Computer coding skill development using coding skill practice packages with collaborative learning for the second-year software engineering students at Walailak University

Abstract

This action research was designed as a quasi-experimental research. Its two main objectives were 1) to develop students’ computer coding skill using coding skill practice packages with collaborative learning, and 2) to evaluate the students’ level of satisfaction of the coding skill practice packages. The population was 22 bachelor’s degree level students enrolled in SWE-204 Software Construction 2. Five research instruments for the study consisted of 1) an achievement midterm test, 2) an achievement final exam, 3) a questionnaire for the evaluation of the course, SWE-204 Software Construction 2, 4) a satisfaction questionnaire on the coding skill practice packages and 5) coding skill practice packages. This research was conducted within four months and the course lecturer himself collected the data. The descriptive statistics used in this research comprised frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean and standard deviation. The research. findings were as follows: 1. The students’ computer coding skill taught with the practice packages with collaborative learning was better than previously. 18.18 % of the students got A, 9.09 %, B+; 9.09 %, B; 18.18 %, C+; and 22.73 % C. Thus, the total number of students who received grades not lower than C was 77.27 %, higher than the number estimated in the hypothesis. 2. 79.06 % of the students showed satisfaction with the coding skill practice package with collaborative learning at the high level ( = 3.95, = 0.1) Satisfaction of the characteristics of the lecturer ( = 3.92, = 0.24) was 78.4 %, while the teaching and learning by the coding skill practice package ( = 3.63, =0.06) was 72.6%. While the students evaluated their own computer coding skill ( = 3.33, = 0.12) at above average (66.58%), the course lecturer evaluated the students’ computer coding skill at good (73.13 %).