Elevating Novice Computer Science Students: A Winter Bootcamp Initiative
Authors: Mark Kim, Hannah Simon
Faculty Supervisor: Anagha Kulkarni
Department: Computer Science
Students majoring in computer science often have little to no computing experience before entering college and this can affect students’ confidence and performance throughout their education (https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3210551). To mitigate this obstacle, we attempt to boost students’ confidence, reduce learning loss, and provide foundational support by offering a four day winter term bootcamp as a bridge between their introductory and intermediate computer science courses. Each day we held a five hour session that consists of a short review mini-lecture and group work that focuses on increasing real-world coding experience that reinforces the concepts covered in the mini-lecture. The present study is a mixed-methods analysis of feedback from 21 bootcamp participants during the 2023-2024 school year, including pre- and post- surveys, daily student reflections, and instructor observations. Data collection is complete, and quantitative and qualitative analysis of results is underway, with expected completion by April 20, 2024. An expanded discussion and implications for educational practice will be presented with results.