Title: Assessment of Self-Identified Learning Struggles in CS2 Programming Assignments
Students can have widely varying experiences while working on CS2 coding projects. Challenging experiences can lead to lower motivation and less success in completing these assignments. In this paper, we identify the common struggles CS2 students face while working on course projects and examine whether or not there is evidence of improvement in these areas of struggle between projects. While previous work has been conducted on understanding the importance of self-regulated learning to student success, it has not been fully investigated in the scope of CS2 coursework. We share our observations on investigating student struggles while working on coding projects through their self-reported response to a project reflection form. We apply emergent coding to identify student struggles at three points during the course and compare them against student actions in the course, such as project start times and office hours participation, to identify if students were overcoming these struggles. Through our coding and analysis we have found that while a majority of students encounter struggles with time management and debugging of failing tests, students tend to emphasize wanting to improve their time management skills in future coding assignments.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1934975
PAR ID:
10448500
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
ITiCSE 2023: Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1
Page Range / eLocation ID:
264 to 270
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Mitrovic, A.; Bosch, N. (Ed.)
    In computer science education timely help seeking during large programming projects is essential for student success. Help-seeking in typical courses happens in office hours and through online forums. In this research, we analyze students coding activities and help requests to understand the interaction between these activities. We collected student’s help requests during coding assignments on two different platforms in a CS2 course, and categorized those requests into eight categories (including implementation, addressing test failures, general debugging, etc.). Then we analyzed the proportion of each type of requests and how they changed over time. We also collected student’s coding status (including what part of the code changed and the frequency of commits) before they seek help to investigate if students share a similar code change behavior leading to certain type of help requests. 
    more » « less
  2. This experience report is part of an ongoing NSF-funded grant project involving an alliance of six California State University campuses, aimed at promoting Latinx student retention through community engagement in early computer science courses. The project focuses on integrating socially responsible computing (SRC) into the curriculum to transform computing culture and invite marginalized students to participate. At our campus, we integrated SRC concepts into the CS2 course on Data Structures and Algorithms. Initially, SRC concepts were introduced into assignments and projects, which showed promising results but highlighted challenges: the assignments and projects were instructor-created, leading to a gap between students and the concepts. Students passively received topics without proactive participation, resulting in a lack of perceived real-world impact. To address this, we involved the local Latinx community directly. Students visited community partners to identify real-world problems, which they then addressed through term projects, ultimately presenting their solutions to the community. Adopting a startup mindset, students interviewed partners, identified problems, developed prototypes, and delivered solutions. This hands-on approach, first implemented in Spring 2024, significantly enhanced student engagement and provided practical, impactful learning experiences. This report details the course design, implementation process, formative data collected, and reflections on the outcomes. The findings offer valuable insights and recommendations for educators aiming to foster community engagement and socially responsible computing in computer science education, with a specific focus on promoting Latinx student retention. 
    more » « less
  3. The accessibility and effectiveness of help-seeking resources plays a pivotal role in contributing to the success of students in Computer Science courses. However, students do not always choose to utilize these resources, and when they do, their experiences can vary. While some students commend help-seeking resources for effectively providing clarification on assignment instructions, debugging code, and addressing questions about course concepts, others share instances where their problems were not resolved, or, in some cases, they did not receive any meaningful guidance from these resources. In this study, we examine the experiences of students enrolled in a CS2 course, all of whom had access to the course's help-seeking resources. These experiences were gathered through qualitative interviews at three time points within a semester. Our findings, derived from emergent coding, reveal thematic patterns in student encounters with help-seeking resources and contribute to a broader theme regarding help-seeking resource utilization at different phases of the semester. The findings of this investigation contribute to the wider conversation on student success and help-seeking resource utilization in Computer Science education. 
    more » « less
  4. We present a course design model for applying project-based learning to an online undergraduate object oriented systems course. In our model, projects and reflection are central to the curriculum. Our model challenges students through modularized, repetitive project cycles beginning with analysis and design (i.e. using pseudo- code, flowcharts, diagrams) then coding, debugging, testing, and finally, reflection. We analyzed student reflection responses from two semesters to extract major themes and sub-themes, then mapped these to the MUSIC model (eMpowerment, Usefulness, Success, Interest, Caring) to understand our model's influence on student engagement and motivation. We found that a rhythmic project cycle encourages self-regulation in online students to formulate project plans, track their progress, and evaluate their solutions. Online students feel empowered when course projects promote choice, flexibility, creativity, experimentation, and extensions to other applications. Online student success is dependent on the clarity of instructions, course scaffolding, level of challenge, instructor feedback, and opportunities to reflect on personal failure, success, and challenge. Online students are interested in projects that are familiar, real-world, and fun, but expect to be situated in team-based environments. Students appreciate instructors who are caring and accommodating to personal needs. We recommend six salient strategies for improving online course and project design: design a visible, rhythmic structure; set transparent expectations and instructions; encourage design before implementation; connect to real-world applications and tools; experience happy challenges; infuse sustained reflection. 
    more » « less
  5. ABSTRACT Course‐based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are a high impact instructional approach but are challenging to implement in large lecture courses due to class size and content demands. We describe the evolution of a research‐inspired project in a large‐enrollment (70+ students) Biochemistry lecture course. Our goal was to integrate a project that complements the rigid content while providing experience working on a novel research project. We addressed access barriers by expanding the use of cloud‐based computational techniques, notably Google Colaboratory (Colab), to ensure software accessibility across diverse student devices. The semester‐long project is divided into four modules focusing on protein structure and function, culminating in an individual project that studies a novel protein variant and its effects on structure and function. These projects are further supported by a science and math librarian to teach information literacy and data management skills. Since Fall 2024, over 250 students have participated. Student self‐assessments demonstrate gains in confidence, particularly in analyzing molecular structures, connecting genetic mutations to protein function, and using scientific databases like UniProt. This model shows that research‐inspired curricula can be successfully integrated into large, content‐heavy lecture courses by leveraging accessible cloud‐computing resources. 
    more » « less