Designing, implementing, and analyzing a placement test for introductory CS courses

Leen Kiat Son; Ashok Samal; Suzette Person; Gwen Nugent; Jeff Lang

Designing, implementing, and analyzing a placement test for introductory CS courses

Leen Kiat Son, Ashok Samal, Suzette Person, Gwen Nugent, Jeff Lang

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

An introductory CS1 course presents problems for educators and students due to students' diverse background in programming knowledge and exposure. Students who enroll in CS1 also have different expectations and motivations. Prompted by the curricular guidelines for undergraduate programs in computer science released in 2001 by the ACM/IEEE, and driven by a departmental project to reinvent the undergraduate computer science and computer engineering curricula at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, we are currently implementing a series of changes which will improve our introductory courses. One key component of our project is an online placement examination tied to the cognitive domain that assesses student knowledge and intellectual skills. Our placement test is also integrated into a comprehensive educational research design containing a pre- and post-test framework for assessing student learning. In this paper, we focus on the design and implementation of our placement exam and present an analysis of the data collected to date.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005
Pages	505-509
Number of pages	5
State	Published - 2005
Event	Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005 - St. Louis, MO, United States Duration: Feb 23 2005 → Feb 27 2005

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005

Conference

Conference	Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005
Country/Territory	United States
City	St. Louis, MO
Period	2/23/05 → 2/27/05

Keywords

ACM Placement Examination
Bloom's Taxonomy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Engineering(all)

Cite this

Son, L. K., Samal, A., Person, S., Nugent, G., & Lang, J. (2005). Designing, implementing, and analyzing a placement test for introductory CS courses. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005 (pp. 505-509). (Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005).

Designing, implementing, and analyzing a placement test for introductory CS courses. / Son, Leen Kiat; Samal, Ashok; Person, Suzette et al.
Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005. 2005. p. 505-509 (Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Son, LK, Samal, A, Person, S, Nugent, G & Lang, J 2005, Designing, implementing, and analyzing a placement test for introductory CS courses. in Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005. Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005, pp. 505-509, Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005, St. Louis, MO, United States, 2/23/05.

@inproceedings{953648351cc043cf8f5e6a790c617ec7,

title = "Designing, implementing, and analyzing a placement test for introductory CS courses",

abstract = "An introductory CS1 course presents problems for educators and students due to students' diverse background in programming knowledge and exposure. Students who enroll in CS1 also have different expectations and motivations. Prompted by the curricular guidelines for undergraduate programs in computer science released in 2001 by the ACM/IEEE, and driven by a departmental project to reinvent the undergraduate computer science and computer engineering curricula at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, we are currently implementing a series of changes which will improve our introductory courses. One key component of our project is an online placement examination tied to the cognitive domain that assesses student knowledge and intellectual skills. Our placement test is also integrated into a comprehensive educational research design containing a pre- and post-test framework for assessing student learning. In this paper, we focus on the design and implementation of our placement exam and present an analysis of the data collected to date.",

keywords = "ACM Placement Examination, Bloom's Taxonomy",

author = "Son, {Leen Kiat} and Ashok Samal and Suzette Person and Gwen Nugent and Jeff Lang",

year = "2005",

language = "English (US)",

isbn = "1581139977",

series = "Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005",

pages = "505--509",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005",

note = "Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005 ; Conference date: 23-02-2005 Through 27-02-2005",

}

TY - GEN

T1 - Designing, implementing, and analyzing a placement test for introductory CS courses

AU - Son, Leen Kiat

AU - Samal, Ashok

AU - Person, Suzette

AU - Nugent, Gwen

AU - Lang, Jeff

PY - 2005

Y1 - 2005

N2 - An introductory CS1 course presents problems for educators and students due to students' diverse background in programming knowledge and exposure. Students who enroll in CS1 also have different expectations and motivations. Prompted by the curricular guidelines for undergraduate programs in computer science released in 2001 by the ACM/IEEE, and driven by a departmental project to reinvent the undergraduate computer science and computer engineering curricula at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, we are currently implementing a series of changes which will improve our introductory courses. One key component of our project is an online placement examination tied to the cognitive domain that assesses student knowledge and intellectual skills. Our placement test is also integrated into a comprehensive educational research design containing a pre- and post-test framework for assessing student learning. In this paper, we focus on the design and implementation of our placement exam and present an analysis of the data collected to date.

AB - An introductory CS1 course presents problems for educators and students due to students' diverse background in programming knowledge and exposure. Students who enroll in CS1 also have different expectations and motivations. Prompted by the curricular guidelines for undergraduate programs in computer science released in 2001 by the ACM/IEEE, and driven by a departmental project to reinvent the undergraduate computer science and computer engineering curricula at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, we are currently implementing a series of changes which will improve our introductory courses. One key component of our project is an online placement examination tied to the cognitive domain that assesses student knowledge and intellectual skills. Our placement test is also integrated into a comprehensive educational research design containing a pre- and post-test framework for assessing student learning. In this paper, we focus on the design and implementation of our placement exam and present an analysis of the data collected to date.

KW - ACM Placement Examination

KW - Bloom's Taxonomy

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=20444484884&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=20444484884&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:20444484884

SN - 1581139977

T3 - Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005

SP - 505

EP - 509

BT - Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005

T2 - Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2005

Y2 - 23 February 2005 through 27 February 2005

ER -

Designing, implementing, and analyzing a placement test for introductory CS courses

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this