To deal with a shortage of computer scientists, industry is challenging the traditional view that students need a deep theoretical knowledge of computer systems. Some believe that time spent on assignments that do not reflect technical/development practices would be better used building practical skills. This is at odds with the pedagogical strategy of building mental models through students’ implementation of tools and libraries that would otherwise be used as off-the-shelf components. Although project-based learning is a well-studied area, there is little to no literature that studies the link between these programming activities and the target cognitive processes. Researchers must understand the advantages and disadvantages of these types of projects in building the correct mental models and any transfer learning it enables.

In this Birds of a Feather, we seek to create a working group of academics and professionals that are interested in an evidence-based understanding rather than reliance upon anecdotes. This group will look at the strategic implementation projects and how well they achieve their linked learning outcomes. This working group will discuss how to empirically define the value of these activities and gain a better understanding of how they affect a student’s cognitive processes.