Differentiating Instruction of CDIO: in Layered Curriculum and Course View

Differentiating Instruction of CDIO: in Layered Curriculum and Course View

Wei Wei, Lilli Li, Jia He, Jin He and MingYuan Xie

Computer Science Program with CDIO approach has been adopted at Department of Computer Science and Technology, Chengdu University of Information Technology (CUIT), China since 2009. To fit the wide range of learning styles and mixed ability levels of students, layered curriculum and layered course are applied in reconstructed CDIO integrating curriculum. Layered curriculum for computer science is discussed. In the curriculum, several keys courses are taught in layered teaching model. Then, two studies in Data Structure Course are presented in this paper. In the first year, two groups of students enrolled in Data Structure from 2rd year undergraduate students are compared. One group was taught in the reconstructed CDIO class which integrates both Data Structure and Algorithm Project in a single course. The other group was taught in the class which Data Structure course and Algorithm Project course are performed separately. In the second year, students are divided into two groups in the same way. In addition, the group reforming with CDIO concept was divided in two levels (A level and B level) according to student’s pre-requisite-courses performance, learning abilities or subjective desire. Each level was taught by different teacher with adjusted pedagogy suiting to the student feature. Exam scores data of Data Structure Course show the layered way achieved significant improvement in average score(average score is 65.7 both in level A and level B compared to average score 57 in the old method) and exam pass rates. The other pleasing result was the overall student satisfaction of the layered course group (88.9% of 135 students including in Level A and Level B), and the students’ recognition that the teacher were always aware of their needs, catered to their interests. This paper argues that layered curriculum and layered course is an effective solution facing students with wide range of learning styles and mixed ability.

Proceedings of the 10th International CDIO Conference, Barcelona, Spain, June 15-19 2014

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