A study of the impact of student background and preparedness on outcomes in CS I

Abstract

A study that assesses the significance of student background characteristics on outcomes in a depth-first CS I course is presented. The study was conducted over a two-year period and involved more than 400 students in fourteen different course sections taught by eight different instructors in a CSAC-accredited program. In this paper, focus is on the impact of prior programming courses on CS I outcomes. In particular, the impact of the prior course's programming language and provider is reported.