Online CS1: Who Enrols, Why, and How Do They Do?

When students can choose to take a course online or face-to-face, who chooses each format? Why do students select one format instead of the other? We compare an online section of CS1 to a concurrent face-to-face section and find that the populations in the two sections are very different. In particular, students in the online section have less prior programming experience and are less likely to intend to major in computer science. We also examine the reasons why students choose their section, many of which relate to convenience, desire for interaction with others, and degree of familiarity with the course material. Finally, we compare course outcomes for the two sections. We find significant differences in drop rates, but not in final exam scores. We investigate whether the differences we find can be explained by differences in the populations who choose to take the course online vs face-to-face.