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Relation Between Student Characteristics, Git Usage and Success in Programming Courses

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Responsive and Sustainable Educational Futures (EC-TEL 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14200))

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Abstract

Students’ prior knowledge and self-regulated learning are important predictors of academic success. A growing body of literature studies these predictors with respect to introductory programming courses. Especially in the first semester, cohorts exhibit a wide range of backgrounds with many students having no previous programming experience at all. Furthermore, many first semester students lack self-regulated learning capabilities. In the light of high drop-out rates in introductory programming courses, it is crucial to consider student characteristics, such as previously acquired programming skills or self-regulated learning capabilities. In this work, we collected data on such student characteristics via surveys and investigated the relation between survey data and students’ use of a version control system during a first semester programming course at a European university. We also related the survey data to the number of test cases students pass in their assignments. Using random forests, we investigated, how version control data can be used to predict student performance in an assignment and to what extent additional survey data can improve such predictions. Our results show that especially in an early phase of an assignment, data on prior knowledge and self-regulated learning can help predict student success.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graz University of Technology, Rechbauerstr. 12, 8010, Graz, Austria

    Aleksandar Karakaš

  2. Modul University Vienna GmbH, Am Kahlenberg 1, 1190, Vienna, Austria

    Denis Helic

Authors
  1. Aleksandar Karakaš
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  2. Denis Helic
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Correspondence to Aleksandar Karakaš .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Olga Viberg

  2. Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Ioana Jivet

  3. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Pedro J. Muñoz-Merino

  4. University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Maria Perifanou

  5. CODE University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany

    Tina Papathoma

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Karakaš, A., Helic, D. (2023). Relation Between Student Characteristics, Git Usage and Success in Programming Courses. In: Viberg, O., Jivet, I., Muñoz-Merino, P., Perifanou, M., Papathoma, T. (eds) Responsive and Sustainable Educational Futures. EC-TEL 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14200. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42682-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42682-7_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-42681-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-42682-7

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