Work-in-progress — Who´s driving? Structured pairs in an introductory electronics laboratory

Pair programming, a method of structuring student groups in computer science courses, has been found to increase student confidence, satisfaction, and retention in the computer science major. We developed a similar method of structuring student groups in an engineering laboratory, called “structured pairing.” We implemented structured pairing in an introductory electronics laboratory. We compared structured pairing with traditional student groups, using an end-of-semester survey, focus group interviews, student laboratory reports, and final examination scores. We will also compare retention data.