STEM2020 - Balancing the Quartiles: Enabling individual learners in large Computing cohorts

Meeting the diverse learning needs of large student cohorts is a challenge across the educational domain. Within the context of Computer Science education, this challenge is significant due to the commonality of large student cohorts, significant skill variability on entry and its nature as a challenging subject area. Accordingly, this presentation describes a number of interventions piloted towards meeting the individual learning needs of some 430 first year undergraduate Computing students. Specifically, by introducing specialist lab spaces and a wider curriculum realignment to student entry profiles for the purpose of promoting retention and academic attainment.