Salt Lake City, Utah
June 23, 2018
June 23, 2018
July 27, 2018
Computing and Information Technology
Diversity
14
10.18260/1-2--30474
https://peer.asee.org/30474
492
Dr. Zhen Wu is a research scientist at National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) at University of Colorado Boulder. Her research interests emphasize the meaningful participation of women in computing. Her recent research focuses on recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in undergraduate computing and engineering programs. Dr. Wu received her Ph.D in Education from University of Virginia.
Christopher Lynnly Hovey is a research associate in the Department of Information Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research focuses on issues related to increasing diversity in higher education computing programs through student recruitment and retention, and through innovative pedagogy. His most recent work investigates how individual, social, and organizational features influence faculty in their decisions to adopt student-centered teaching practices. Chris received his bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Colorado and his M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Northeastern University in Boston.
Dr. Leisa Thompson is a Research Scientist in Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Virginia. She also works for the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) as the Director of Research and Consulting for the NCWIT Extension Services for Undergraduate Programs. Dr. Thompson conducts research on systemic reform that focus on recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in undergraduate computing and engineering programs. Dr. Thompson has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and over 15 years of corporate experience in Engineering and Information Technology as an applications engineer, systems administrator, systems engineer, and senior consultant for companies such as Xerox, Hughes Electronics, and IBM Corporation. She has also presented at various regional, national, and international conferences.
Actively recruiting women into computer science at the undergraduate level is an important step in addressing women's underrepresentation in computing disciplines in the United States. Most academic departments involve faculty or current students in outreach events and/or produce materials to communicate with prospective students, their teachers, and families. Often, however, little thought is given to the return on investment of this nontrivial use of scarce resources (money, time), the effectiveness of the messages provided to the particular audience, or to tracking outcomes. This study uses a mixed methods design to investigate recruiting strategies and outcomes (i.e., women's applications, acceptances, new enrollments, and declared majors in computer science) of seven computing departments that participated in a two-year National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) Extension Services Undergraduate Program (ES-UP). Findings from this study may help other undergraduate computing departments improve their recruiting strategies to attract more women.
Wu, Z., & Hovey, C. L., & Thompson, L. D. (2018, June), Expanding the Pool of Undergraduate Computing Students: Increasing Enrollments by Strategically Recruiting Women Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30474
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