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Case Study: CSU Long Beach Part 2

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Alvaro

Dr. Alvaro Monge

Dr. Alvaro Monge, Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science at CSU Long Beach

Dr. Alvaro Monge has earned BS, MS and PhD degrees in computer science (BS UC Riverside, 1991), (MS, and PhD from UC San Diego, 1993 and 1997). Previously at the University of Dayton Ohio, Dr. Monge joined the Computer Engineering and Computer Science Department at the California State University Long Beach (CSULB) in1999. In addition to overseeing grant projects, Dr. Monge held key positions as an academic advisor at the graduate and undergraduate levels and is currently the academic advisor for all computer science undergraduate students and for computer science students in the Engineering Honors Program.

In this case study

With the explosion of interest in Computer Science classes, we wanted to know how successful schools are making the transition to support ever-increasing numbers of students. We asked Dr. Alvaro Monge, Advisor for Computer Science Program at CSULB (California State University Long Beach), to share his thoughts and methods.

In this 4-part blog series, Dr. Monge shares his techniques and strategies for successfully supporting both his school and his students in the growing field of CS education.

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Part 2: Optimize Student Learning while Growing Class Sizes

Maintain Personal Contact

As class sizes increase by 2 or 3 times, the classroom dynamics obviously change, and instructors need to manage the impact of that change. At CSULB we manage to maintain a personal touch by regularly meeting in a lab in smaller groups. We all still meet at once in a large section twice a week during regular class hours,  but the smaller labs mean students also benefit from a more personal setting.

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Optimize Smaller Groups

  1. I specifically choose undergraduate students to run labs because the CS research points to the fact that working with a senior undergraduate student provides for a better experience than TAs who are graduate students. Working with peers closer to an age appears to increase the benefit to CS students.
  2. The undergraduate TAs and I rely on technology to make more assignments possible. Without technology, we wouldn’t be able to manage the increased workload of additional grading.
  3. Enabling students to work in pairs can also improve the student experience, in spite of larger class sizes. This can be done with or without the use of technology, but we find that students benefit from using technology to be able to work together even when they are remote.

 

In the next post, I will share with you how improving the Feedback Loop for students can greatly enhance learning.
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To see all of the previous blogs posts, click on any the following links:

The course aims to bridge the gap between basic Python programming courses and more advanced topics like machine learning. I noticed that students often lack experience in handling real-world, unclean data, so the first half of the course focuses on teaching Pandas for data manipulation and libraries for data visualization, followed by machine learning tools in the second half.

  • Part 1: Track Growth
  • Part 3: Improve the Feedback Loop
  • Part 4: Gain Staff Advantage for your School

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