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Impact on Computing Attitudes and Career Intentions in a Common First Year Program Survey Course

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Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

Computers in Education Division Technical Session 2: Teaching and Learning

Tagged Division

Computers in Education

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--34760

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/34760

Download Count

416

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Paper Authors

biography

D. Cenk Erdil Sacred Heart University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-1380-3497

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Dr. Erdil has joined Sacred Heart University’s School of Computer Science and Engineering in Fall 2017. Prior to SHU, he has held academic positions at Marist College, Columbia University Medical Center, and Istanbul Bilgi University. His research interests include using Cloud Computing as Artificial Intelligence Infrastructures, Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet-of-Things, Teaching coding to P-12 students, and Health Informatics. He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed journal and conference publications in grid and cloud computing. In the past, he designed and implemented a cloud-based public health informatics infrastructure. He is a founding member of the School of Engineering at Istanbul Bilgi University, and was the chair of its Computer Engineering Department. He also designed an adaptive resource-matching framework for large-scale, autonomous grid computing environments, using epidemic dissemination protocols. He is the founding director of Engineers Without Borders International, Turkey branch. At the industry, Dr. Erdil has worked in management and software engineering roles for more than a decade at various organizations, including Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), and Turkish Airlines. He is a senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and a senior member of Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE); and a member of Engineers Without Borders International (EWB-I), American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and Association for Information Systems (AIS).

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Darcy Ronan Sacred Heart University

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Abstract

An introductory collegiate survey course for several major programs in science and engineering presents the opportunity to impact computing attitudes and career intentions as well as knowledge of computer science (CS) concepts. The CS0 course intervention in this study is a semester-long sequence of rotations in computer science, game design, cybersecurity, and engineering. Part of the common first year program in the school of computer science and engineering, this Fall semester course is required for any student interested in studying in one of the six undergraduate major programs. The impacts of this intervention are analyzed according to Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 2000) which posits that beliefs about the self and knowledge about careers are socially influenced, amenable to intervention, and powerful drivers of the development of career interests, goals, and actions. A pre/post survey design including the items of the Computing Attitudes Survey (Dorne & Tew, 2015), major and career interests, as well as open-ended items. Focus groups and interviews provide additional depth to the relationship of course experiences and career intentions. Results from the CS0 portion of the course indicate a positive growth in expert-aligned computing attitudes and career interest. Sub-group and sub-scale analyses reveal jagged and complex student profiles as students’ perceptions of CS were influenced by the course.

Erdil, D. C., & Ronan, D. (2020, June), Impact on Computing Attitudes and Career Intentions in a Common First Year Program Survey Course Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34760

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