Intensive online programming courses: a review, reflections, and suggestions, for teaching and learning

Flexible courses are becoming more and more widespread in higher education. By offering courses that do not follow the traditional on-campus schedule, the education becomes available to a larger diversity of students. Intensive courses and online courses, or a combination of both, are examples of flexible education. Intensive online programming courses are not well discussed in research. Learning programming can be challenging for students, and programming courses tend to have high failure and dropout rates. With that in mind, we look into the possibility of teaching a programming course online with an intensive format, and give the students a high learning outcome, with the flexibility and support they need. In this study, a review is given on intensive courses, online courses, and programming courses. The research results are then used as a basis for discussions and reflections on the challenges and possibilities of intensive online programming courses, from a teacher and student perspective. In addition, a number of activities are proposed and connected to highlights from the research. The study ends with some concluding remarks and examples of future research possibilities.