CS Studio: Teaching Introductory Programming to At-Risk Students in a Small Class Structure

CS312 is the introductory programming class for computer science majors. It teaches students structured programming: designing and implementing computer programs that solve nontrivial problems. CS312 is the first required course for Computer Science majors. It is part of the four course pre CS program. CS is different than many of the other disciplines in the College of Natural Science. Most students have some exposure to math, chemistry, biology, and even physics during their secondary education. And some have the opportunity to take Computer Science courses. However, a large number of students come to UT each year and choose to major in Computer Science with zero experience in the subject. The project proposed to teach a small, lab based version of CS312, Introduction to Programming for students who have traditionally struggled to succeed in the large lecture format version of the class.