Board 383: Socially Responsible Computing: Promoting Latinx Student Retention Via Community Engagement in Early Computer Science Courses
- Conference
- Location
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Portland, Oregon
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2024
- Start Date
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June 23, 2024
- End Date
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July 12, 2024
- Conference Session
- Tagged Topics
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Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/46968
Paper Authors
David M. Krum California State University, Los Angeles
Dr. David Krum is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the California State University, Los Angeles. His research interests include human-computer interaction, virtual/augmented reality, and 3D interaction.
Zoe Wood California Polytechnic State University
Whether it is creating computer graphics models of underwater shipwrecks or using art and creativity to help students learn computational thinking, Professor Zoe Wood's projects unite visual arts, mathematics and computer science.
Eun-young Kang California State University, Los Angeles
Professor
Computer Science
California State University, Los Angeles
Ayaan M. Kazerouni California Polytechnic State University
Jane L. Lehr California Polytechnic State University
Jane Lehr is a Professor in Ethnic Studies and Women's and Gender Studies and Director of the Office of Student Research at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is affiliated faculty in Computer Science & Software Engineering and
Sarah Hug Colorado Evaluation and Research Consulting
Dr. Sarah Hug is director of the Colorado Evaluation & Research Consulting. Dr. Hug earned her PhD in Educational Psychology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research and evaluation efforts focus on learning science, technology, engineering. She leads a social science and evaluation organization that focuses on inclusive excellence, broadening participation, and democratizing science.
Paul Salvador Bernedo Inventado California State University, Fullerton
Fang Tang
Dr. Fang (Daisy) Tang is the Chair and Professor in the Computer Science Department at California State Polytechnic University - Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). Dr. Tang received her Ph.D. degree in computer science in 2006 from The University of Tennessee - Kn
Ilmi Yoon
Professor Ilmi Yoon, Professor of Computer Science at San Francisco State University (SFSU), is an expert in gamification and game development, particularly in interactive media, 3D over the Internet, and network information visualization. She has collabo
Anagha Kulkarni San Francisco State University
Anagha Kulkarni is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at San Francisco State University. Her research investigates problems at the intersection of information retrieval (IR), natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning (ML). Her work a
Yu Sun California State Polytechnic University
Dr. Yu Sun is an associate professor of Computer Science at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Dr. Sun has extensive work, research, and entrepreneurial experience in software engineering, mobile communications, cloud computing, and Internet applications. He currently serves as director of Software Engineering, Cloud and Mobile Computing Lab (SotCom Lab), and guides student research and entrepreneurship projects. At the same time, Dr. Sun is also the founder of Coding Mind, an technology educational startup that promotes Computer Science education for K-12 students. Prior to founding Coding Minds, Dr. Sun also co-founded Ziiio, an indoor navigation startup based on mobile technology. Dr. Sun also worked as a software engineer at Amazon and participated in the development of Amazon Silk, the world's first cloud-based mobile web browser.
Mohsen Beheshti
Aakash Gautam University of Pittsburgh
Aakash is an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
Aleata Hubbard Cheuoua
Sahar Hooshmand
Kevin A Wortman California State University, Fullerton
Kevin Wortman is a Professor of Computer Science at California State University, Fullerton. He holds a PhD in Information and Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine. His professional interests include computer science education, algorithm design and analysis, and data structures.
Abstract
With the support of the NSF Broadening Participation in Computing program, the Socially Responsible Computing (SRC) alliance is committed to transforming early computing experience to motivate and engage historically marginalized students to pursue computing. This alliance, of six public universities, collectively serves over two thousand computing students who identify as Hispanic/Latino (Latinx). Unfortunately, Latinx students face a higher attrition rate across these campuses compared to non-Latinx students (34.6% versus 21.5%), especially during the first two years of computing journey. The primary goal of our alliance is to change this trend and broaden participation in computing. Specifically, we aim to create and deploy curriculum in the early Computer Sciences courses that demonstrate the value of computing to help society, which will provide students with the opportunity to see the alignment of their communal goals with computing and opportunities to bring their own cultural assets into the computing classroom. This includes students’ community-based knowledge or skills, general communication skills, and their skills related to teamwork and community engagement. We believe this framework will foster student’s sense of belonging, motivation, and engagement in computing. To achieve our goal of improve retention of Latinx students, the alliance has set four specific objectives.
O1: Designing and bringing curricular and pedagogical changes in the two earliest computing courses that integrate considerations of social responsibility into computing assignments.
O2: Introducing a new intervention in computing courses that focuses on creating a different kind of student experience focused on community driven computing projects.
O3: Building faculty learning communities to help train, orient and support instructors of this curriculum.
O4: Employing a cross site collaboration structure using a collective impact model, allowing variance for each site while working towards a common goal
Our alliance brings together six campuses, each with unique strengths and local challenges. We use a collective impact model, allowing each campus to contribute to the development, deployment, and continuous improvement the curriculum. Our team is composed of computer science educators and social scientists with expertise in evaluating inclusive STEM education and training faculty at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). Our evaluation plan examines both student and faculty outcomes, enabling us to reflect and refine our approach. Shared leadership and site teams are integral to sustaining our work, even amid potential academic personnel changes.
Our research is impactful in the learning sciences for several reasons. It utilizes faculty learning communities as a vehicle to bring change to the climate and curriculum of computing education. Furthermore, this project holds the potential to develop a broadly applicable introductory curriculum that is designed, deployed, and evaluated across a range of public education institutions serving the diverse state of [State-Name]. We aim for the success of this alliance to extend to all other sister campuses, potentially reaching tens of thousands of computing students. This curriculum will also be broadly deployed nationwide to help marginalized students pursue computing.
Despite being in the initial year of the project, we have achieved significant results in terms of instructor skill gains and attitudes. We are poised to make a meaningful impact on students as we have begun introducing new curricular and pedagogical changes. In this paper, we will share our current progress and core activities related to each objective, which include establishing a supportive alliance structure, developing new computing curriculum that includes a socially responsible component at each site, creating the structure and content for the first faculty learning community (FLC), and implementing the collective impact model. In addition, we will also share survey data, including feedback from both students and instructors, and lessons learned during the first-year implementation.
Krum, D. M., & Wood, Z., & Kang, E., & Kazerouni, A. M., & Lehr, J. L., & Hug, S., & Inventado, P. S. B., & Tang, F., & Yoon, I., & Kulkarni, A., & Sun, Y., & Beheshti, M., & Gautam, A., & Hubbard Cheuoua, A., & Hooshmand, S., & Wortman, K. A. (2024, June), Board 383: Socially Responsible Computing: Promoting Latinx Student Retention Via Community Engagement in Early Computer Science Courses Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/46968
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