Student-Centered Learning
in the Introductory Computer Course *
Thomas Gibbons
College of St. Scholastica
Abstract
The introductory computer course poses a number of challenges,
including students
with varied experience, technology that changes faster than textbooks,
and students
with different expectations. This paper looks at three
student-centered learning
techniques and how they can be used to overcome these obstacles.
Classroom experiences
with the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques are covered.
1 History of our Introductory Computer Course
For many years the CS/CIS Department at the College of St.
Scholastica has
taught an introductory computer course open to all students. While
this course
was an elective course for many students, it was a required course for
students
in a number of majors including our CS/CIS major.
Originally the course introduced students to general computer
concepts. This
included an overview of computer hardware and software. Students also
learned
the basics of spreadsheet and database software. The course faced a
number of
challenges, the largest of which was that students were often bored by
the computer
concepts covered. Those students with a strong interest in computers
had covered
these concepts in high school courses. Those students with limited
interest
in computers were likewise often not interested in these computer
concepts.
Neither the CS/CIS department nor the other departments requiring the
course
were pleased with the outcomes.
About six years ago, the course was broken into two separate quarter
courses
which both concentrated on office applications and problem solving.
One course
concentrated on spreadsheets, while the other focused on desktop
databases.
Both courses also spent some time on other computer literacy
applications and
provided a brief introduction to programming. For a time these two
courses produced
management majors with significant data analysis experience with
spreadsheets,
and medical records majors experience with databases. For many years,
we continued
to favor problem solving with applications over computer literacy.
Over time we noticed that some CS/CIS juniors did not know what
"TCP/IP"
or "CD-R" were. A number of our students seemed to have
blind spots
in their education from the lack of a computer literacy course. As our
university
moved from quarters to semesters in the summer of 1999, the CS/CIS
Department
was given a chance to combine the two introductory computer courses
and revise
the topics taught in them.
At about the same time, the College of St. Scholastica was awarded a
Bush Foundation
grant for creating a student-centered learning environment at the
college. Part
of the funding from this grant went towards redesigning courses in a
more student-centered
way. The introductory computer course was one of the pilot courses
that received
funding from the Bush foundation.
2 Challenges Facing a Computer Literacy Course
A wide variety of students take our introductory computer course. The
students’
prior computer course work varies from none to over three years of
high school
courses. The reason students have for taking our introductory course
varied
from being an interesting elective to a requirement of the major.
Similarly,
the students’ interest in the course varied from devotion to
apathy. The
result was a classroom where there could be a nursing major (who
thought computers
were a fun tool) sitting next to a management major (who thought
computers were
stupid). Sitting near these two could be a computer major who thought
she knew
everything on the syllabus on the first day of class.
The speed at which technology changes only adds to the challenges
faced in
this course. While a student may have an extensive computer background
in high
school, a significant percentage of that material will be out of date
by the
time the student is in college and new concepts and methods will need
to be
appended to the material from high school. Also, much of the material
covered
in the college course will be out of date by the time the student
graduates.
This makes it difficult to convince the student who does not see the
usefulness
of the course that the course is teaching deep underlying principles
and methods,
which will outlive the current technology.
3 Student-Centered Learning
The goals of student-centered learning primarily focus on making
students more
active participants in the learning process. This includes allowing
students
to learn at their own pace and considering the different learning
styles of
the students. Learning should become more individualized. This
generally involves
relying less on lecture as a learning tool as the instructor becomes
more of
a mentor or facilitator. The question is, what methods can be used as
a replacement
for lectures? Student-centered learning often utilizes open-ended
research and
student collaboration.
3.1 Methods Used at St. Scholastica
The introductory computer course at the College of St. Scholastica
uses three
different methods grounded in student-centered learning. First,
students choose
between a basic and an advanced version of the course. Second,
students master
material by working in teams to solve problems. Third, students select
topics
to research and then present to their peers the information they have
found.
