New AP Computer Science partial format proves useful to students

For the first time in the history of the course, AP Computer Science (APCS) teacher Debra Troxell is trying out a blended version of the class for the 2014-15 school year. The course now only requires students to attend class on Mondays and exam dates, with the rest of the lectures available online.

Troxell intended for this blended mode to allow students to have a more flexible schedule, especially for those with previous experience with programming or other class conflicts.

So far, the new format has mostly resulted in a large number of student schedule swapping — Troxell allows “visitors” in classes, or students who sit in on different periods if they are unable to go to their usual class  due to various conflicts. She even allows students to come to her class in two different periods if they need to hear a lecture multiple times in order to understand.

“For example, if you are officially in period seven but have a cross country meet [that conflicts with class], [you can come as] a visitor in first period,” Troxell said. “You would take part in [first period’s] class the same as anybody else and you would do the same thing as you would if you [came during] seventh period.”

Due to missing or “visiting” students, Troxell has had as few as 24 or 25 students in her classes and as many as the high 30s. Nonetheless, Troxell said most of her students have opted to stay in their assigned class periods.

In previous years, the APCS class followed a flipped classroom style where students watched Troxell's online instructional videos for homework and completed assignments about the lessons in class.

“[Before], the class work was worth points, but this year [it is] worth zero points,” Troxell said. “All the worksheets and solutions are available online [for students that choose to follow the blended class format].”

Additionally, programming assignments are now submitted completely electronically. Troxell said this method has worked well because most of her classroom materials had already been online and only needed to be transferred to Canvas, the school’s new online management system, this year.

Besides the scheduling inconveniences due to the new format, Troxell said the blended version of the class has so far fulfilled her goal — to provide flexibility for students.

“At first, I was a little nervous [about changing the style of the class], but I think it is working very well,” Troxell said. “Students can get the information in the way that best suits them. They can sit in my class twice, they can never sit in it at all [or] they can get [the materials] online and double check to make sure they [understand] all the ideas [by doing] the worksheets.”

Sophomore Kirthana Ramesh, who is taking the current version of the class, said she was surprised when Troxell first told the class that they “did not need to come to class on certain days, [could] leave whenever [they wanted] and [did not] have to be right on time to class every day.”

Ramesh said she has continued regularly attending classes because  she is still getting used to the routine of the class, although the schedule has allowed her to leave class a couple minutes early when she needs to get a head start on a heavy homework load. On the other hand, she said other students have mainly been not showing up on days when they are already comfortable with the material being taught in class.

Ramesh said that Troxell may take away the privileges of the blended option if APCS students abuse them. One of the limits she is placing is that students with scores under 85 percent in the class cannot take advantage of the blended format.

Nevertheless, Ramesh said one of the main benefits of the class is that it is relatively easy for a student to catch up on work if they miss a class, especially since Troxell puts most of the class materials on Canvas.

“[APCS] is probably one of the few classes this system works [very well] in because most of the work is done on the computer, [so] it's pretty easy to do most assignments at home,” Ramesh said.