Alexander Stennet

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2020-163

August 14, 2020

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2020/EECS-2020-163.pdf

In the CS1 course CS61A at the University of California, Berkeley, lab assignments are small online programming assignments meant to be completed during a 1.5 hour lab section. These assignments target students' lecture comprehension through introductory problems; these are in addition to separate homework assignments that target students' ability to synthesize several concepts to solve challenging problems. For several semesters, the lab assignments were graded such that it was possible to forgo the completion of many of the labs and still receive a full score; this caused many students to stop completing them towards the end of the semester. The analysis in this report demonstrates there was a significant positive association between the completion of these assignments and final performance in the Fall 2019 semester. This association is demonstrated for students at all skill levels and helps support a policy change to make the assignments more strictly required.

Advisors: John DeNero

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BibTeX citation:

@mastersthesis{Stennet:EECS-2020-163,
    Author= {Stennet, Alexander},
    Title= {A Positive Association Between Weekly Practice and Exam Performance in CS 1},
    School= {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year= {2020},
    Month= {Aug},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2020/EECS-2020-163.html},
    Number= {UCB/EECS-2020-163},
    Abstract= {In the CS1 course CS61A at the University of California, Berkeley, lab assignments are small online programming assignments meant to be completed during a 1.5 hour lab section. These assignments target students' lecture comprehension through introductory problems; these are in addition to separate homework assignments that target students' ability to synthesize several concepts to solve challenging problems. For several semesters, the lab assignments were graded such that it was possible to forgo the completion of many of the labs and still receive a full score; this caused many students to stop completing them towards the end of the semester. The analysis in this report demonstrates there was a significant positive association between the completion of these assignments and final performance in the Fall 2019 semester. This association is demonstrated for students at all skill levels and helps support a policy change to make the assignments more strictly required.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Thesis
%A Stennet, Alexander 
%T A Positive Association Between Weekly Practice and Exam Performance in CS 1
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2020
%8 August 14
%@ UCB/EECS-2020-163
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2020/EECS-2020-163.html
%F Stennet:EECS-2020-163