3.1.1 Advanced Option
While it is not possible to offer different versions of the
introductory computer
course to fit the exact educational needs of each student, it is
possible to
offer a couple different options. At the College of St. Scholastica,
we have
chosen to offer two different versions of the course, a basic and an
advanced
version. The basic version is a four-credit course that covers
computer concepts,
problem solving with spreadsheets and databases, web page authoring,
and PowerPoint
presentation. The advanced version is also a four-credit course, which
covers
the same material plus a short introduction to programming using
Visual BASIC.
To allow time for this additional material, the advanced course moves
at a more
rapid pace than the basic course. While computer majors and minors are
required
to take the advanced course, other students can choose either the
basic or the
advanced course.
Students who originally take the basic course and find later that
they would
like to complete the computer minor or major can take a one-credit
introduction
to programming course. Thus the basic courses and the one credit
course are
equivalent to the advanced course.
One of the goals of this approach is to lessen the range of student
experience
and expectation in these courses. Students taking the advanced course
are advised
that it moves at a rapid pace and prior computer experience will help
them in
completing the course. The advanced course attracts students with a
strong interest
in computers and high expectations for the course. On the other hand,
many of
the students in the basic course have limited computer experience. By
dividing
the students into these two basic groups, the hope is that an
instructor can
better address the needs of the students.
3.1.2 Team Problem Solving
Today, spreadsheets and databases continue to be important
applications used
in diverse careers. Spreadsheets and databases like Microsoft Excel
and Microsoft
Access are commonly taught in high school. Yet high school courses
often only
cover the basics of these applications and do not develop problem
solving skills
using these applications.
Rather than lecturing extensively on these applications, the approach
used
in the introductory computer course is to mix short lectures with team
problem
solving assignments. The lectures highlight advanced features of the
applications,
but they do not cover all the facets of the application. In team
assignments,
students are expected to learn additional features of the application
on their
own using the textbook, online help, and trial-and-error.
These weekly team problem solving assignments are done in class.
Students choose
their own teams of two or three people. They are given significant
problems
to solve. The instructor refrains from providing too much assistance.
When team
members struggle on a problem, they often develop creative methods of
solving
the problem using the application, and develop their abilities to
learn independently.
Problems tend to be open ended without one clear answer. Besides
turning in
a solution, each team much also provide a write-up describing the
difficulties
the team encountered and how these difficulties were resolved.
Before this method was implemented, the expectation was that mixed
teams of
advanced and beginning students would form. Beginning students would
then learn
new techniques from advanced students. While mixed teams are chosen at
times,
experience has shown that students prefer working with other students
of similar
ability. Advanced students often prefer the company of advanced
students because
they feel they can solve the problem faster and do not have one team
member
"coasting" and not doing a fair share of the work.
Similarly, students
lacking in computer experience are more comfortable working together.
They are
much more comfortable learning together with their peers as they
struggle with
the problem. It is also interesting to note that the amount of past
computer
experience is not a good predictor of the sophistication of the
teams’
solutions to the problems.
In line with the principles of student-centered learning, team
problem solving
allows students to choose the method for learning the material. A
student might
use trial-and-error to discover the correct technique or the student
might turn
to her/his textbook or the examples given in the online help. Other
students
might be more comfortable waiting for a teammate to discover a
particular technique
and simply noting the solution found in the same way that the student
takes
notes from a lecture.
Samples of problem-solving assignments can be found on the web site
for this
course, http://www.css.edu/users/tgibbons/cis1005
(click on "Labs" from the class home page).
3.1.3 In-depth Self-study
Most introductory computer concepts textbooks have a chapter on
computer hardware.
The challenge facing educators is how to cover this material in the
classroom.
Often the text has outdated material–even if the text was only
published
in the previous year. Also, some of the students have covered much of
the material
in pre-college courses. Seeing the input-CPU-storage-output diagram
yet again
will not provide a quality learning event for these students. The same
holds
true for most of the other chapters in today’s computer concepts
textbooks.
Since student-centered learning gives students a part in deciding
what material
they want to learn, students and the instructor can work together to
decide
what they need to learn. The approach taken in the introductory
computer course
is to have the instructor select a set of topics related to the
current chapter
and let each student choose one of these topics to study in-depth. The
student
relies extensively on the internet to research that topic. The student
creates
a web page with information about the topic to share with the rest of
the class.
