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Keystroke data collected from CS1 student participants during spring 2024 semester at Utah State University. See readme.txt for detailed information. This dataset has undergone deidentification, though it is possible, being a complex, temporal, and ephemeral dataset, that identifying keystrokes may have been missed. Ethical use of this dataset includes avoiding attempts at reconstructing identities. That said, if researchers discover anything identifiable in the data, they are encouraged to contact the dataset authors (john.edwards@usu.edu). 

Pausing behavior in introductory Computer Science (CS1) courses has been related to course outcomes and could be linked to a student’s cognitive load. Using Cognitive Load Theory and Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development as a theoretical framework, this study empirically analyzes keystroke latencies, or pause times between keystrokes, with the goal of better understanding what types of assignments need more scaffolding than others. We report the characteristics of eleven assignments, introduce a method to analyze pausing behavior, and investigate how pausing behavior changes with assignment characteristics (e.g., introducing new programming constructs, engaging creativity through Turtle graphics, etc). We find evidence that pausing behavior does change based on the assignment characteristics and that assignments with particular characteristics, such as object-oriented principles, may be more likely to have excessive demands on student working memory. We also find evidence that assignment completion time may not be an accurate measure of assignment difficulty.