The project is a collaboration involving St Joseph's University, Ithaca College, and Carnegie-Mellon University. It is integrating Alice, which is a high-impact, high-interest program visualization environment, into the first computer science course. Previous work has provided evidence that this approach can significantly improve achievement and retention of high-risk CS-majors during their first year. The project team is developing instructional materials, including a textbook, laboratory exercises, and lecture/demonstration slides, for teaching the first computer science course using this integrated approach. The major emphasis is using visualization to teach a strong core of fundamental programming concepts and problem-solving techniques in an object-oriented, interactive environment. The effort addresses the high attrition rate of CS-majors during their first year of study, and the investigators are collecting data to determine whether using Alice in the first computer science course reduces the first-year attrition rate. Evaluation efforts include peer reviews, student attitudes and focus groups, attitude surveys, and retention statistics for formative and summative evaluation. The investigators are making all materials available online and disseminating their approach and results through journal articles and presentation at SIGCSE, ITiCSE, FIE, CHI, HCC, and CIT and, for community college faculty, at the Conference for Information Technology and Innovations Conferences, and finally at several Prentice Hall Information Technology (PHIT) Conferences. They also are planning to produce a textbook and create an online community. Broader impacts focus on the wide dissemination of their instructional materials.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
0736697
Program Officer
Russell L. Pimmel
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2008-06-01
Budget End
2010-06-30
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2007
Total Cost
$50,636
Indirect Cost
Name
St Joseph's University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Philadelphia
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19131