Transforming the Learning Experience of Non-Traditional Students in an Online CS1 Course through Peer-Instruction

In the 21st century, Computer science (CS) academic programs are becoming as diverse and innovative as computer science itself. Due to the increasing number of jobs and national demands for more computing professionals, we see a surge of non-traditional students (aged over 25), entering the CS1 course, who already have a degree in a different discipline and work either full-time or part-time. These students have very low retention rate beyond CS1 course. We researched at a large metropolitan public research university, Florida International University (FIU), where we have designed an online CS1 course, integrating peer-instruction, to addresses the divergent background of our student population so they can thrive in computing major/minor, beyond CS1 course. In this poster, we report our findings on how the learning experience of non-traditional students is impacted by the peer-instruction integrated in the online CS1 course.