Student satisfaction with groupwork in undergraduate computer science: do things get better?

ABSTRACT

Groupwork has a large and important role in computer science courses. Moreover, groupwork skills are among the most important generic attributes students should develop during their studies as preparation for the world of work (Candy, Crebert and O'Leary, 1994, Dearing, 1997). At the same time, all who have been involved in teaching that involves groupwork will be aware that it brings challenges. It is important to support student learning of group skills, to develop instruments for evaluating this aspect of teaching and to measure student development in groupwork skill as well as student perceptions of their groupwork experiences.This paper reports on a cross sectional evaluation of student perceptions of groupwork. It is based upon both group interviews and a questionnaire. An important contribution of this work is the questionnaire which could be readily used in quality assurance elsewhere. Another contribution derives from the results of our study. They give useful insight into student perceptions across cross sectional cohorts and according to academic ability. We also report on ways that this study has helped us define strategies to improve the development of student skills in groupwork.

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Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Education

    • Collaborative learning

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Computing education

      • Computing education programs

        • Computer science education

        • Information systems education

      • Model curricula