How Do Undergraduates Interested in Computer Science Use Online, On-Demand CS Coursework?

Students often enroll in university programs to learn the skills necessary to enter the workforce or attend a graduate program. However, students feel an increasing need to supplement their degree programs with online, on-demand (OOD) coursework. Undergraduate computer science (CS) students’ motivations for taking OOD CS coursework, how they perceive their usage of OOD CS coursework, and why they stop are not well understood. To address this research gap, we surveyed 51 undergraduate students enrolled in or interested in computer science about their attitudes and usage of OOD CS coursework. We additionally interviewed four of the survey takers to understand the factors that drove them to enroll and stop OOD CS coursework. Our results showed that students perceived OOD CS coursework positively. There is a positive correlation between student self-perceptions of learning during OOD CS coursework and intentions to persist in OOD CS coursework. Students reported primarily using OOD coursework to prepare for interviews and build skills for their resumes. The main reason for attrition was the loss of trial access and replacement by LLMs such as ChatGPT. The contributions of this work include design insights for OOD CS platforms to increase retention and lower attrition, and the understanding that undergraduate CS students perceive free OOD CS coursework as a useful tool to supplement their undergraduate studies.