Abstract

We present the results of an interview study investigating student experiences in two online introductory computer science courses. Our theoretical approach is situated at the intersection of two research traditions: "distance and adult education research," which tends to be sociologically oriented, and "computer science education research," which has strong connections with pedagogy and psychology. The article reviews contributions from both traditions on student failure in the context of higher education, distance and online education as well as introductory computer science. Our research relies on a combination of the two perspectives, which provides useful results for the field of computer science education in general, as well as its online or distance versions. The interviewed students exhibited great diversity in both socio-demographic and educational background. We identified no profiles that predicted student success or failure. At the same time, we found that expectations about programming resulted in challenges of time-management and communication. The time requirements of programming assignments were unpredictable, often disproportionate to expectations, and clashed with the external commitments of adult professionals. Too little communication was available to access adequate instructor help. On the basis of these findings, we suggest instructional design solutions for adult professionals studying introductory computer science education. (Contains 2 tables.)

Citation

Benda, K., Bruckman, A. & Guzdial, M. (2012). When Life and Learning Do Not Fit: Challenges of Workload and Communication in Introductory Computer Science Online. ACM Transactions on Computing Education, 12(4),. Retrieved May 17, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/131871/.

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Keywords

• Academic Failure
• Adult Students
• College Instruction
• Communication Problems
• computer science education
• distance education
• Dropouts
• Educational Background
• Educational Research
• electronic learning
• Graduate students
• instructional design
• Interviews
• Introductory Courses
• online courses
• phenomenology
• programming
• Qualitative Research
• student attitudes
• student experience
• Student Problems
• Teacher Student Relationship
• Time Management
• Web Based Instruction
• Withdrawal (Education)