Student diversity in CS1 y ECSS Paris October 2009 ECSS, Paris, - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Chair of Softw are Engineering Student diversity in CS1 y ECSS Paris October 2009 ECSS, Paris, October 2009 Michela Pedroni Bertrand Meyer (ETH) y ( ) Manuel Oriol (University of York, UK)

Context Introduction to Programming course at ETH Zurich Since 2003 2

Motivation To “know your audience” is one of the fundamental rules of y mass communication In introductory programming courses: y p g g high diversity of prior knowledge 3

Study setup Questionnaire on computing and programming knowledge  Computer literacy p y  Programming experience  Programming languages g g g g Changes over years? Participants of ETH p f  Beginning of Introduction to Programming 2003-2008  On paper (2003), later online On paper ( 003), later onl ne  Answers from 753 of 1130 CS students Participants of University of York Participants of University of York  2008 only Differences between institutions?  Online  Online  Answers from 77 of 101 CS & Math students 4

Computer usage Averages over 5 years,  1 year: 0% (0%, 0%, 1%) 2003-2007 2003 2007 2 to 4 years: 3% (yearly variations small) (3%, 4%, 1%, 6%) 5 to 9 years: 42% y (35%, 48%, 35%, 55%) (62%, 48%, 63%)  10 years: 59% 5

Programming experience 70% 60% 60% Small O-O programs 50% students s 40% No O-O 30% 20% No programming 10% 10% Large* programs 0% 03 03 04 04 05 05 06 06 07 07 08 08 08 08 ETH York 6

Where learning occurs 70% 60% 50% Self-study Self study ts 40% 40% student 30% At high school At high school 20% 10% Other Other 0% At university 03 03 04 04 05 05 06 06 07 07 08 08 08 08 ETH York 7

Number of languages known well or very well 50% 1-2 40% None 30% 30% students s 3 or more 20% 10% 0% 03 03 04 04 05 05 06 06 07 07 08 08 08 08 ETH York 8

Languages known by most students 1 st place 2 nd place 3 rd place 2003 Basic Pascal C++ 2004 2004 Eiffel Eiffel C++ C++ JavaScript JavaScript 2005 C++ Java PHP ETH ETH 2006 PHP JavaScript Java 2007 PHP Java JavaScript/C++ 2008 2008 PHP PHP C C++ C C York 2008 VisualBasic JavaScript p PHP 9

Comparisons Changes over the years (ETH only)  Many differences between 2003 and later years : In y y 2003, less exposure to computers, less programming experience, less languages known well/very well  Only punctual differences involving other years: Laptop, specific programming languages (Basic and Eiffel) Eiffel) Situation is stable York vs. ETH (2008 only)  Only punctual differences • BSD operating system, computer tasks • Different knowledge of Java and VisualBasic Si il Similar at both institutions t b th i tit ti 10

Implications on teaching Students are mostly computer literate, but very diverse  ~1/3 programming novices p g g  ~1/3 know one or two languages well or very well  ~1/3 know more than two languages g g Situation is stable and similar at two institutions Is this a global phenomenon? Need more data… g p m m Develop measures to adapt to diverse student body  Teaching methodology: software framework  Teaching methodology: software framework, programming language choice, relate to prior knowledge g  Extra lessons for novices (e.g. CS0)  Making student groups g g p  Individualized instruction 11

A complementary experiment How are we doing? Test in 2 nd year, programming questions; first experience in February 2009 Language-independent, but uses programming language taught in introductory course Analysis: 3 equal categories Will do it again in February 2010 12

If If you are willing to participate in the studies, u illin t p ti ip t in th studi s please write to pedronim@inf.ethz.ch 13