Measuring increased engagement using tablet PCs in a code review class

Wade Fagen, Samuel Kamin

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

The Programming Studio in the University of Illinois Com-puter Science department is a required course in which small groups of students participate in weekly code reviews of each other's programs. To increase student engagement in the discussions, Tablet PCs were introduced for several weeks in the middle of the semester. By recording the discussions before, during, and after the use of tablets, we measure the effectiveness of this intervention. In doing so, we develop a simple metric to measure the \active engagement" of the participants. We found each section was significantly more engaging when using Tablet PCs (p<0.0001) and the large majority of individual participants were more engaged. This paper contributes both an objective measurement of \active engagement" and a successful intervention in a programming studio-type course.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationSIGCSE 2013 - Proceedings of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages465-470
Number of pages6
ISBN (Print)9781450320306
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Event44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2013 - Denver, CO, United States
Duration: Mar 6 2013Mar 9 2013

Publication series

NameSIGCSE 2013 - Proceedings of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Conference

Conference44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2013
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityDenver, CO
Period3/6/133/9/13

Keywords

  • Code reviews
  • Tablet PC

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Science (miscellaneous)
  • Education

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