Experiences in Developing a Robust Popular Online CS1 Course for the Past Seven Years

Abstract

Well-run CS1 classes are critical for getting CS majors off to a good start and for serving other non-major students across a university. Universities continue to offer more online courses, to handle more students with limited resources, and provide students more flexibility. Our university introduced an online CS1 course in 2013. The course has improved to the point that student outcomes match our in-person course: Students perform similarly on identical midterm and final exams, and do equally well in the subsequent CS2 course. Student evaluations match as well and are highly positive, consistently rating the course in the top 20% of all courses on campus. This paper highlights how the class has evolved based on experience, into the robust popular course that it is today. Key course features include: Synchronous online video meetings akin to the in-person course, an online chat forum during such meetings that students say increases participation, some active learning during the online meetings, use of modern online learning content instead of a textbook to ensure reading before class, and online auto-graded homework and programming assignments to provide extensive practice and immediate feedback.A key omitted feature is videos; we intentionally have not made use of video lectures in any substantial way. A common theme from students is that they did not originally want to take the course online, but afterwards saying they liked the course better than in-person courses due largely to the surprisingly-extensive live online interaction.

Student Perceptions of Online Learning Effectiveness during the COVID-19 Quarantine

“…Whether educators strongly prefer online versus in-person instruction typically has a strong correlation to whether the instructor understands how to properly prepare and communicate in an online environment. Extensive research has been done [2,9,12,33,14,31,34,3,4,25] and is continuing to improve the transition and execution of online education.…”

“…Recommendations for implementing these principles in an online learning environment include requiring synchronous online meetings [2], having weekly online discussion sessions that promote a sense of community [2,12,9,33,18,31,34,25], dividing teaching content into smaller modules to help students focus [12,9,14,18,19], having a back-up plan for unexpected issues, slowing down speech during lectures to allow students to capture key points, utilizing teaching assistants to share the extra requirements, using various methods to modify homework and reading to strengthen students' active learning outside of class, providing timely feedback to student assignments [9,19,31], making compelling lecture videos, establishing a presence with a welcome message, frequent notices and feedback [12], and setting and reminding often of time management expectations [12,36]. Recommendations also include practical implementations such as ensuring the online learning platform is easy to use, works on inexpensive bandwidth that is easily available [19], is web-based, includes a drawing board functionality, is recordable, and is interactive [11].…”

“…Higher education in an online learning environment has been shown to be at least as effective as face-to-face, is appreciated by students [1,2,3,4,5] and could lead to improved performance [6]. However, it does have limitations [7,8,9,10,11], and requires several weeks of preparation by the instructor prior to the start of class [12,13], as well as careful consideration of how learning takes place online [14].…”

“…Typically for students to succeed in an online learning environment they should be self-motivated and organized [17,10] and have a good learning environment [9]. While the literature illustrating the success of online education is plentiful [1,2,3,4], initial research analyzing online education during the COVID-19 quarantine indicates that the majority of students preferred face-to-face learning and had negative perceptions toward online learning during the COVID-19 quarantine [7,18] especially those that live in rural areas [19]. Often this was not due to technical difficulties but from lack of self-discipline, suitable learning materials, or good learning environments [9].…”

Student Perceptions and Performance with Online Instruction of Sustainability During COVID-19 Response

“…Recommendations for successful online education include requiring synchronous online meetings [7], having weekly online discussion sessions that promote a sense of community [3], [6], [7], [10], dividing teaching content into smaller modules to help students focus [6], [10], having a back-up plan for unexpected issues, slowing down speech during lectures to allow students to capture key points, utilizing teaching assistants to share the extra requirements, using various methods to modify homework and reading to strengthen students' active learning outside of class, providing feedback to student assignments [10], making compelling lecture videos, establishing presence with a welcome message, frequent notices and feedback, and setting and reminding often of time management expectations [6]. Solutions to mitigate academic integrity issues include making sure questions are not identifiable in common web search engines, including special symbols in questions to make them untraceable by web search engines, and uploading questions as images so they cannot be readily copied and pasted [4].…”