Student retention: Towards defining measures for improved quality of teaching and learning in the first year of computer science studies

Abstract

At the Faculty of Computer Science at the TU Wien, Vienna, Austria, the studies of computer science (CS) face two issues in the first year: a gender gap and a high student dropout rate. In order to tackle these problems, the faculty has set up a project called START Informatics to analyse the status quo, to identify potential pitfalls, to take actions and to develop measures to improve the quality of the first year of CS studies. Therefore, we will first examine the current situation in teaching with a mixed methods approach comprising lecture observations, student and teacher interviews and a large-scale questionnaire for first year students. As a result, the objective of the project is to describe recommendations and measures to improve the learning and teaching experience with a focus on student retention and potential gender issues.