Weekly Open-Ended Exercises and Student Motivation in CS1
Sadia Sharmin, Daniel Zingaro, Clare Brett · 2020
Improving student engagement and learning within introductory Computer Science (CS1) courses has been heavily studied within CS Education (CSE) research due to their fundamental role in a student’s early experiences with learning foundational CS concepts. One issue with many CS1 courses is that the practice of standardized grading leads to limited opportunities for students to find personal relevance within school projects, which could be demotivating for beginner students. This paper examines the impact of incorporating opportunities for creative thinking into a CS1 course through the use of weekly open-ended exercises. Data was collected from 284 students in a CS1 course, where roughly half of the students completed weekly exercises which included an open-ended aspect that allowed them to make their own decisions about their projects. The other half completed similar exercises but with a specifically defined, closed-ended checklist of requirements. Although no effect on academic performance was found, an analysis of survey data collected throughout the course revealed a significant connection between open-ended exercises and increased motivation, especially in terms of confidence and satisfaction. A deeper look at each particular exercise showed variances in how motivating an exercise was based on time in the semester and structure of the exercise, revealing important lessons about the design of effective open-ended CS1 exercises.