HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Blending Socioeconomic-Inclusive Design into Undergraduate Computing Curricula to Build a Larger Computing Workforce

Kean University, Union NJ

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2 project aims to serve the national interest by addressing the retention of computer science (CS) students, especially those of low socioeconomic status (SES). This work is the first to investigate a new approach to teaching computing that acknowledges socioeconomic diversity, including first-generation college students, while continually fostering inclusivity and equity by using the SocioEconomic Inclusivity Magnifier method (SESMag) in computing courses throughout all four years of an undergraduate computer science curriculum. The project will leverage the SESMag method and help faculty integrate it throughout all four years of the students’ CS core curriculum. The proposed approach, built on earlier work, will be “minimally invasive” and occupy very little classroom time. Instead, equity and inclusion will be integrated pervasively into the computer science classroom and the work the students are already doing. Through the participation of over 20 faculty and over 2000 students, this project will implement the approach and evaluate its effectiveness, feasibility, sustainability, and impact on academic outcomes for some students registered in the same courses, held in the same room, but result in different academic outcomes. This problem will be examined in a public, urban institution but applies to other institutions, including those that are rural and less diverse institutions and could be adapted to other STEM degree programs. This approach builds on solid foundations from equitable design methods and prior work in inclusive design. Knowledge of computing education will be advanced by contributing: new course curricula that embeds socioeconomic design; an educate-the-faculty curriculum to foster faculty success at embedding socioeconomic equitable design into their courses; empirical evidence of the impacts of the changes on the student’s academic success in the classroom; empirical evidence of impacts on the culture in computing classes and majors; and development of materials supporting the adoption of this method in other classes. Student-focused research questions address retention, academic outcomes, and educational climate, while faculty-focused research questions examine faculty motivation, feasibility of the approach, and sustainability. This approach will equip all students with the opportunity to have the same academic experience in a classroom, regardless of external factors (socioeconomic factors), increasing the number of computing professionals contributing to the information-based society and economy. The primary goal of the project is to improve equity and inclusivity of (1) the computing education experience and (2) the practices that computing students take into their computing professions. Results from this work will be shared with the Computing Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institutions (CAHSI), an NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Alliance. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.