better feedback in surveys. This study details a preliminary study demonstrating the importance of allowing students to choose between voice or text input to respond to surveys. A survey with several open-ended questions was deployed in a CS1 course. Correlations between the gender of the respondent and their method of responding were evaluated. We found that voice responses tended to be longer and preferred more by females relative to male students.
Proceedings of the 21st Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research, 2021
This work introduces and demonstrates the viability of a novel SQL automarking tool ("SQAM") that... more This work introduces and demonstrates the viability of a novel SQL automarking tool ("SQAM") that: (1) provides a fair grade to the student, one which matches the student's effort and understanding of the course material, and (2) to provide personalized feedback, allowing the student to remain engaged in the material and learn from their mistakes while still being in that headspace. Additionally, we strive to ensure that our tool maintains the same standards (grade and feedback) that a highly qualified member of teaching staff would produce, so we compare and contrast our automarker's results to that of teaching assistants over several historic offerings of the same database course at a large research intensive public institution, while reducing the grading time, thus enabling the teaching staff to channel more time into instruction. Furthermore, we describe SQAM's design and our model which applies the aggregate result of four different string similarity metrics to compute solution similarity in conjunction with our discretization process to fairly evaluate a student's submission. Our results show that SQAM produces very similar grades to those which were historically given by teaching assistants.
Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2
Many students are first exposed to computing in a programming course such as CS1. This course aff... more Many students are first exposed to computing in a programming course such as CS1. This course affects their understanding of computing and may affect their intention to major in the program. We investigate the intention to major in computing in relation to demographic factors and factors related to academic success. We deployed surveys at the beginning and end of a CS1 course to gauge students' level of prior experience in programming, elicit demographic factors such as gender and parental education level, and identify their intention to major in computing. Grades from CS1 and CS2 were also collected. Our results suggest that most students do not change their intention to major in computing after taking CS1. Students who were more likely to intend to major in programming at the beginning of the course were those with prior experience, those who identified as men, or students who had a parent with a bachelor's or post-grad degree. We also find that students' grades correlate to their change in program intention. This reinforces the need to change perceptions about computing early, prior to CS1.
Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1
Previous work has reported on the advantageous effects of prior experience in CS1, but it remains... more Previous work has reported on the advantageous effects of prior experience in CS1, but it remains unclear whether these effects fade over a sequence of introductory programming courses. Furthermore, while student perceptions suggest that prior experience remains important, studies have reported that a student's expectation of their performance is a more accurate predictor of outcome. We aim to confirm if prior experience (formal or informal) provides short-term and long-term advantages in computing courses or if the advantage fades. Furthermore, we explore whether the expectation of performance is a more accurate predictor of student success than informal and formal prior experience. To explore these questions, we deployed surveys in a CS1 course to gauge students' level of prior experience in programming, prediction of final exam grades, and self-efficacy to succeed in university. Grades from CS1 and CS2 were also collected. We observed a persistent (1-letter grade) gap between the performance of students with no prior experience and those with any experience, but we did not observe a noteworthy gap when comparing student performance based on formal or informal experience. We also observed differences in self-efficacy and retention rates between different levels of prior experience. Lastly, we confirm that success in CS1 can be better reflected and predicted by some controllable factors, such as students' perceptions of ability. CCS CONCEPTS • Social and professional topics → Computer science education; CS1.
1st International Workshop on Data Systems Education
Motivation: Prior literature has identified student reflections as a way to encourage students to... more Motivation: Prior literature has identified student reflections as a way to encourage students to express their thoughts in a structured and focused manner. Objectives: Our goal is to examine the impact of reflections in a third year database systems course, which employs an active learning approach and classroom environment. Specifically, we are interested in seeing whether reflecting on key concepts covered in a preparatory component before lecture had an impact on student's immediate and long-term performance. Methods: Students were divided into two groups, and asked to reflect on different topics after watching lecture videos before completing their homework exercises for 3 weeks. Results: We observed that students who reflected on lecture concepts performed better on homework exercises that covered those same concepts than students who did not reflect on those same concepts. Moreover, students who reflected performed better in subsequent assessments than students who did not reflect at all. Implications: Reflection as a part of the preparatory component in flipped classrooms is a useful component in conceptual understanding. Further research and investigation should be pursued into ways of prompting reflection, and assessing this component in database courses.
Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2, 2022
With the widespread usage of mobile devices, users can now choose to provide input through voice ... more With the widespread usage of mobile devices, users can now choose to provide input through voice or text. As researchers frequently ask students open-ended questions, we want to explore a natural mode to obtain better feedback in surveys. This study details a preliminary study demonstrating the importance of allowing students to choose between voice or text input to respond to surveys. A survey with several open-ended questions was deployed in a CS1 course. Correlations between the gender of the respondent and their method of responding were evaluated. We found that voice responses tended to be longer and preferred more by females relative to male students.
Proceedings of the 21st Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research, 2021
This work introduces and demonstrates the viability of a novel SQL automarking tool ("SQAM") that... more This work introduces and demonstrates the viability of a novel SQL automarking tool ("SQAM") that: (1) provides a fair grade to the student, one which matches the student's effort and understanding of the course material, and (2) to provide personalized feedback, allowing the student to remain engaged in the material and learn from their mistakes while still being in that headspace. Additionally, we strive to ensure that our tool maintains the same standards (grade and feedback) that a highly qualified member of teaching staff would produce, so we compare and contrast our automarker's results to that of teaching assistants over several historic offerings of the same database course at a large research intensive public institution, while reducing the grading time, thus enabling the teaching staff to channel more time into instruction. Furthermore, we describe SQAM's design and our model which applies the aggregate result of four different string similarity metrics to compute solution similarity in conjunction with our discretization process to fairly evaluate a student's submission. Our results show that SQAM produces very similar grades to those which were historically given by teaching assistants.