2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Computer Science and other computing-based courses with traditional pedagogy suffer from low student engagement, low student retention, antiquated information delivery, and a dearth of real-time evaluation tools for its instructors. In this paper, the authors present an innovative solution to all of these problems in the form of in-class Datastorm events.

The Datastorm challenges presented in this paper are a series of in-class competitions among teams of undergraduate Computer Science and Cyber Engineering students at Louisiana Tech University. In these challenges, the student teams are tasked with creating and implementing original solutions to problems from the field of data structures. The challenges are designed to test the students in three curricular targets: proficiency in Java coding, algorithm analysis, and data structure application. The collaborative, competitive, and exhilarating nature of the challenges also provides students with the opportunity to develop the soft skills necessary to thrive in this field.

The effectiveness of the in-class Datastorm challenges is analyzed through systematically
conducted surveys. The collected data is related to student performance in the aforementioned areas, their engagement with the material and the field, their perception of their own mastery of the subject, their collaborative skill set, and the impact of the Datastorm challenges on their continued retention in our student body. This data is collected from three sections of a sophomore level Computer Science class at our institution containing a total of 95 students. The surveys, which consist of both subjective and objective measures, show that the Datastorm challenges help students grasp content better and help them improve their soft skills within the context of team work.

The authors also present feedback from faculty showing the Datastorm challenges’ impact on the quality of information delivery and real-time evaluation options available to Computer Science instructors.