Developing Scaffolded Programming Assignments to Reduce Procrastination via Early Feedback

Image of Alice Gao
 
Image of Victoria Sakhnini

Grant Recipients

Alice Gao, Cheriton School of Computer Science

Victoria Sakhnini, Cheriton School of Computer Science

Description

Research has shown that effective time management strongly correlates with successful outcomes (Denny et al. 2018; Kazerouni et al. 2017). Unfortunately, from our experience, many upper-year Computer Science (CS) students procrastinate on their programming assignments. We design and evaluate several scaffolded programming assignments for an upper-year CS course, aiming to reduce procrastination by providing early, detailed, and personalized feedback. We will determine the effectiveness of the early feedback by comparing students’ submissions data, students’ answers in weekly quizzes, and their participation on Piazza and during office hours in two course offerings. Our long-term goal is to design a standardized procedure to scaffolded complex and multi-week assignments and projects to reduce procrastination in upper-year courses at the University of Waterloo.

References

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