Hacking the Non-Technical Brain: Maximizing Retention in a Core Introductory IT Course

Eric M. Sturzinger; Daniel S. Hawthorne; Thomas A. Babbitt

Hacking the Non-Technical Brain: Maximizing Retention in a Core Introductory IT Course

Date

2019-09-26

Authors

Eric M. Sturzinger

Daniel S. Hawthorne

Thomas A. Babbitt

Publisher

ACM

Abstract

Maximizing student retention of, and ability to apply, technical material in introductory information technology courses is a complex task, especially with respect to the general student population. This population struggles with the application of programming concepts in the time-constrained testing environment. Our study considers the implementation of daily quizzes in a core-curriculum information technology and programming course as a means to improve student concept retention and application. Between the first and second exams, the instructors implemented a series of high-frequency, no-risk quizzes. Of the four sections of the course that each instructor taught, two sections each were provided with the quizzes as the experimental group and two remained with the standard curriculum as the control. The results demonstrate the benefits of frequent, effortful recall on student performance in a core-curriculum information technology and programming course.

Keywords

Social and professional topics, Applied computing

Citation

Eric M. Sturzinger, Daniel S. Hawthorne, and Thomas A. Babbitt. 2019. Hacking the Non-Technical Brain: Maximizing Retention in a Core Introductory IT Course. In Proceedings of the 20th Annual SIG Conference on Information Technology Education (SIGITE '19). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 112–117. https://doi.org/10.1145/3349266.3351411