Closed labs in computer science I revisited in the context of online testing

  • Authors:

  • Amruth N. Kumar

  • Affiliations:

  • Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah, NJ, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

The majority of earlier studies have found no positive effect of closed labs on student performance or retention in Computer Science I. Since these studies used written tests to assess student performance, their results may have been affected by a mismatch between what was taught in closed labs and what was assessed in the written test. On the other hand, online tests that involve writing and debugging programs assess the very knowledge and skills taught in closed labs. So, we conducted a study to evaluate the effect of closed labs on student performance and retention when they are combined with online testing in the course. We found that even with online testing, closed labs did not significantly affect either the total score of the students in the course or retention in the course. On the other hand, students with closed or even optional labs scored significantly better on their online first test than students with open labs scored on their written first test. Since this is in spite of the fact that online tests are more stressful to students than written tests, closed labs helped students prepare for online tests. Closed labs, when combined with online testing, helped significantly improve the course performance of above-average students. Finally, there was significant and large correlation between Math SAT score and student performance in Computer Science I.