Analyzing Programming Projects

Retaining students in Computer Science may be improved by engaging them in the learning process while preventing them from becoming overly frustrated. While engaging students during lecture is certainly important, most students spend a significant amount of time working on programming projects outside of class. Gaining a deep understanding of student engagement in programming is difficult, since the instructor is seldom present during the process. This paper presents the results of student surveys administered after each programming project for multiple sections of two courses: CS2, and Data Structures and Algorithms. We analyze the data in terms of engagement, frustration and niftiness.