Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]

skip to main content
10.1145/3502718.3524779acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesiticseConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Project-Based Collaborative Learning Enhances Students' Programming Performance

Published: 07 July 2022 Publication History

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate if the Project-Based Collaborative Learning (PBCL) approach could positively impact on a student's performance within an introductory programming subject. PBCL is a student-centred approach that allows students to collaboratively engage in an authentic complex project that facilitates students developing knowledge and skills while systematically completing learning tasks that combine to achieve the project. In this study, PBCL was implemented within a postgraduate web-based programming subject for students who mostly did not have a prior history with programming. This study used inferential descriptive statistical analysis to compare the students' performance with a prior offering where students completed all tasks as individuals. The size of the study was 799 students over three years (n=338 in 2019, 238 in 2020 and 223 in 2021). The results indicate a statistically significant improvement, with failure rates declining by 7% and average overall performance improving by 5.8%. As there were a substantial number of female students an analysis based on gender was also possible (38% female students). This approach indicated a statistically significant improvement for female students, with failure rates declining by 10% and average overall performance improving by 8.3%. The results of this study provide evidence of the effectiveness of the PBCL approach to engage and improve a student's, especially female students' learning within an introductory programming subject.

References

[1]
Herbert, N., Herbert, D., Wapstra, E., de Salas, K. and Acuña, T. Integrating the Development of Professional Skills Throughout an ICT Curriculum Improves a Graduate's Competency. Springer International Publishing, City, 2021.
[2]
Mhlongo, S., Oyetade, K. E. and Zuva, T. The Effectiveness of Collaboration Using the Hackathon to Promote Computer Programming Skills. In Proceedings of the 2020 2nd International Multidisciplinary Information Technology and Engineering Conference (IMITEC) November 25--27 2020, Kimberley, South Africa, IEEE, New York, NY, https://doi.org/ 10.1109/IMITEC50163.2020.9334089
[3]
Michael Morgan, Matthew Butler, Jane Sinclair, Christabel Gonsalvez, and Neena Thota. 2018. Contrasting CS student and academic perspectives and experiences of student engagement. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2018). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 338--339.
[4]
Wang, X.-M., Hwang, G.-J., Liang, Z.-Y. and Wang, H.-Y, 2017. Enhancing Students' Computer Programming Performances, Critical Thinking Awareness and Attitudes towards Programming An Online Peer-Assessment Attempt. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 20, 4 (October 2017), 58--68.
[5]
Bryn Jeffries, Timothy Baldwin, Marion Zalk, and Ben Taylor. 2020. Online Tutoring to Support Programming Exercises. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE'20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 56--65.
[6]
AIIA. Building Australia's Digital Future in a Post-COVID World, 2020. The Australian Information Industry Association,.
[7]
Nicole Herbert, Erik Wapstra, David Herbert, Kristy de Salas and Tina Acuña.2021. Empirical Analysis of Strategies Employed Within an ICT Curriculum to Increase the Quantity of Graduates.2021. Advances in Software Engineering, Education, and e-Learning. Springer. Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978--3-030--70873--3_5.
[8]
Sreecharan Sankaranarayanan. 2019. Online Mob Programming: Effective Collaborative Project-Based Learning. In Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '19). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1296.
[9]
Medeiros, R. P., Ramalho, G. L. and Falcão, T. P. A Systematic Literature Review on Teaching and Learning Introductory Programming in Higher Education. IEEE Transactions on Education, 62, 2 (2019), 77--90.
[10]
Christopher Watson and Frederick W.B. Li. 2014. Failure rates in introductory programming revisited. In Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Innovation & technology in computer science education (ITiCSE '14). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 39--44.
[11]
Yizhou Qian and James Lehman. 2017. Students' Misconceptions and Other Difficulties in Introductory Programming: A Literature Review. ACM Trans. Comput. Educ. 18, 1, Article 1 (Dec. 2017), 24 pages.
[12]
Nicole Herbert, David Herbert, Erik Wapstra, Kristy de Salas, and Tina Acuña. 2020. An Exploratory Study of Factors Affecting Attrition within an ICT Degree. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE'20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 76--85.
[13]
Apeanti, W. O. and Essel, D. Learning Computer Programming Using Project-Based Collaborative Learning: Students' Experiences, Challenges, and Outcomes. International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, 9, 8 (Aug. 2021), 191--207.
[14]
Adu-Manu, K., Arthur, J. and Amoako, P. Causes of Failure of Students in Computer Programming Courses: The Teacher Learner Perspective. International Journal of Computer Applications, 77 (Sep. 2013), 27--32.
[15]
Donna Teague and Paul Roe. 2008. Collaborative learning: towards a solution for novice programmers. In Proceedings of the tenth conference on Australasian computing education - Volume 78 (ACE '08). Australian Computer Society, Inc., AUS, 147--153.
[16]
Wang, X.-M. and Hwang, G.-J. A problem posing-based practicing strategy for facilitating students' computer programming skills in the team-based learning mode. Educational Technology Research and Development, 65, 6 (Dec. 2017), 1655--1671.
[17]
Chen, C.-H. and Yang, Y.-C. Revisiting the effects of project-based learning on students' academic achievement: A meta-analysis investigating moderators. Educational Research Review, 26 (Feb. 2019), 71--81.
[18]
Bras, Rafael. L., Epstein, Ari. W., Hodges, ip. Vermon. and Lipson, Alberta. Students' Perceptions of Terrascope, A Project-Based Freshman Learning Community. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 16, 4 (May. 2007), 349--364.
[19]
Chu, Samuel Kai Wah, Zhang, Yin, Chen, Katherine, Chan, Chi Kkeung, Lee, Celina Wing Yi, Zou, Ellen and Lau, Wilfred. The effectiveness of wikis for project-based learning in different disciplines in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 33 (Apr. 2017), 49--60.
[20]
Lina Battestilli, Apeksha Awasthi, and Yingjun Cao. 2018. Two-Stage Programming Projects: Individual Work Followed by Peer Collaboration. In Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '18). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 479--484.
[21]
Coe, Robert. 2002. It's the effect size, stupid: What effect size is and why it is important. In British Educational Research Association Annual Converence. 12, 14
[22]
Krissi Wood, Dale Parsons, Joy Gasson and Patricia Haden. It's never too early: pair programming in CS1.2013 In Proceedings of the Proceedings of the Fifteenth Australasian Computing Education Conference - Volume 136. Australian Computer Society, Inc., Aus, 13--21
[23]
Nghi Truong, Peter Bancroft, and Paul Roe. 2003. A web based environment for learning to program. In Proceedings of the 26th Australasian computer science conference - Volume 16 (ACSC '03). Australian Computer Society, Inc., AUS, 255--264.
[24]
Sharon Mason. 2020. Collaborative Learning in Computing Education: Faculty Perspectives and Practices. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER '20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 136--146.
[25]
Ragsdale, S. Pursuing and finishing an undergraduate computing degree: insights from women computing graduates. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 30, 5 (May 2015), 52--59.
[26]
Jessica McBroom, Irena Koprinska, and Kalina Yacef. 2020. Understanding Gender Differences to Improve Equity in Computer Programming Education. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE'20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 185--194.

