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Moving a Bootcamp-Style Computer Science Programme Online: An Experience Report

Published: 03 March 2023 Publication History

Abstract

The Postgraduage Certificate in Information Technology at the University of Auckland is a bootcamp-style transition programme for students without prior programming experience. The programme's part-time variant, designed for working professionals, has traditionally been offered with intensive evening classes, with extensive tutor and instructor support. Spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic, our University has moved this part-time variant fully online. Benefits of the online offering include a wider, more inclusive audience and flexibility of student learning schedules. However, it has introduced several pedagogical challenges, including but not limited to how instructors can continue to provide meaningful support, feedback, and student engagement in an online environment. In this paper, we reflect on our experience, analyse qualitative and quantitative feedback such as student evaluations and grades, and provide recommendations for those wishing to undertake a similar transformation in the future.

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  • (2024)Bringing Social Computing to Secondary School ClassroomsProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630795(123-129)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    SIGCSE 2023: Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1
    March 2023
    1481 pages
    ISBN:9781450394314
    DOI:10.1145/3545945
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Published: 03 March 2023

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    1. case study
    2. it transition programme
    3. online learning

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    • (2024)Bringing Social Computing to Secondary School ClassroomsProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630795(123-129)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024

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