Comparing the Impact of Programming Assessment Type: In-Class Vs Take-Home

Abstract

In engineering education, educational technologies and teaching interventions are often used to maintain the student retention high. Most of them are strongly related to either in-class or take-home assessment. This paper compares the impact of both assessments on student performance for one academic semester. The findings are expected to re-align the focus of educational technology and teaching intervention research. Fifty-five laboratory sessions were analysed, involving five Introductory Programming classes with a total of 87 Information Technology and Information System undergraduates. The study shows that, by considering only significant changes, in-class assessment leads to higher assessment mark as the students can easily seek help and focus on the tasks. Technical problems are also unlikely to occur as the classroom (or the laboratory in our case) is well-facilitated.