Growing Female Undergraduate Enrollments in Computer Science: What’s the Secret? Wendy DuBow
Ignatios Vakalis
(Moderator) National Center for Women & IT University of Colorado 303.492.5462
[email protected]
Computer Science Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo (805) 756-2824
[email protected]
Manuel A. Perez-Quinones Computer Science Virginia Tech 540-231-2646
[email protected]
Jason T. Black Computer & Information Sciences Florida A&M University 850-412-7354
[email protected]
SUMMARY
2. IGNATIOS VAKALIS
For the past decade, computer science and other computingfocused departments in universities and colleges around the nation have seen dramatic decreases, or at best, stagnation in their enrollments in the major, particularly among females and other populations under-represented in computing. Recently, some institutions have begun to see a shift in student interest in their major. What are these departments doing to reverse this 12-year, or in some cases, 35-year trend?
The Department of Computer Science at Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo) has implemented a cadre of approaches in order to attract and retain more women in Computer Science and Software Engineering. These approaches include evidence-based practices [2], as well as new tactics, as follows: Instituting a unique first year (first quarter) course, featuring different “tracks” and reflecting student interests (e.g., robotics, games, visual art, music, mobile apps) [3]. All “tracks” employ project-based learning [4] with common learning outcomes. Each section provides a “big picture” view of computing. External clients supply projects that are implemented using group-based pedagogies. Enriching mentoring [5]. Female students are paired with upper-division female students for mentoring during firstyear courses to build academic self-confidence, social support, and motivation to achieve. Providing support for female students (cohorts of first year and upper division) to attend the Annual Grace Hopper Celebration. Deploying the female students to recruit additional female students from their respective high schools to create a distributed and scalable approach. Roadshow materials [6], supplemented by personal experiences of our female majors, make captivating presentations.
This panel will share interventions undertaken by three U.S. universities that have shown increased undergraduate enrollments overall, with particular increases in female enrollment; increased faculty engagement with outreach, recruitment and retention for diversity; and increased commitment from minority women to pursue graduate degrees in CS/IT. These departments have not only implemented evidence-based practices to make these dramatic changes, but have tried new ideas as well. National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) will share equivalent enrollment increases from other institutions that have implemented evidence-based practices. She also will make available hardcopy materials and website links that describe practical interventions faculty can implement.
Categories and Subject Descriptors K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
During the last three years, Cal Poly’s enrollments in computer science and software engineering are monotonically increasing. Female students constitute 33% of first-year students in Software Engineering. In addition, the retention rate of students, including the female majors, has increased by 70%.
Keywords Broadening Participation; Gender; Diversity; Evidence-based Practices; Women
1. WENDY DUBOW
3. MANUEL A. PEREZ-QUINONES
Evaluation evidence from 65 academic departments indicates that use of evidence-based practices is positively correlated with an increased number of females enrolled in computing at those institutions [1]. The moderator will describe these results and point attendees to the vast repository of free, evidence-based practices that NCWIT provides to the public (www.ncwit.org/resources).
The Computer Science Department at Virginia Tech has included in their service activities a set of diversity events as opportunities for faculty to be engaged in increasing the number of females in our student ranks [7,8]. As a result, we have seen an increase in participation in outreach from both faculty and current students. We have been tracking our enrollments to enable us to monitor our progress [9]. In fall 2010, we had 337 CS majors, with only 26 females (7.7%). In fall 2011, there were 427 majors with 38 females (8.9%). As of this writing (fall 2012), we have 434 majors with 60 female students (13.82%!).
Copyright is held by the author/owner(s). SIGCSE’13, March 6–9, 2013, Denver, Colorado, USA. ACM 978-1-4503-1868-6/13/03.
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We have been actively engaged in the following activities: Summer high-school teacher workshops using funding from NCWIT, Microsoft, Google and our industrial partners. The workshop helps create an atmosphere of collaboration and partnership between high-school teachers and our faculty. Regional high school visits. We have presented at traditional engineering fairs and female-dominant engineering classes, spoken in girl-only classes in magnet schools. Having a female department head also conveys a strong message to prospective female students of a favorable climate. Undergraduate support. The College of Engineering (CoE) has two special dorms for its students, Hypatia for females and Galileo for males. We have discussed CS careers with these students and encouraged them to consider a CS major. We also offer CS modules to about 75 first-year students through a program organized by the CoE and offered the summer before students arrive on campus. Diversity-oriented conferences. We send students to both the Grace Hopper Celebration and the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing annually, and have been among the top academic sponsors of Tapia. We co-coordinate the regional affiliate of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing, along with George Mason University and the University of Virginia, to honor highschool teachers and students for their efforts in computing.
