Improving the student success and retention of under achiever students in introductory computer science
Carolee Stewart-Gardiner · Journal of computing sciences in colleges · 2011
In many universities, student success and retention in computer science are an ongoing concern to faculty. Finding best practices to improve the success and retention rate of less than the best students, has been a particular challenge. This study, conducted at a public teaching university, has focused on enhancements to introductory computer science courses to aid in the retention of students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) majors. The majority of these students had no prior programming or computer science experience. All computer science majors and some other STEM majors are required to take the first course in programming (CS0). The PLTL (Peer Led Team Learning) methodology, successful with Chemistry majors elsewhere, was used to improve student success in CS via collaborative workshops. Quantitative grade data and attitudinal surveys are combined to show the success of this study on the student success rates, which contributed to the retention of these students over the past 3 years. Over 80% of the students who attended PLTL workshops, said that future students should attend PLTL workshops in this and follow on CS courses. The progress of the students' success, and the enthusiasm of the students in introductory CS classes shows the contribution PLTL has made in the retention of STEM students.