Getting principled - PowerPoint Presentation

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Getting principled

Reflections on Teaching CS Principles at Two College Board University Pilots

SIGCSEMarch 2017, Seattle WAJeff Gray, Michele Roberts, Jonathan Corley

Slides will

be available at:

http://

bit.ly/sigcse2017-cspU Slide2

Overview

Motivation and BackgroundPilotsIUPUI

UAPilot ResultsLessons LearnedSlide3

Motivation

According to the College Board, CS Principles will“be the largest debut of an AP ever in the history of the College Board, with nearly 50 percent more teachers launching the program than the previous crown-holder: the AP World History exam, which had 998 teachers in its first year

”There is a growing request from high school CSP teachers for universities/colleges to offer a mapping to the new AP CSP course, with a targeted course number for AP creditOur paper shares some of our experiences in creating such a course, with a few lessons learned, that may be of interest to other CS Departments considering a new similar CSP course in their curriculumSlide4

Attestation

http://www.csprinciples.org/home/about-the-project/attestationSlide5

The NeedSlide6
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Background – CSP Pilots

From 2010-2016 over various phases, the CSP course was

pilotedFinal Phase: 50 pilots (38 HS teachers and 12 university teachers)Our paper focused on two of the university pilots: University of Alabama and IUPUIhttp://www.csprinciples.org/home/pilot-sites2012-20132013-20162011-2012Slide8

Key Findings

College Board approved, and Haynie Research provided access, to the student responses from

our Pilot coursesOur paper summarizes the past three years of our Pilot coursesEnrollment of women in the CSP course at each of our universities was twice that of our Department’s traditional CS 1But one of our CSP courses showed less enrollment impact for other URMs compared to the CS 1 course. Different from AP CSPA significant difference was observed in the DFW (Drop/Fail/Withdraw) rates for CSP compared to the CS 1 course. At both IUPUI and University of Alabama, the DFW rate for CSP is only 2% and 3%, respectively, but for CS 1 it ranges from 18% to 54% at IUPUI and 50% to 61% at the University of Alabama. Significant gains in pre-post CS self-confidenceSlide9

IUPUI PilotSlide10

Indiana University, Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI)

IUPUI is an urban research university located in downtown IndianapolisDowntown regional campus of IU’s main Bloomington campus and Purdue’s main West Lafayette campus, with total student enrollment at 30K, over 90% of which are state residentsSlide11

Indiana University, Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI)

The CSP pilot was run by Senior Lecturer Michele Roberts from the Computer Science Department (located in the School of Science).

The CS Department serves about 2,100 students a year (including both majors and non-majors)Slide12

Course Launch

The CSP pilot launched in Spring 2014Has been offered every Fall and Spring thereafter

The course launched with 22 enrolled studentsThe course is offered as a 3-credit, 200 level course for non-majorsAfter a first successful semester, CSP was marketed to advisors in face-to-face meetings using:Syllabussample lab descriptionsstudent project displaystestimonials from studentsSlide13

The Course Growth and Evolution

In Fall 2015, school and university administration were successful in adding the CSP course in the Analytical Reasoning category of state core educational requirements.i.e., Approved to substitute for 3 of 9 required hours of mathematics

By Fall 2016, enrollment had grown175 students (from 22 at launch)5 full and waitlisted sectionsIn Fall 2016, CSCI faculty voted to count passing AP CSP scores of 3 or higher with CSP credit.Slide14

Pilot Administration

The IUPUI pilot was run with strong fidelity to the College Board Curriculum Framework, delivering content within the CSP

“Big Ideas”Through Spring 2016 (when the pilot ended), CSP students submitted the two Performance Tasks and completed a Final ExamSlide15

UA PilotSlide16

University of Alabama (UA)

UA is a suburban public research university located in a college

town (Tuscaloosa), with an approximate total enrollment of 37,00046% of University of Alabama students are in-state residentsCS Department has approximately 700 undergrads/70 gradsSlide17

CS 104

The CSP course at UA is offered as a 3-credit course within the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering

.College Board CSP Pilot from 2011-2016 (UA and UW-Madison were longest running university CSP Pilots) Since 2013, the course is primarily enrolled by non-majors, specifically Secondary Math Education (SME) and Math majors.Slide18