As a result of these efforts, we have seen a significant jump in our enrollment of women in computing disciplines at FAMU of almost 20%; additionally, we have seen increased commitment from AAWCS participants to pursuing graduate degrees in CS/IT (80% of the women that graduated from the AAWCS program have either enrolled in a graduate program in CS/IT or state that they plan to in the near future).
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors thank the National Science Foundation for support under award CNS-0813956, NCWIT’s Strategic Partners National Science Foundation, Microsoft and Bank of America, and Investment Partners Avaya, Pfizer, Merck and Turner. Data collection for the NCWIT external evaluation was only possible with the cooperation of Academic Alliance institutions. All opinions reflected in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Science Foundation.
6. REFERENCES [1] Litzler, E. 2010. NCWIT External Evaluation Report. Center for Workforce Development, Seattle, WA. Unpublished. [2] Barker, L.J. & Cohoon, J.M. How Can You Re-Engineer Your Undergraduate Program to Increase Women's Representation in Computing? Small Steps Toward Systemic Change. NCWIT, Boulder, CO. http://www.ncwit.org/reengineerundergrad [3] Haungs, M., Clark, M., Clements, J. & Janzen, D. Improving First-year Success and Retention through Interest-Based CS0 Courses. In Proceedings of the 43rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (Raleigh, NC, USA, February 29- March 3, 2012). SIGCSE 2012. ACM, New York, NY. [4] Barg, M., Fekete, A., Greening, T., Hollands, O., Kay, J. & Kingston, J. Problem-based Learning for Foundation Computer Science Courses. Computer Science Education, 10(2): 109- 128, 2000. [5] Lotkowski, V. Robbins, S. & Noeth, R. The Role of Academic and Non-academic Factors in Improving College Retention. ACT Policy Report, 2004. [6] Roadshow-in-a-Box: Capitalizing on Models for Outreach. NCWIT, Boulder, CO. http://www.ncwit.org/ roadshow [7] Barker, L.J. & Cohoon, J.M. How Can You Re-Engineer Your Undergraduate Program to Increase Women's Representation in Computing? Small Steps Toward Systemic Change. NCWIT, Boulder, CO. http://www.ncwit.org/reengineerundergrad [8] Communicating for Change: Persuade Colleagues to Get on Board. NCWIT, Boulder, CO. http://www.ncwit.org/commchange [9] Barker, L. and Cohoon, J. Key Practices for Retaining Undergraduates in Computing. NCWIT, Boulder, CO. http://www.ncwit.org/retainundergrads
4. JASON T. BLACK The Computer and Information Sciences Department at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), a HistoricallyBlack College or University (HBCU), has seen a decline in female enrollment of close to 70% from 2001 through 2007. While HBCUs like FAMU have had significantly higher success than the national average at producing BS degrees in computer science compared to majority-serving institutions, the number of female students majoring in CS has declined. Consistent with national trends among HBCUs, the number of women graduates in CIS at FAMU dropped from 31 in 2001 to just 9 in 2006, a 71% decline. It is with this backdrop that the African-American Women in Computer Science (AAWCS) scholarship program was formed in 2008, with funding from NSF. Its goal is to increase the number of women pursuing degrees in CS-related fields. The objectives of the AAWCS program are five-fold: Financial Support. Stipends to reduce strain and to help them focus on their studies rather than second (or third) jobs. Academic Advancement. Services to increase the academic progress of students, including tutoring, academic advisement, and mentoring. Progression. Close monitoring of class schedules during registration; peer-teams, and other coordinated efforts. Graduation. Exposure to research opportunities through REUs and other opportunities; tours of graduate schools and other research labs. Employment. Professional development and corporate career activities; internship and research opportunities. AAWCS students are involved in leadership skill-building activities as well, including middle- and high-school career days and roadshows; academic workshops for middle- and high-school girls; and mentoring for community and school-based programs, such as K-12 computer clubs and Boys and Girls Clubs.
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