Robins , Rountree and Rountree ( 2003 ) noted differences between effective novices , who can learn without excessive effort , and ineffective novices , who require close support while learning . It is easy to see how the ‘ play around ’ approach might benefit the former without providing the latter with adequate support .
Similarly , giving the students information on programming but leaving them to their own initiative in applying this knowledge left the students underprepared for the program design portfolio . Davies ( 1993 ) made a distinction between declarative programming knowledge , where a student might know the purpose of a technique such as an IF statement , and strategy , where a student knows when and why to apply this knowledge . While the students may have gained declarative knowledge , there was less opportunity to learn strategy .
All of this is reflected in a number of the comments made by students in module feedback forms . In 2015 / 16 , a number of the suggestions for ‘ what could be improved ’ followed the same theme : that the module would have benefitted from providing a more structured learning experience to help develop programming skills .
Ultimately , the problem this is best expressed using the 2001 revision of Bloom ’ s taxonomy ( Krathwohl , 2002 ). Both the programming portfolio and the assembly language assignment asked the students to plan and produce an original programming project , all of which requires the students to ‘ create ’, the highest level thinking skill in the taxonomy . This is difficult when most students had little opportunity to progress beyond the lower level thinking skills , ‘ remember ’ and ‘ understand ’. It is , therefore , not surprising that the mean student mark for the programming portfolio at this time was 58.32 %. learning outcomes 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 and 8 are all met by the programming portfolio , rendering the assembly language assignment and assessed programming tasks redundant . Given that a typical Foundation Year student will be studying this module alongside ten other modules over the course of the year , this goes against QAA ’ s guiding principles for assessment ( The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education , 2018 ). This sort of overassessment has been associated with surface learning ( George , 2009 ), poor attendance ( Jonkman , Boer and Jagielski , 2006 ) and stress ( Cefai and Camilleri , 2009 ). One final issue was that the program plans were submitted as part of the final portfolio , meaning that most students based their plans on the finished program and did not meet learning outcomes 4 and 6 .
A more generic issue facing Computer Scientists is the disparity in the numbers of men and women enrolled as students in the subject ( Sax , et al ., 2017 ). In the 2017 / 18 academic year , 12,885 female students ( 15 % of total ) and 71,125 male students ( 85 % of total ) enrolled on undergraduate Computer Science degree programs in the UK . This is in direct contrast to gender divide found elsewhere in UK higher education , where female students comprised 55.89 % of all students enrolling on undergraduate degree programs ( Higher Education Statistics Agency , 2019 ). The gender gap in FYO-00096 is broadly in line with that seen nationally , with Table 1 showing how female students have never made up more than 20 % of a cohort .
Increasing female recruitment goes beyond the scope of this study , but providing an inclusive student experience is a key part of Keele ’ s equality objectives for 2018 - 2022 ( Keele University , 2018 ). It is vital to ensure that Computer Science classes provide a safe , accessible and inclusive environment for all students .
Given the study level and number of credits available for the module , the assessment load was excessively heavy , with the three nominal assessments effectively comprising ten different assignments . According to the principles of ‘ constructive alignment ’ outlined by Biggs ( 1996 ), assessment should require students to evidence that they can match the intended learning outcomes for the module . However , in FYO-00096 ,
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