Help Students Help Themselves - CS291/CS490 Mentoring Program

1. Help Students Help Themselves- CS291/CS490 Mentoring Program Lisa L. Fan, Ph.D Department of Computer Science, University of Regina

2. CS291/CS490 in U of R • Started winter 2000 • Basically followed the Stanford model • senior undergraduate students are selected • introductory CS course (CS210) has been targeted for the mentoring program • one mentor student is assigned to a group of CS210 students

3. CS291/CS490 in U of R (cont.) • Enrollments for the program:

4. Very Positive Comments from Students about the Program Why students have this positive response to the program?

5. History of the Program • Started in 1983 at the Computer Science Department in Stanford University • at first, partly as a cost saving measure to address large enrollments for CS introductory courses • many other benefits soon became obvious • matured and standardized in the mid 90s • Other universities started to offer similar program in the 1990’s

6. Benefits of the Program • Benefits to the CS210 students: • individual attention • less intimidating learning environment • available help whenever needed • Benefits to the CS291/CS490 students: • opportunity to have teaching experience • 3 credit hours • help themselves to enhance the knowledge • Benefits to the CS department: • training ground for future teaching staff • improved learning environment

7. Philosophy of the Program • Knowledge is jointly constructed and transformed by students and faculty. Students are not only “passive vessel to be filled” • Cooperative learning and team work, provide a less intimidating learning environment • More direct and continual interaction and feed back on course work and programming techniques • Increased communication and enhanced opportunity to learn more about computers • Mentors provide role models for junior students

8. The Stanford Model

9. The U of R Model

10. Section Leader Selection • Responsibility: the course instructor • Must have taken CS210 • grade should be above average • Two parts interview: - technical skills: analytical, programming, and debugging - interpersonal: team player with fellow mentors, instructors , also can independently work with a group of students

11. How to Organize the Program • Training: lectures to train teaching skills • Organization and Coordination: • weekly meeting • weekly journal to report activities • require draft solutions before IG • discussion group on Yahoo • informal evaluation around midterm • final course report: summarize learning and teaching experience

12. Marking for CS291/CS490 • Professional conduct and attitude • attendance for the weekly meeting • students evaluation • Professional competence • C++ coding skills • presentation of the lab material • Comprehensive learning: Course Report

13. Should the Program Continue? • CS210 student responses: 87% Yes • “Yes, much better asking environment.” • “very helpful when you have to learn C++ on your own.” • “it provides you with a personal, casual atmosphere to learn.” • “it helps because we can ask questions that I might feel a kind of simple or stupid.” • “Yes, less intimidating.” • CS291/CS490 student responses: 100% Yes

14. Students Comments on Interactive Marking: Positive • “gave us an idea on how to get higher marks” • “If there is anything questionable it can be explained” • “gives people a chance to justify choices” • “being able to see mistakes and understand mistakes” • “allow you to find out where things went wrong” • “it makes one know if the student did the assignment or not”

15. Planning for Improvements • Marking consistency within mentors - quality control • Screen process for mentor selection • Workshops: more training contents

16. Teaching is a life long art, that … involves continuous learning not just for the students but for the teacher as well.- Joseph Katz and Mildred Henry

17. Questions?