The impact of real-world topic labs on student performance in CS1

We examine the impact of using lab exercises based on real-world topics in the CS1 course at the University of Texas - Pan American. In Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 we used drill style exercises. For Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 we created a new set of lab exercises that are based on real-world problems. In this paper we examine impact of the new lab exercises on the number of students who complete the exercises, on the students' grades on the exams, and on the final course grade. For the new lab exercises, the students are provided with an example program that contains extensive comments describing the skills targeted in that lab. Then they complete a similar program on their own. Whenever possible, we used games for the programs. When we could not devise a game exercise, we used problems that the students are likely to encounter in the real world. Sometimes we reused the same game/problem in multiple exercises. We found that many more students completed the lab exercises and the overall course performance improved when we used the new labs.