Students in programming courses often achieve low grades, especially during the first year of study, a stage in which introductory knowledge of the discipline is acquired. This issue is recurrent and can be addressed through the implementation of early interventions that foster collaborative learning, reinforce key concepts, identify common difficulties, and promote joint problem-solving. These strategies not only motivate students but also create a supportive environment that facilitates their adaptation to the course and improves their academic performance. Although various studies have investigated the low academic performance in programming, there is no clear consensus on the results obtained. Therefore, further research is needed to evaluate the impact of early interventions. In this context, the present study aims to analyze the effect of an early intervention on the academic performance of a Fundamentals of Programming course taught during the first year of study. The methodology employed was based on a quasi-experimental research design, structured into five phases. The first phase, participant selection, included the identification of the participants in the quasi-experiment and the definition of the dataset used. The second phase, study design, involved the application of a pre-test, a treatment for the experimental group, and a post-test. The third phase, planning, described the activities to be carried out for each group. The fourth phase, treatment application, included the defined early intervention. Finally, the fifth phase, results analysis, was conducted with the support of statistical tests. The study was conducted in a Fundamentals of Programming course within the Systems Engineering program at a university in Colombia. Two groups were formed: an experimental group and a control group, both with the same objectives and learning activities during the 16-week course. The experimental group consisted of 36 students (30 men and 6 women), while the control group included 37 students (28 men and 9 women). The course was divided into three evaluation periods: the first period, conducted between weeks 1 and 5, accounted for 30% of the final grade; the second period, between weeks 6 and 10, also accounted for 30%; and the third period, between weeks 11 and 16, constituted the remaining 40%. The early intervention, called group tutoring, was carried out during weeks 6 and 11 of the course. It consisted of a theoretical reinforcement of the concepts covered in class, complemented by practical programming exercises that were exclusively completed by the students in the experimental group as part of the treatment. The results showed that students in the experimental group achieved significantly higher grades in the third evaluation period and in the final course grade compared to those in the control group. The observed differences were 0.7 points in the third evaluation period and 0.2 points in the final grade. The early intervention through group tutoring proved to be effective in improving academic performance in an introductory programming course. Students in the experimental group achieved higher grades, demonstrating that strategies involving theoretical and practical reinforcement can facilitate the understanding of key concepts and promote more meaningful learning.

Keywords: Early interventions, Collaborative learning, Academic performance, Programming courses, Quasi-experimental.