ABSTRACT
An introductory CS1 course presents problems for educators and students due to students' diverse background in programming knowledge and exposure. Students who enroll in CS1 also have different expectations and motivations. Prompted by the curricular guidelines for undergraduate programs in computer science released in 2001 by the ACM/IEEE, and driven by a departmental project to reinvent the undergraduate computer science and computer engineering curricula at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, we are currently implementing a series of changes which will improve our introductory courses. One key component of our project is an online placement examination tied to the cognitive domain that assesses student knowledge and intellectual skills. Our placement test is also integrated into a comprehensive educational research design containing a pre- and post-test framework for assessing student learning. In this paper, we focus on the design and implementation of our placement exam and present an analysis of the data collected to date.
- ACM/IEEE-CS (2001). Computing Curricula 2001. Retrieved May 12, 2004, from http://www.sigcse.org/cc2001/.Google Scholar
- Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Book 1, Cognitive Domain, New York: Longman.Google Scholar
- Feese, R. and A. Zygielbaum (in press). Affinity Learning. In L. PytlikZillig, L, Bodvarsson, M., & Bruning, R. (Eds.), Technology-based Education: Bringing Researchers and Practitioners Together, Greenwich Connecticut: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Designing, implementing, and analyzing a placement test for introductory CS courses
Recommendations
Designing, implementing, and analyzing a placement test for introductory CS courses
An introductory CS1 course presents problems for educators and students due to students' diverse background in programming knowledge and exposure. Students who enroll in CS1 also have different expectations and motivations. Prompted by the curricular ...
Frequency of Instructor- and Student-Centered Teaching Practices in Introductory CS Courses
SIGCSE '19: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science EducationDespite growing promotion of student-centered teaching, few studies have assessed how widely these practices have diffused throughout computer science (CS) higher education. Studies on teaching practices often treat instructor- and student-centered ...
Scaling Introductory Courses Using Undergraduate Teaching Assistants
SIGCSE '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science EducationUndergraduates are widely used in support of Computer Science (CS) departments' teaching missions as teaching assistants, peer mentors, section leaders, course assistants, and tutors. Those undergraduates engaged in teaching have the opportunity to ...
Comments