Search for: All records

Background and Context. Existing works in computing students' help-seeking and resource selection identified an expanding set of important dimensions that students consider when choosing a help resource. However, most works either assume a predefined list of help resources or focus on one specific help resource, while the landscape of help resources evolve at a faster speed. Objectives. We seek to study how students value each dimension in the help landscape in their resource selection and utilization processes, as well as how their identities relate to their perceptions of the landscape. Method. We surveyed N=1,625 students on their perceptions of 8 dimensions across 12 offerings of 7 courses at 2 institutions. Findings. We found a consistent pattern of four distinct dimension tiers ordered from most to least important: (1) timeliness of help, (2) availability and adaptability of the resource, (3) the resource's time/space anchor and the effort to phrase the help need, (4) formality and socialness of the resource. We also found men and first-years rate all dimensions as less important than their classmates. Implications. Our results reveal what the students collectively value most when selecting help resources and thus can inform practitioners seeking to improve their course help ecosystem. 

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.