Lessons Learned from a PLTL-CS Program

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
Departmental Papers (CIS)
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
Human factors
Measurment
Peer-Let Team Learning
Emerging Scholars Program
Outreach
Women in Computer Science
Diversity
CS1
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Parton, Kristen
Cannon, Adam
Contributor
Abstract

The Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) approach has previously been shown to be effective in recruiting and retaining students, particularly under-represented students, in undergraduate introductory CS courses. In PLTL, small groups of students are led by an undergraduate peer and work together to solve problems related to CS. At Columbia University, the Columbia Emerging Scholars Program has used PLTL in an effort to increase enrollment in CS courses beyond the introductory level, and to increase the number of students who select Computer Science as their major, by demonstrating that CS is necessarily a collaborative activity that focuses more on problem solving and algorithmic thinking than on programming. Over the past five semesters, 68 students have completed the program, and preliminary results indicate that this program has had a positive effect on increasing participation in the major. This paper discusses our experiences of building and expanding the Columbia Emerging Scholars program, and addresses such topics as recruiting, training, scheduling, student behavior, and evaluation. We expect that this paper will provide a valuable set of lessons learned to other educators who seek to launch or grow a PLTL program at their institution as well.

Advisor
Date of presentation
2011-01-01
Conference name
Departmental Papers (CIS)
Conference dates
2023-05-24T10:06:38.190
Conference location
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Postprint version. Copyright ACM, 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (SIGCSE 2011), pages 207-212. Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1953163.1953226
Recommended citation
Collection