This program is tentative and subject to change.

Computing educators face many challenges when teaching capstone courses. We examine what impact capstone project type has on student performance, career readiness and course evaluation by considering three project types: Academic, Industry, and Service-Learning. The authors studied data from 139 unique participants, each for two semesters (total 278 observations), over three years of a capstone program at a public university. We gathered data for student performance in the course, student evaluation of the course, and self-rated student perceptions regarding career readiness. Analysis of the data indicated that Industry projects with a full-stack application resulted in higher values for course evaluations and career readiness scores. Ranked and pairwise correlation analyses were conducted, revealing unexpected pairwise correlations between career readiness and course evaluations (strong-negative) and student performance and course evaluations (moderate-negative); possible implications are discussed. Qualitative data in the form of anonymous student comments via course evaluation surveys indicate some students appreciated working on business-grade applications while other students found the amount of documentation involved excessive. The study’s implications and possible limitations for replication are addressed, including capstone program length, cohort size, project recruitment, and project variance.

This program is tentative and subject to change.

Fri 20 Feb

Displayed time zone: Central Time (US & Canada) change

13:40 - 15:00
Computational Thinking and CapstonePapers at Meeting Room 103-104
13:40
20m
Talk
Boosting Coding Confidence in Elementary Students: The Impact of ELA-Integrated Computational Thinking CurriculumMSIK12
Papers
Leiny Garcia pc, Yvonne Kao WestEd, Sharin Jacob Digital Promise, Clare Baek University of California, Irvine, Dana Saito-Stehberger University of California, Irvine, Diana Franklin University of Chicago, Mark Warschauer University of California, Irvine
14:00
20m
Talk
Bridging Computational Thinking, Science, and Storytelling: Reflections on an Interdisciplinary Learning ApproachK12
Papers
Jessica Vandenberg North Carolina State University, Andy Smith North Carolina State University, Robert Monahan North Carolina State University, James Minogue NC State University, Kevin Oliver North Carolina State University, Aleata Hubbard Cheuoua WestEd, Cathy Ringstaff WestEd, Bradford Mott North Carolina State University
14:20
20m
Talk
Effects of Project Type on CS Capstone Courses
Papers
Ananth Jillepalli Washington State University, David Rice Washington State University, James Crabb Washington State University, Assefaw Gebremedhin Washington State University
14:40
20m
Talk
Examining the Impact of Instructor-Client Mentoring Models in CS Capstone Courses at a Public University
Papers
Ananth Jillepalli Washington State University, James Crabb Washington State University, David Rice Washington State University, Assefaw Gebremedhin Washington State University