To help the students start their research, the instructor provides web
links
to three or four resources for each topic. Students also review the
in-depth
reports their classmates have written.
With the students doing their in-depths and reviewing their
peer’s work,
lectures on the material are limited to 15 minutes. The instructor
also creates
a list of all the terms and concepts from the textbook and the
in-depth reports,
which students are responsible for knowing at exam time. If there is a
term
or concept not covered in class, the students are expected to learn it
on their
own.
This approach allows the students some control over what they want to
learn.
They also choose, to some extent, what the rest of the class learns
and is tested
on. Following this approach generally produces positive results, but
it also
means that the instructor is no longer in complete control of what is
covered
in the course. It is possible for the instructor to select a topic
which he/she
thinks is important only to have none of the students select that
topic for
in-depth work.
This approach also raises the question of the quality of education.
In a perfect
world, students all do quality research and create well-organized web
pages
for presenting the information to the class. In reality, some students
do superficial
research and create confusing presentations. This causes two distinct
problems.
First, the students who do the superficial research will not be
presented with
the material at the same depth that a lecture might. Yet when you give
students
more control over their learning, some students will choose to do less
rather
than more. That is their choice and, therefore, not as significant as
the second
problem, which is that students interested in learning may be
disappointed by
their peers’ work. What argument can be made to a student who
reminds you
of the significant tuition he/she is paying to learn material
presented in a
confusing manner from a fellow student? Still, no learning method is
perfect;
the best we can do is to strive for quality. Many students have
reminded me
how the lectures of some trained professionals seem to lack the same
quality
as the poorly done student presentations.
The final concern with this method deals with preparation time. Few
instructors
have extra time to spend teaching a course. At first glance,
student-centered
learning may seem to lessen course preparation time. If the instructor
only
lectures for 15 minutes of a 60 minute class, then lecture preparation
time
is much less. Unfortunately, it often takes more time to prepare for
student-centered
activities than it does to prepare for a lecture. Some of the
preparation time
could be reduced by not providing students with a list of topics from
each chapter
and initial research links for these topics. In the future,
web-enabled textbooks
may do this adequately. It always comes down to a choice as to the
best use
of the instructor’s time in delivering a course.
Samples of in-depth topics and web pages created by students can be
found on
the web site for this course, http://www.css.edu/users/tgibbons/cis1005.
4 Conclusion
The introductory computer course poses a number of challenges,
including students
with varied experience and different expectations. This paper looked
at three
student-centered learning methods and how they can be used to overcome
these
obstacles. The first method was to offer a basic and an advanced
version of
the course and let students choose what version they wanted. The
second method
was the use of team problem-solving assignments. The third method had
each student
share research on a topic the student and instructor choose
together.
While student-centered learning is not without its difficulties, it
does seem
to address many of the challenges facing the introductory computer
course.
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the Bush Foundation for funding of the
"Creating
a Student-Centered Learning Environment at The College of St.
Scholastica"
program which included funding for this course development.
Tom Gibbons is the Chair of the CS/CIS Department at the College of
St. Scholastica
and has been teaching in the field for over 15 years. He likes to
spend time
outside the classroom working with artificial intelligence models,
multimedia
development, and integrated business systems. Much of his time during
the summers
is spend restoring old homes and enjoying the wilderness of Northern
Minnesota.
Contact:
CS/CIS Department
College of St. Scholastica
Duluth, MN 55811
tgibbons@css.edu
* Reprinted with permission from:
Gibbons, T. (2001). Student-centered learning in the introductory
computer course.
In Proceedings of the 34th Annual Midwest Instruction and Computing
Symposium.
Available: http://www.cns.uni.edu/~fienup/mics_2001/MICS2001_Proceedings/papers/gibbons.pdf
Copyright 2001 by the Midwest Instruction and Computing Symposium.
Permission
to make printed or digital copies of all or part of this material for
educational
or personal use is granted without fee provided that copies are not
made or
distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies include
this
notice and the full citation on the first page.
|
