Leveraging online courses to increase student success in a Computer Science degree

This paper looks at how courses by experts that are available on the internet can be used to enhance student understanding of Computer Science prior to them entering or during their first year of study at a university. A secondary school exit skill-set is proposed which is based on existing secondary school curricula and studies that have recently been conducted. A selection of online courses from the internet is proposed in order to help students succeed in Computer Science at university. These courses are selected by taking the secondary school skill-set into account as well as the pedagogical setting of the course.