The impact of supplementary hands-on practice on learning in introductory computer science course for freshmen
Introduction
Introduction to Computer Science (ICS), which is a compulsory theoretical course for freshmen of the electrical engineering (EE) department, lays the foundation for their future courses because it consists of a broad spectrum of knowledge including information, hardware, programming, operating systems, application, and communications. Besides, a previous study has shown that fundamental knowledge and study initiative acquired through the course of ICS in the freshman year are crucial for determining the performance of students in the subsequent advanced courses (Verginis, Gogoulou, Gouli, Boubouka, & Grigoriadou, 2011). It is, therefore, conceivable that an augmentation of the academic foundation of students through an improved compulsory course of ICS in their first year in college can theoretically facilitate their later successful participation in the advanced courses.
Nevertheless, significant difficulty has been reported in the teaching of ICS as most college students have not encountered similar courses in their high school years (Verginis et al., 2011). In addition, since ICS covers a wide variety of concepts that are difficult to completely comprehend, incomplete understanding and a loss of learning initiative are the possible obstacles (Merrick, 2010, Verginis et al., 2011). To tackle these pitfalls, previous studies have adopted different strategies, including the use of internet resources, such as puzzles, as supplementary teaching tools to increase the interest of students (Koile and Singer, 2006, Merrick, 2010, Parhami, 2009, Verginis et al., 2011). In addition, previous research (Martin et al., 2005) on ICS also focused on the use of different software designs to enhance learning motivation without emphasizing on hands-on practice in basic hardware design. Although awareness of the importance of hands-on practice is evident in advanced courses for EE students that combined the supplementary teaching tools of software such as MATLAB and UNIX (i.e. MATLAB is a simulation software for programming design, while UNIX provides the necessary platform) (Lang et al., 2006, Merrick, 2010) with accompanying hand-on practice in the field of EE such as digital logic design, microprocessor unit (MCU) (Martin et al., 2005, Sahin et al., Aug. 2010), and digital signal processing (DSP) (Gan and Kuo, 2006, Wu and Kuo, 2008) to facilitate the students' understanding of the theories that they learned from lectures, no corresponding activities on hands-on practice have been introduced for junior students. Therefore, it is conceivable that the incorporation of basic hands-on practice into the first compulsory purely theoretical course of ICS for EE students would augment their understanding of and interest in the course materials.
To augment the outcome of students' learning in the field of engineering, the use of online laboratory has been proposed. Two approaches have been generally adopted, including the virtual laboratories and remote laboratories (Chen, Song, & Zhang, 2010). The former are based on software to simulate the situation of actual experiment (Alhalabi, Hamza, Hsu, & Romance, 1998), whereas the latter are conducted through Internet, using real components or devices (Bochicchio & Longo, 2009). Although virtual laboratories allow students to learn from failures without causing damages to real components, the approach has been reported to limit students' learning activities (Alhalabi et al., 1998). To overcome this limitation, the use of wireless networking as a practical online laboratory platform to provide students with hands-on experience on real devices has been proposed (Lin, Fung Po, Di, & Weijia, 2012). On the other hand, despite the advantage of the use of real components for practice as well as freedom in time and space of learning, the lack of real-time feedback from instructor may restrict the learning outcome.
In view of this issue, optional hands-on practice (HOP) activities emphasizing on simple circuit architecture and Graph-language with on-site tutoring was implemented to facilitate the students' understanding of some of the theories introduced in the ICS course. The aims of HOP were to prepare the students working in groups for the actual hardware manipulation in the field of EE and to enhance their performance in the future advanced practice courses. Accordingly, this study tested the hypothesis that, through organizing optional evening HOP that focused on circuit design, the first-year college students who participated in HOP would exhibit a better understanding in ICS compared to those who did not. The data of this study were acquired from the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Dong Hwa University. Data from a teaching satisfaction questionnaire obtained from 323 first-year EE students, who completed the online questionnaire on an anonymous basis between 2007 and 2011, were compared before (2007–2009) and after (2010–2011) the introduction of HOP. On the other hand, to compare the overall academic performance of the 124 students with and without participating in HOP between 2010 and 2011, their class attendance and scores in ICS course were analyzed.
Section snippets
Arrangement of HOP for ICS and questionnaire design
National Dong Hwa University (NDHU) is situated in eastern Taiwan. The Department of Electrical Engineering, which was established in 1997, received Institute of Engineering Education Taiwan (IEET) accreditation in 2007 in accordance with the Washington Accord (W.S., 2007). Through continuous assessment and improvement, the institute aims at bringing up elites in programming and circuit design in EE. The subjects participating in this study were freshmen of the Department of EE at NDHU for whom
Evaluation and assessment
The results of this study are discussed in three sections. Section 3.1 focused on the effect of implementation of HOP on students' satisfaction with teaching performance. The period of data collection was from 2007 (i.e. the year of IEET accreditation) to 2011. The impact of HOP on student attendance and performance in the ICS course as well as their responses to the items in the initial assessment and course-evaluation questionnaires was discussed in Sections 3.2 Assessment of students'
Discussion and conclusion
In terms of improving learning efficiency, it has been proposed that maintaining a close relationship among theory, research, and practice is one of the most distinctive characteristics of cooperative learning and a major contributor to its success (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 2007). Consistency, to achieve satisfactory student-centered learning in classroom, it has been advocated that learning should be transformed from “cognitive” (i.e. knowledge) to “behavioral” (i.e. skills) level (i.e. The
Conclusion
The introduction of HOP, a series of optional supplementary hands-on practice activities, for freshmen of electrical engineering not only alleviated the stress that they usually face in response to the compulsory ICS course, but it also significantly improved the students' academic performance and class attendance rate as well as raising their interest and boosting their confidence in encountering further challenges in the field of electrical engineering.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported in part by the National Science Council under Grant NSC 100-2221-E-259-030-MY2 and NSC101-2221-E-259-012, Taiwan, Republic of China.
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