Retention in First Stage Undergraduate Computing: Lessons Learned from a Collaborative Learning Intervention
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Abstract
It is challenging to retain computing students through their first stage of undergraduate education. Attrition is high, with many transferring courses or dropping out. This poster explores preliminary findings from an action research project improving continuation in first-stage undergraduate computing. Five years of data from Falmouth University's Games Academy in the UK suggest improvement in first-stage retention from 66.6% in 2017-18 to 91.2% in 2021-22. Findings support prior work on pair programming, media computation, and peer instruction. However, they also highlight the benefits of collaborative learning facilitated by faculty and informed by learning analytics. Peer reviews and pre-submission clinics, student advisor follow-ups, and retrieval via synoptic assessment also contributed to the improvement.
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Jens Bennedsen and Michael E Caspersen. 2019. Failure Rates in Introductory Programming: 12 Years Later. ACM Inroads, Vol. 10, 2 (2019), 30--36.
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Andrew Luxton-Reilly, Ibrahim Albluwi, Brett A Becker, Michail Giannakos, Amruth N Kumar, Linda Ott, James Paterson, Michael James Scott, Judy Sheard, and Claudia Szabo. 2018. Introductory Programming: A Systematic Literature Review. In Proceedings Companion of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. 55--106.
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Timothy J Nokes-Malach, J Elizabeth Richey, and Soniya Gadgil. 2015. When is it better to learn together? Insights from research on collaborative learning. Educational Psychology Review, Vol. 27, 4 (2015), 645--656.
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Leo Porter, Mark Guzdial, Charlie McDowell, and Beth Simon. 2013. Success in introductory programming: What works? Commun. ACM, Vol. 56, 8 (2013), 34--36.
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Guohua Shen, Sien Yang, Zhiqiu Huang, Yaoshen Yu, and Xin Li. 2022. The Prediction of Programming Performance using Student Profiles. Education and Information Technologies (2022), 1--16.
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UK Office for Students. 2019. Condition B3: Baselines for Student Outcomes Indicators. https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/490d884f-03aa-49cf-907d-011149309983/condition_b3_baselines.pdf
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- Retention in First Stage Undergraduate Computing: Lessons Learned from a Collaborative Learning Intervention
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Published In
June 2023
694 pages
ISBN:9798400701399
DOI:10.1145/3587103
- General Chairs:
- Mikko-Jussi Laakso,
- Mattia Monga,
- Program Chairs:
- Simon,
- Judithe Sheard
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Association for Computing Machinery
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Published: 29 June 2023
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