Measuring increased engagement using tablet PCs in a code review class
Wade Fagen, Samuel J. Kamin · 2013
The Programming Studio in the University of Illinois Computer Science department is a required course in which small groups of students participate in weekly code reviews of each other's programs. To increase student engagement in the discussions, Tablet PCs were introduced for several weeks in the middle of the semester. By recording the discussions before, during, and after the use of tablets, we measure the effectiveness of this intervention. In doing so, we develop a simple metric to measure the "active engagement" of the participants. We found each section was significantly more engaging when using Tablet PCs (p<0.0001) and the large majority of individual participants were more engaged. This paper contributes both an objective measurement of "active engagement" and a successful intervention in a programming studio-type course.