Prior What Experience? The Relationship Between Prior Experience and Student Help-Seeking Beyond CS1
Background and Context. Prior experience (PE) has been shown to be related to computing students' performance, persistence, and help-seeking behavior. However, most works studied prior programming experience in introductory programming (CS1) courses, while other forms of PE in other contexts are underexplored. Objectives. We seek to study the relationship between all kinds of relevant PE and help-seeking behavior in course-affiliated resources within and beyond the typical CS1 context. Method. We analyzed N=2,625 students' self-reported PE and course-affiliated help-seeking records, originating from 19 offerings of six courses at a post-secondary US institution. Four of the six courses are non-programming or non-introductory courses. Findings. We found pronounced negative relations between PE and students' frequency of seeking one-on-one student-staff interactions, as well as positive relations between PE and students' self-reported progress from these interactions. When multiple forms of PE are tracked, the PE that is more aligned with the course activities has a more pronounced effect. We found little relation between PE and students' behavior in class discussion forums. Implications. Our results highlight that (1) the relationship between PE and help-seeking extends beyond the CS1 context; and (2) this relationship differs between help resources and between course contexts. This motivates providing resource-specific and course-specific training on helping different student populations.
