The intent is to make key findings of an Air Force Academy experiment more widely available. The Air Force Academy conducted a large-scale experiment to test the effectiveness of time-sharing and batch pro¬cessing in teaching computer science. The experimental design was centered on direct, This paper is an abbreviated version of a portion of a book-length study. "real world" comparison of student effectiveness with time-sharing and batch proces¬sing systems using the same computer (the Burroughs B-5500) and the same programing language (ALGOL). The experimental sample involved all introductory computer science courses with a total population of 415 cadets. Participating clas¬ses were assigned to matched groups based on overall stu¬dent grades, course, and instructor. Performance was mea¬sured in relation to 12 standardized class problems. The performance measures included man-hours and elapsed time to solve problems, computer runs, problem grades, pretest and posttest student attitudes, and other variables collected automatically and by questionnaire. Experimental proce¬dures were shaken down and formalized through an extensive pilot test administered to 60 cadets prior to the main experiment。
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