More Time, More Assessments, the Impact on Programming Students in an e-Learning Environment

Abstract

The University of South Africa have implemented a Science Foundation Provision (SFP) program in conjunction with the Department of Higher Education and Training of the Government of South Africa. This program aims to assist at risk students in the fields of science, engineering and technology in an effort to raise their performance, increase their throughput rates and lower their dropout rates. The study that this paper reports on involves an investigation into research questions around the impact of time and assessment on the throughput in a first-year programming subject in an e-learning context. An introduction is presented on aspects relating to the Science Foundation Program, the underlying pedagogy of the subject, and how it was adapted for an e-learning environment. The literature review investigates issues in e-learning research and concepts related to assessment and study time in programming modules. It explains the different types of assessment practices implemented in the course namely self-assessments, blogs and projects. Study time and time management for programming modules in an e-learning environment is also addressed. Using quantitative data extracted from the institutional database for 2015, comparisons are made between the submission rates of formative assessments, formative assessment results, summative assessment results, and throughput of the two models of the Science Foundation Provision programs. The discussion of the findings will start by looking at the specific differences and similarities, as related to available study time and assessment, of the two Science Foundation Provision program models. Conclusions will show the impact of the differences between the two models on the throughput rates. Recommendations are made for the Science Foundation Provision program in the programming module and in general for the Science Foundation Provision program in other courses. These recommendations can also be applied to main stream programming modules and will contribute towards international problems related to low throughput rates in programming modules.