Linking First-year Computing Courses to Engage Commuter Students

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

6-23-2024

Publication Title

ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Conference Proceedings

Abstract

Commuter students face unique challenges in integrating into college learning communities. Engaging with first-year commuter students became incredibly challenging after the pandemic forced learning communities to transform into virtual or hybrid environments. To address this challenge, we developed an approach to engage first-year commuter students in our departmental learning community. We linked two introductory courses, Computer Science I (CS I) and Foundations of Computing, with joint-curricular and extracurricular activities offered by sophomores, juniors, and seniors from student clubs and a service-learning program. Informed by the situated learning theory, our approach creates the context for the first-year students, the novice, to interact with the more experienced non-first-year students and develop their sense of community and belonging. Our surveys and interviews showed that the linked activities increased the students' sense of community, enjoyment of computing, and confidence in computing. Some first-year students established meaningful relationships with non-first-year students, joined student organizations, or became volunteer presenters.

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