Participating in a Computer Science Linked-courses Learning Community Reduces Isolation

TL;DR

This study shows that participation in a linked-courses learning community for underrepresented computer science students reduces feelings of isolation and influences resource use, with significant attitude improvements over a quarter.

Contribution

It provides the first statistically significant evidence that learning communities can decrease student isolation and alter resource utilization in computer science education.

Findings

Students in the community felt less isolated post-quarter.

Learning community participants showed different resource utilization patterns.

Significant attitude improvements were observed in the learning community.

Abstract

In our previous work we reported on a linked-courses learning community for underrepresented groups in computer science, finding differences in attitudes and resource utilization between students in the community and other programming students. Here we present the first statistically significant differences in pre- to post-quarter student attitudes between those in the learning community and others taking equivalent programming classes. We find that students in the learning community are less likely to feel isolated post-quarter than other programming students. We also present results showing differences in resource utilization by learning-community participants.