Pilot Administration

Programming Language: Snap!Textbook: Blown to Bits and selected readings

Pedagogical approach: Cooperative learning structuresSimilar to IUPUI, the UA pilot was run with strong fidelity to the College Board CF. Performance Tasks done as HW; even included former “Investigate” as an in-class activitySpring 2016, UA formally recognizes CS 104 for AP CSP mapping2016-2017 academic year moved to two offerings, with waitlisted enrollment capped at 40 Slide19

Pilot ResultsSlide20

Broadening Participation (IUPUI)

Successful at Broadening Participation

Female participation rose from 37% to 63% from first to most recent offeringOther URM (Latino and African Americans) rose from 8% - 19%These numbers compare more favorably with the more homogeneous CS 1 populationSlide21

Broadening Participation (UA)

Successful at Broadening Participation

Female participation rose from 52% to 70% from first to most recent offeringOther URM DECREASED from 30% to 13%The gender numbers are much improved over CS 1, but URM interest was disappointingSlide22

Student Success (DFW rates)

Pilots at both universities saw surprisingly low levels of DFW

rates (Drop, Fail, Withdraw rates)Less than 3%, which compares to CS 1 DWF rates of 50% or higherPilots at both universities saw high levels of pass rates Pass rates were above 97%, 30% higher than pass rates for CS 1Slide23

Student Self-Confidence

IUPUI

UASurvey question: “I have confidence when it comes to CS”Both CSP pilots observed a significant pre-post gain in student confidenceCSP Students Experienced an Improvement in Confidence with CS!Slide24

Student Interest in CS

Survey Question:

“I would take additional CS courses if given the opportunity”IUPUIUACSP Students Experienced No Change in InterestSlide25

Student Interest in CS

Disappointing results: neither pilot showed a significant pre-post impactNeutral results: No loss, but also no

gainIUPUI: One change made since reporting these results was to provide CSP students with course pathways subsequent to CSP completion; we are monitoring impact, if anySlide26

Lessons LEarnedSlide27

Kudos to the CSP Community

Fantastic community support for CSP resources

CS10k Community, Endorsed Providers, Many NSF projects (e.g., TeachGlobalImpact.org) CSP curriculum is indeed engaging and welcomingRecommended cooperative learning strategies worked well at both universitiesSlide28

University-level CSP Course Challenges

Curriculum coverage in 1 semester is impossible (48 contact hours vs over 180 in AP CSP)

Culture challenge to faculty committed to a lecture approach, but opportunity to map back success from CSP to traditional CS curriculumCovering the programming Big Idea in a single semester (~12 hours) with non-majorsCSPCS1Slide29

Student Voices

Group projectsSocially RelevantWrote programs that they could show off on a cell phoneMyth-busting: “I did it” “This is fun!” “Who knew Computing was Creative?”

Pseudo- codeDebuggingJournaling (however, seems more popular for AP CSP)Slide30

Conclusions

Summary evaluation results of 3-year student of CSP course at two separate university College Board PilotsTwo separate pathway approaches for CSP

UA: SEMA students, IUPUI: general math electivePositive OutcomesVery deep increase in enrollment diversity with respect to genderSignificant gains in student self-confidence in CSSubstantial decrease in DFW rates compared to CS1UA: Math Education students increased engagement with CS department and pre-service training of future CSP educatorsSurprising ResultsDecrease in URM enrollment at UA, increase at IUPUINo change in student CS interest before/after CSPChallenges in implementing full AP CSP curriculum in university courseSlide31

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the College Board, through support from the National Science Foundation, for selecting us as CS Principles Pilot instructors. In

particular, we are grateful to Lien Diaz at the College Board, Owen Astrachan and Amy Briggs (NSF PIs), and Jan Cuny (NSF). Special thanks to Kathy Haynie and Sheryl Packman for their help with evaluation data. Part of the project at the University of Alabama was supported in part by NSF CE21 (1240944). The CS104 course at Alabama also benefitted from the support of Amber Wagner, Brian Eddy and Mokter Hossain.Slide32

Questions / Comments

Thank y’all!