Mastery Learning in an Introductory Computer Science Course

A Faculty of Arts & Science Teaching and Learning Community of Practice

Dual Delivery
In-Person, History Conference Room, Sidney Smith Hall, Room 2098, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3
Online, Register via Zoom

Jacqueline Smith, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Computer Science
Jennifer Campbell, Professor, Teaching Stream, Computer Science
Paul Gries, Professor, Teaching Stream, Computer Science
Andrew Petersen, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Mathematical and Computational Sciences (UTM)

The course material in CSC108 (Introduction to Computer Programming) is cumulative week-to-week. This presents challenges for students who fall behind, requiring them to catch up with previous material before continuing. To address this challenge, we piloted a self-paced mastery learning version of CSC108 in Winter 2018 and again in Winter 2019. In this session, we’ll share our reflections and lessons learned from offering a mastery learning version of a large introductory course at U of T, including the need for explicit scaffolding of expected progress and resources required to simultaneously support students at different stages in the course.

The Faculty of Arts & Science Teaching & Learning Community of Practice (CoP) was established in 2015 to create a collegial forum for faculty and instructors to meet and share teaching practices and strategies across fields and disciplines. This CoP is coordinated by Andrew Dicks (Professor, Teaching Stream and Associate Chair, Undergraduate, Department of Chemistry).