On the Effect of Onboarding Computing Students without Programming-Confidence or -Experience

Pawel Grabarczyk; Sebastian Mateos Nicolajsen; Claus Brabrand

doi:10.1145/3564721.3564724

On the Effect of Onboarding Computing Students without Programming-Confidence or -Experience

Center for Computing Education Research

Research output: Conference Article in Proceeding or Book/Report chapter › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Previous work demonstrates that students without prior program- ming experience are worse off than their programming experienced peers in terms of both Introductory Programming (CS1) grades and dropout rates. Many universities, therefore, offer an onboarding (CS0) course aimed at bridging the programming experience gap by teaching the basics of programming to inexperienced students.
This paper reports on the effects of providing a three-day elective onboarding course over a period of five years (2016–2020), involving a total of N=798 software development students at the IT University of Copenhagen. The paper compares 271 students who attended versus a baseline of 527 who did not attend the onboarding course.
The results show that programming inexperienced students are indeed able to “catch up” to the level of their experienced peers both in terms of CS1 grades and dropout rates. Aside from objectively increasing competence, the onboarding also increases confidence, self-efficacy and diminishes insecurities, according to onboarded participants. Finally, the results suggest that onboarding has the potential to increase the diversity of students.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Koli Calling '22: 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research
Number of pages	8
Place of Publication	Koli, Finland
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Publication date	2023
Pages	18:1-18:8
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-4503-9616-5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3564721.3564724
Publication status	Published - 2023
Event	International Conference on Computing Education Research - Koli, Finland Duration: 17 Nov 2022 → 20 Nov 2022 Conference number: 22 https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3564721

Conference

Conference	International Conference on Computing Education Research
Number	22
Country/Territory	Finland
City	Koli
Period	17/11/2022 → 20/11/2022
Internet address	https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3564721

Series	ACM Proceedings of the Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli)

Keywords

self-efficacy
software development
computer science,
computing
programming
education
onboarding
Gender
Diversity
dropout
grades
competence
confidence

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10.1145/3564721.3564724

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Grabarczyk, Pawel ; Nicolajsen, Sebastian Mateos ; Brabrand, Claus. / On the Effect of Onboarding Computing Students without Programming-Confidence or -Experience. Koli Calling '22: 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research. Koli, Finland : Association for Computing Machinery, 2023. pp. 18:1-18:8 (ACM Proceedings of the Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli)).

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title = "On the Effect of Onboarding Computing Students without Programming-Confidence or -Experience",

abstract = "Previous work demonstrates that students without prior program- ming experience are worse off than their programming experienced peers in terms of both Introductory Programming (CS1) grades and dropout rates. Many universities, therefore, offer an onboarding (CS0) course aimed at bridging the programming experience gap by teaching the basics of programming to inexperienced students. This paper reports on the effects of providing a three-day elective onboarding course over a period of five years (2016–2020), involving a total of N=798 software development students at the IT University of Copenhagen. The paper compares 271 students who attended versus a baseline of 527 who did not attend the onboarding course. The results show that programming inexperienced students are indeed able to “catch up” to the level of their experienced peers both in terms of CS1 grades and dropout rates. Aside from objectively increasing competence, the onboarding also increases confidence, self-efficacy and diminishes insecurities, according to onboarded participants. Finally, the results suggest that onboarding has the potential to increase the diversity of students.",

keywords = "self-efficacy, software development, computer science,, computing, programming, education, onboarding, Gender, Diversity, dropout, grades, competence, confidence, self-efficacy, software development, computer science,, computing, programming, education, onboarding, Gender, Diversity, dropout, grades, competence, confidence",

author = "Pawel Grabarczyk and Nicolajsen, \{Sebastian Mateos\} and Claus Brabrand",

year = "2023",

doi = "10.1145/3564721.3564724",

language = "English",

series = "ACM Proceedings of the Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli)",

pages = "18:1--18:8",

booktitle = "Koli Calling '22: 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

address = "United States",

note = "International Conference on Computing Education Research, Koli Calling ; Conference date: 17-11-2022 Through 20-11-2022",

url = "https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3564721",

}

Grabarczyk, P , Nicolajsen, SM & Brabrand, C 2023, On the Effect of Onboarding Computing Students without Programming-Confidence or -Experience. in Koli Calling '22: 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research. Association for Computing Machinery, Koli, Finland, ACM Proceedings of the Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli), pp. 18:1-18:8, International Conference on Computing Education Research, Koli, Finland, 17/11/2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3564721.3564724

On the Effect of Onboarding Computing Students without Programming-Confidence or -Experience. / Grabarczyk, Pawel ; Nicolajsen, Sebastian Mateos ; Brabrand, Claus.
Koli Calling '22: 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research. Koli, Finland: Association for Computing Machinery, 2023. p. 18:1-18:8 (ACM Proceedings of the Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli)).

Research output: Conference Article in Proceeding or Book/Report chapter › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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AB - Previous work demonstrates that students without prior program- ming experience are worse off than their programming experienced peers in terms of both Introductory Programming (CS1) grades and dropout rates. Many universities, therefore, offer an onboarding (CS0) course aimed at bridging the programming experience gap by teaching the basics of programming to inexperienced students. This paper reports on the effects of providing a three-day elective onboarding course over a period of five years (2016–2020), involving a total of N=798 software development students at the IT University of Copenhagen. The paper compares 271 students who attended versus a baseline of 527 who did not attend the onboarding course. The results show that programming inexperienced students are indeed able to “catch up” to the level of their experienced peers both in terms of CS1 grades and dropout rates. Aside from objectively increasing competence, the onboarding also increases confidence, self-efficacy and diminishes insecurities, according to onboarded participants. Finally, the results suggest that onboarding has the potential to increase the diversity of students.

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M3 - Article in proceedings

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Y2 - 17 November 2022 through 20 November 2022

ER -

Grabarczyk P , Nicolajsen SM , Brabrand C. On the Effect of Onboarding Computing Students without Programming-Confidence or -Experience. In Koli Calling '22: 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research. Koli, Finland: Association for Computing Machinery. 2023. p. 18:1-18:8. (ACM Proceedings of the Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli)). doi: 10.1145/3564721.3564724

On the Effect of Onboarding Computing Students without Programming-Confidence or -Experience

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

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