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Pedagogical memes: a creative and effective tool for teaching STEM subjectsInternational Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology10.1080/0020739X.2024.2328818(1-31)Online publication date: 26-Mar-2024
  • (2023)Ontology-based group assessment analytics framework for performances prediction in project-based collaborative learningSmart Learning Environments10.1186/s40561-023-00262-w10:1Online publication date: 26-Sep-2023
  • (2023)Supporting Collaboration in Introductory Programming Classes Taught in Hybrid Mode: A Participatory Design StudyProceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3563657.3596042(1248-1262)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2023
  • Show More Cited By

Recommendations

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
ITiCSE '22: Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1
July 2022
686 pages
ISBN:9781450392013
DOI:10.1145/3502718
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 07 July 2022

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Check for updates

Author Tags

  1. collaborative
  2. gender
  3. international
  4. programming

Qualifiers

  • Research-article

Conference

ITiCSE 2022
Sponsor:

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 552 of 1,613 submissions, 34%

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)56
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)8
Reflects downloads up to 30 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Pedagogical memes: a creative and effective tool for teaching STEM subjectsInternational Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology10.1080/0020739X.2024.2328818(1-31)Online publication date: 26-Mar-2024
  • (2023)Ontology-based group assessment analytics framework for performances prediction in project-based collaborative learningSmart Learning Environments10.1186/s40561-023-00262-w10:1Online publication date: 26-Sep-2023
  • (2023)Supporting Collaboration in Introductory Programming Classes Taught in Hybrid Mode: A Participatory Design StudyProceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3563657.3596042(1248-1262)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2023
  • (2023)Exploring the effects of gender in skills acquisition in collaborative learning based on the ontological clustering modelJournal of Computer Assisted Learning10.1111/jcal.1285240:6(2484-2495)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2023
  • (2023)Exploring Projects in a Python Programming MOOC for Young Learners2023 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)10.1109/EDUCON54358.2023.10125128(1-8)Online publication date: 1-May-2023
  • (2023)An Ontology-Based Collaborative Assessment Analytics Framework to Predict Groups’ DisengagementIntelligent Decision Technologies10.1007/978-981-99-2969-6_7(74-84)Online publication date: 30-May-2023

View Options

Login options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media