Abstract:

The Computer Science Centre (CSC) is a service designed to support students across numerous modules in their first and second year of study. The CSC has been operating for over ten years, and in that time has grown and evolved to support our changing student profile. We initially provided support for two core first year Computer Science (CS) modules in programming but have since grown to support a wide variety of modules. Support in the CSC is provided through a peer tutoring approach, where students who have only recently finished modules themselves provide voluntary support. Additionally, we support students who would like to challenge themselves further and we organise weekly competitions open to all first- and second-year students, an annual end of year programming competition and the availability of advanced hardware components for students to interact with in their own time.

Since the opening of the CSC in 2012, it has provided a wide range of supports, 1-1 tutoring with volunteer tutors, extra online and physical resources like our cheat sheets, different tutorials both online and in-person and our coding competitions (MULE coding competition for first and second years and Robocode).

This paper focuses on changes implemented over the 2023/24 academic year, with reference to student and tutor feedback. We will present these changes and the rationale for their introduction and evaluate their success. While piloting these new initiatives, we have maintained open communication with the students and the tutors as we endeavour to constantly enhance the centre for them. We have implemented some of these changes already, for example, study cards covering the basics of java which are also in the format of posters hung around the centre and new tutorials in-person and online covering topics that students are struggling with. A new advanced competition was introduced to motivate students who were seeking something more challenging to create a novel application around a specified theme, which involved both teamwork and creative skills. We will endeavour to ensure that these changes to the CSC maintain the centre is relevant and aligns with current best practices.

Enhancing the CSC is always at the forefront of our thinking and there is additional future work that can be done to enhance the CSC. The success of the CSC has been acknowledged through multiple discussions by the authors with other institutions who are interested in creating something similar. The CSC has major growth potential, and we will continue to enhance it to support and motivate students in their learning. This paper will report on recent changes in the centre and future plans, as well as presenting visit data at the CSC during the academic year, broken down by year of study. We will report on whether there is a statistical benefit to attending the CSC.

In the future, there are plans to make the centre available to the whole University student population. There are multiple departments who teach programming as part of their modules, for example, the Biology and Physics departments, and the CSC can help lessen the stress these students may be under. By opening the centre to the whole University, we can greatly expand our footprint and ensure students know where to turn for support in computing-related modules. Subsequently, we will then be able to report on the outcomes of this venture.

Keywords:

Computer Science Education, Support centre, Student Support, Motivation, Undergraduate.