Building a Linked-Courses Learning Community for Introductory Development Majors

Student recruitment and retention in computing, particularly of underrepresented groups, remains a significant issue for post-secondary institutions. Linked-courses learning communities, in which students simultaneously register for two related courses and participate in co-curricular and extracurri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inProceedings of the International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS) p. 1
Main Authors Settle, Amber, Steinbach, Terry
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published Athens The Steering Committee of The World Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Applied Computing (WorldComp) 01.01.2014
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Summary:Student recruitment and retention in computing, particularly of underrepresented groups, remains a significant issue for post-secondary institutions. Linked-courses learning communities, in which students simultaneously register for two related courses and participate in co-curricular and extracurricular activities associated with those courses, have been shown to have positive effects on students ' sense of belonging, student-to-student and student-to-faculty interaction, and student retention. We describe a project which develops a linked-courses learning community for students in several development-focused majors. Details about course selection, student recruitment, and program evaluation are provided. The project serves as a starting place for other computing educators interested in leveraging the benefits of linked-courses learning communities for student recruitment and retention.