GSE/RES: Students' Pathways into Computer and Information Sciences Majors:A Study of Community College Men and Women

Etr Associates, Watsonville CA

Investigators

Abstract

Intellectual Merit: Women's enrollment in computer and information sciences (CIS) majors and completion of CIS undergraduate and graduate degrees has declined in the US over the last 20 years. Efforts to reverse this trend have been limited by a lack of research on the pathways into and out of CIS majors, including community college pathways. Community colleges are of interest because they attract a higher proportion of females and a broader demographic in terms of age and socioeconomic status than 4-year universities. This study is designed to collect data that can be used to inform efforts to encourage women to pursue CIS majors by exploring the experiences of women and men in community colleges taking introductory programming courses and the impact of those experiences on their decisions to pursue a four-year CIS degree. The study is based on theoretical frameworks that suggest the importance of motivation, parent and peer support, and previous computer use, especially computer game play. The researchers will recruit 700 female and male students in introductory programming courses at community colleges that are key feeder schools to the University of California (4-year public universities) CIS departments. Participants will complete three surveys over two years, and a subsample will be interviewed. Broader Impacts: The findings of the study will provide much-needed data on three widely held assumptions about gender differences in pathways to CIS majors; recent reviews suggest that there is little actual research on the role of motivation, family support and computer use (particularly digital gaming) among community college CIS students. That which exists was collected before the availability of widely accessible mobile (e.g., cell phone) and multiplayer Internet games, is short on theory, does not examine variation within gender, and lacks a design or analytic approach that allows for causal inference or the determination of effect sizes. This study will overcome these limitations and provide data on why students choose introductory programming courses and how those influential factors relate to decisions to pursue CIS at a 4-year institution. In addition, this study will contribute to knowledge about the role of digital gaming in choice of CIS major, since prior research focuses on frequency of game play rather than on type of play. This research will inform efforts to increase the number of students who pursue CIS majors at 4-year universities. Enrollment in these majors has dropped in the last five years, especially for women. But efforts to close the gender gap have been limited by a lack of rigorous research on students? pathways into and through community college; little is known about why CIS students transfer to 4-year institutions. This research aims to fill this gap by identifying the characteristics and prior experience of students who take introductory programming courses, and whether those characteristics and current experience in CIS courses predict intention to go on to pursue a CIS major at a 4-year university.