Exploring the Effect of Quiz and Homework Submission Times on Students’ Performance in an Introductory Programming Course in a Flipped Classroom Environment

Understanding possible influential factors and their effect on a student's overall performance is imperative for educators to be able to effectively facilitate the comprehension of computer science concepts. With an increase in the amount of research supporting active learning over a traditional learning experience, universities are shifting their course offerings to a flipped classroom environment. This paper focuses on exploring the effect of different students' engagement patterns on their overall course performance in an introductory programming (CS1) course for engineering students in a flipped classroom environment. The course expects students to view prerecorded lecture videos and complete a quiz prior to the scheduled class time, with the in-person instructional period reserved for practicing programming activities. After the class, students are expected to submit a homework assignment based on the concepts learned that week. We are particularly interested in understanding when students submit the quizzes and homework assignments, and if the submission time has any effect on their performance in the course. This paper presents the analysis of 145 students' weekly quiz and homework submission times to understand at which point a student engages with the content and how it affects their performance. Different observed categories are presented to help understand the behavioral aspects of student engagement. Further, analysis is also done considering factors like prior programming experience. We found that students who submitted the quizzes and homeworks 24 hours prior to the submission deadline had significantly higher exam scores as compared to students who submitted during the last 24 hours. Additionally, we also found that this difference was only significant for students who did not have prior programming experience. This indicates that early submission of assignments can help students who do not have prior programming experience in improving their overall course performance. By understanding the major student interaction patterns, we believe that instructors and educators can better design learning experiences for students in CS1 courses.