Discovering Effective Learning Methods and Impact of Team-based Programming Projects in Graduate Level Courses

Learning can be more efficient, effective and interesting if we can identify more about our students and know how they learn. Due to COVID-19, schools and colleges are offering online classes. It has a significant impact on students’ success. Therefore, course modality and teaching pedagogy need to be taken into consideration for crafting and creating instructional experiences that make leaning appealing and effective. A number of innovative teaching methods such as active learning, hybrid learning, social learning and flipped classrooms have been proposed and tested. Practically, several methods together can be helpful for students. In this study, I conducted an experiment and identified effective learning methods for graduate level courses. According to this study, 94% students responded positively about this course design. The results also show that 83.5% students prefer face-to-face classes and 97% students find in-class problem solving effective to understand a concept better. Many courses incorporate team-based learning which is a proven approach. In this study, the benefits and limitations of team-based programming projects are identified as well as students’ opinion in this regard. The results show that 85% students prefer team-based programming projects. Surprisingly 59.1% students mentioned all members do not contribute fairly evenly. This is a common problem in group works. So, small group size could be effective to overcome this problem.