Exploring factors that influence computer science introductory course students to persist in the major (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology (IJERT), 2021
https://www.ijert.org/the-relationship-between-computer-science-instructional-practices-and-retention-a-multi-level-study https://www.ijert.org/research/the-relationship-between-computer-science-instructional-practices-and-retention-a-multi-level-study-IJERTV10IS070084.pdf Many computer science (CS) departments want to increase student retention in their courses. Understanding the factors that influence the probability of students continuing to enroll in CS courses is a critical step in increasing retention. Prior research on CS retention has mainly focused on variables like prior programming experience and students' personality traits, all of which are outside the control of undergraduate instructors. This research looks at factors that are under the influence of teachers, specifically instructional practices that have a direct effect on students' classroom experiences. Over the course of four semesters, participants were recruited from 25 parts of 14 different courses.Although adjusting for students' mastery of CS concepts and status as a CS major, a multi-level model was used to assess the effects of individual and class-average perceptions of cooperative learning and instructor directedness on the likelihood of subsequent enrollment in a CS course. The average rating of cooperative learning within a course segment was negatively correlated with retention, according to the findings. Students' individual impressions of instructional activities were not associated with retention. Greater mastery of CS concepts and considering or having declared a CS major were linked to a higher likelihood of taking potential CS courses, which is consistent with previous study.The findings' implications are explored.
Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education, 2014
In line with institutions across the United States, the Computer Science Department at Swarthmore College has faced the challenge of maintaining a demographic composition of students that matches the student body as a whole. To combat this trend, our department has made a concerted effort to revamp our introductory course sequence to both attract and retain more women and minority students. The focus of this paper is the changes instituted in our Introduction to Computer Science course (i.e., CS1) intended for both majors and non-majors. In addition to changing the content of the course, we introduced a new student mentoring program that is managed by a full-time coordinator and consists of undergraduate students who have recently completed the course. This paper describes these efforts in detail, including the extension of these changes to our CS2 course and the associated costs required to maintain these efforts. We measure the impact of these changes by tracking student enrollment and performance over 13 academic years. We show that, unlike national trends, enrollment from underrepresented groups has increased dramatically over this time period. Additionally, we show that the student mentoring program has increased both performance and retention of students, particularly from underrepresented groups, at statistically significant levels.
Exploring Factors Influencing the Continued Interest in a Computer Science Major
2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech, where she also completed her master's degree in Higher Education. She is the graduate assistant for the Rising Sophomore Abroad Program, a global engineering course and study abroad program for first year engineering students. Her primary research interests are engineering study abroad, developing intercultural competency in engineering students, and international higher education.
Increasing Students' Persistence in Computer Science through a Lightweight Scalable Intervention
Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1
Research has shown that high self-assessment of ability, sense of belonging, and professional role confidence are crucial for students' persistence in computing. As grades in introductory computer science courses tend to be lower than other courses, it is essential to provide students with contextualized feedback about their performance in these courses. Giving students unambiguous and contextualized feedback is especially important during COVID when many classes have moved online and instructors and students have fewer opportunities to interact. In this study, we investigate the effect of a lightweight, scalable intervention where students received personalized, contextualized feedback from their instructors after two major assignments during the semester. After each intervention, we collected survey data to assess students' self-assessment of computing ability, sense of belonging, intentions to persist in computing, professional role confidence, and the likelihood of stating intention to pursue a major in computer science. To analyze the effectiveness of our intervention, we conducted linear regression and mediation analysis on student survey responses. Our results have shown that providing students with personalized feedback can significantly improve their self-assessment of computing ability, which will significantly improve their intentions to persist in computing. Furthermore, our results have demonstrated that our intervention can significantly improve students' sense of belonging, professional role confidence, and the likelihood of stating an intention to pursue a major in computer science. CCS CONCEPTS • Social and professional topics → Women; CS1.
Improving the persistence of first-year undergraduate women in computer science
ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 2008
This paper describes a study of undergraduate women's retention in the first-year of the computer science major at the University of Pennsylvania for the purpose of identifying the underlying issues responsible for attrition. The subsequent steps taken by the faculty to improve women's retention is also discussed.
Does a Taste of Computing Increase Computer Science Enrollment
This study investigated the impact of the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program on the likelihood that students of all races and gender would pursue further computer science coursework in high school. ECS is designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around computer science concepts. If the course provides a meaningful and relevant experience, it will increase students' expectancies of success as well as increase their perceived value for the field of computer science. Using survey research, we sought to measure whether the relevance of students' course experiences influenced their expectancies and value and whether those attitudes predicted whether students pursued further computer science coursework. The results indicate that students whose course experience increased expectancies for success were more likely to take another course.
Gender, achievement, and persistence in an undergraduate computer science program
ACM SIGMIS Database, 2006
The proportion of computer science (CS) bachelor's degree recipients who are women has consistently been small and is declining. This study investigates factors that predict performance and persistence in an undergraduate CS program and explores why even high-achieving students leave the undergraduate "CS pipeline." The factors that predict achievement and retention sometimes interact in complex, unexpected ways. Male students who earned less than a B in an introductory CS course were more likely to take the next course in the curriculum than were women who earned less than a B. Achievement is a factor in even high-achieving students' decision to leave CS; loss of interest can accompany loss of confidence. Level of achievement was predicted by various background factors including Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, the number of Calculus courses taken before entering the CS program, amount of access to a computer at home, prior computing experience, and having a mentor or role model during high school. Most of these factors also predicted persistence beyond the first two courses required for a CS major. Curiously, women in the introductory CS course who reported having low exposure to specific programming skills outperformed women who reported having a high level of programming experience. The reverse was true of men. Further investigation provided evidence that women who develop programming skills while in high school might do so at the expense of developing other skills that strongly predict CS achievement, particularly math skills.
Traditional introductory computer science (CS) courses have had little success engaging non-computer science majors. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, where introductory CS courses are a requirement for CS majors and nonmajors alike, two tailored introductory courses were introduced as an alternative to the traditional course. The results were encouraging: more nonmajors succeeded (completed and passed) in tailored courses than in the traditional course, students expressed fewer negative reactions to the course content, and many reported that they would be interested in taking another tailored CS course. The authors present findings from a pilot study of the three courses and briefly discuss some of the issues surrounding the tailored courses for nonmajors: programming, context, choice of language, and classroom culture.
International Journal of STEM Education
Background The motivational climate within a course has been shown to be an important predictor of students’ engagement and course ratings. Because little is known about how students’ perceptions of the motivational climate in a computer science (CS) course vary by sex, race/ethnicity, and academic major, we investigated these questions: (1) To what extent do students’ achievement and perceptions of motivational climate, cost, ease, and effort vary by sex, race/ethnicity, or major? and (2) To what extent do the relationships between students’ achievement and perceptions of motivational climate, cost, and effort vary by sex, race/ethnicity, and major? Participants were enrolled in a large CS course at a large public university in the southeastern U.S. A survey was administered to 981 students in the course over three years. Path analyses and one-way MANOVAs and ANOVAs were conducted to examine differences between groups. Results Students’ perceptions of empowerment, usefulness, inter...