Assessing the Effectiveness of Teaching Programming Concepts through Online Interactive Outreach Workshops

Abstract

In this study, we present our findings with regard to the effectiveness of teaching computing concepts online via interactive outreach projects. These outreach activities were facilitated through our service-based learning course, the Technology Ambassador Program (TAP). The goal is to determine how effective these online outreach activities are and how we can improve upon them. The results of this study show that online outreach activities can be effective using already known teaching strategies such as repetition and hands-on activities. Surprisingly, we also found that these strategies work whether the participants are STEM or non-STEM students. Another important finding was the limitation of self-reported knowledge of understanding compared to the objectively assessed ability to implement the knowledge.