An evaluation of how changes to the introductory computer science course sequence impact student success

Our university, as with many others throughout the world, has a relatively low pass rate in the introductory computer science courses. Over the course of more than fifteen years, various changes have been made to the introductory course sequence with the hope of improving student success. We describe these changes and perform an initial analysis of student course performance that finds little change in pass rates. We propose new changes to the course sequence and to individual courses within this sequence. These new changes are focused on increasing student engagement and developing the problem solving skills that are necessary for being a successful computer science major. We propose pilot projects that implement these changes and outline evaluation strategies for these pilot projects.