BDSI: A validated concept inventory for basic data structures

Leo Porter, Daniel Zingaro, Soohyun Nam Liao, Cynthia Taylor, Kevin C. Webb, Cynthia Lee, Michael Clancy

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

49 Scopus citations

Abstract

A Concept Inventory (CI) is a validated assessment to measure student conceptual understanding of a particular topic. This work presents a CI for Basic Data Structures (BDSI) and the process by which the CI was designed and validated. We discuss: 1) the collection of faculty opinions from diverse institutions on what belongs on the instrument, 2) a series of interviews with students to identify their conceptions and misconceptions of the content, 3) an iterative design process of developing draft questions, conducting interviews with students to ensure the questions on the instrument are interpreted properly, and collecting faculty feedback on the questions themselves, and 4) a statistical evaluation of final versions of the instrument to ensure its internal validity. We also provide initial results from pilot runs of the CI.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationICER 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages111-119
Number of pages9
ISBN (Electronic)9781450361859
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 30 2019
Event15th Annual International Computing Education Research Conference, ICER 2019 - Toronto, Canada
Duration: Aug 12 2019Aug 14 2019

Publication series

NameICER 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research

Conference

Conference15th Annual International Computing Education Research Conference, ICER 2019
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityToronto
Period8/12/198/14/19

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Computational Theory and Mathematics
  • Education
  • Theoretical Computer Science

Keywords

  • Assessment
  • Concept inventory
  • Data structures

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