Computer science apprenticeship: Creating support for intermediate computer science students

In recent studies of students in intermediate computer science courses, we have noted a number of misconceptions and other learning problems. Supporting intermediate computer science students has not been explored in the literature as well as supporting novice and expert programmers. We are developing an approach focussed on providing a cognitive apprenticeship in computer science. Our approach has four technological components: interactive notes module, a collaborative tool, a case library and problem-solving activities accompanied with various scaffolding features including annotated links to the other modules and drawing upon existing resources. Our first focus is on undergraduate Computer Graphics where we are beginning to evaluate our materials.