Abstract
We analyzed three introductory programming MOOCs and four introductory programming courses offered locally in a Finnish university. The course has been offered in all instances with roughly the same content, barring adjustments based on course feedback. We sought to understand how gender interacts with participating in the course in both instances. In particular, we looked at the differences in persistence, confidence, interest in CS, prior experience, and performance between men and women. Overall, we found that men have more prior experience in both instances and have a higher interest in a CS degree. Furthermore, men perform slightly better on the MOOC while there was no significant difference in performance when it came to gender in the local instance. Aligned with prior research, we found a considerable gap in confidence between male and female students in both instances. At the same time, while women are still underrepresented in CS, we observe a considerable increase in women attending the MOOC. Unfortunately, women are also more likely to drop out early on in the MOOC than men.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | SIGCSE 2020 - Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education |
Publisher | ACM |
Pages | 692-698 |
Number of pages | 7 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781450367936 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 26 Feb 2020 |
MoE publication type | A4 Article in a conference publication |
Event | ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education - Portland, United States Duration: 11 Mar 2020 → 14 Mar 2020 Conference number: 51 |
Publication series
Name | Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE |
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ISSN (Print) | 1942-647X |
Conference
Conference | ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education |
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Abbreviated title | SIGSE |
Country/Territory | United States |
City | Portland |
Period | 11/03/2020 → 14/03/2020 |
Keywords
- Confidence
- Cs1
- Gender
- Interest
- Introductory programming
- Mooc
- Performance
- Persistence
- Selfefficacy