WIP: Impact of an Authentic Introductory Computer Programming Course on New BAE Undergraduate Students’ Learning Motivation and Interest in the Discipline
- Conference
- Location
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Portland, Oregon
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2024
- Start Date
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June 23, 2024
- End Date
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July 12, 2024
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Biological and Agricultural Engineering Division (BAE)
- Tagged Topic
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Diversity
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/48307
Paper Authors
Lucie Guertault North Carolina State University
Abstract
In most engineering programs, undergraduate students traditionally take the introduction to computer programming course in the computer science department, with little to no connection drawn to applications to their discipline. Research suggests that computer programming instruction embedded in disciplinary context can have a positive impact on student self-beliefs and performance.
In our Biological Engineering program, the first BAE course that undergraduate students take is an introductory computer programming course that contextualizes instruction with real-world BAE problems. The goals of this authentic course are twofold. The first is to make the learning of programming more meaningful to students by emphasizing applications in the discipline. The second is to introduce students new to BAE to the different concentration areas in the degree program (agricultural, environmental, ecological, bioprocess engineering) to help them choose a concentration. As part of the course redesign that was started in Fall 2022, we emphasized the connection to the discipline by labelling assignments with the corresponding concentration area and ensuring each area was equally represented.
To evaluate the impact of this authentic course on students’ interest and sense of belonging in BAE, approximately 40 students taking the course were surveyed once in Fall 2022 (post course) and twice in Fall 2023 (pre- and post-course). In the pre course survey, students were asked to rate their interest and chances of success in each concentration area. In the post course survey, students were asked to answer the same questions and additional items which included: rating their ability to distinguish the concentration areas, how intriguing the course materials were, the amount of information provided by the course about each concentration area and their sense of belonging to the BAE community. Results from Fall 2022 indicate that 95% of students consider themselves good at, very good at, or extremely good at distinguishing the different concentration areas, 72% found the course materials intriguing, 77% agree or strongly agree that they feel a connection to the BAE community in the course. Depending on the discipline, between 58% and 67% of students reported that the course provided a good to an abundant amount of information about each concentration area. Anecdotally, students also commented that the authentic aspect of the course was beneficial to their learning.
Guertault, L. (2024, June), WIP: Impact of an Authentic Introductory Computer Programming Course on New BAE Undergraduate Students’ Learning Motivation and Interest in the Discipline Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/48307
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