Work-In-Progress: Tackling DEI Issues in the Classroom Through Interactive Historical Fiction

Stephany Coffman-Wolph; John K. Estell

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Conference: 2022 First-Year Engineering Experience
Location: East Lansing, Michigan
Publication Date: July 31, 2022
Start Date: July 31, 2022
End Date: August 2, 2022
Conference Session: Technical Session M1
Tagged Topics: Diversity and Works In Progress
Page Count: 4
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42263
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/42263
Download Count: 179

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Paper Authors

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Stephany Coffman-Wolph Ohio Northern University

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Dr. Stephany Coffman-Wolph is an Assistant Professor at Ohio Northern University in the Department of Electrical, Computer Engineering, and Computer Science (ECCS). Research interests include: Artificial Intelligence, Fuzzy Logic, Game Theory, Teaching Computer Science, STEM Outreach, Increasing diversity in STEM (women and first generation), and Software Engineering.

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John K. Estell Ohio Northern University

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An active member of ASEE for over 25 years, Dr. John K. Estell was elected in 2016 as a Fellow of ASEE in recognition of the breadth, richness, and quality of his contributions to the betterment of engineering education. Estell currently serves on the ASEE Board of Directors as the Vice President of Professional Interest Councils and as the Chair of Professional Interest Council III. He has held multiple ASEE leadership positions within the First-Year Programs (FPD) and Computers in Education (CoED) divisions, and with the Ad Hoc Committee on Interdivisional Cooperation, Interdivisional Town Hall Planning Committee, ASEE Active, and the Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Estell has received multiple ASEE Annual Conference Best Paper awards from the Computers in Education, First-Year Programs, and Design in Engineering Education Divisions. He has also been recognized by ASEE as the recipient of the 2005 Merl K. Miller Award and by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) with the 2018 ASEE Best Card Award. Estell received the First-Year Programs Division’s Distinguished Service Award in 2019.

Estell currently serves as an ABET Commissioner and as a subcommittee chair on ABET’s Accreditation Council Training Committee. He was previously a Member-At-Large on the Computing Accreditation Commission Executive Committee and a Program Evaluator for both computer engineering and computer science. Estell is well-known for his significant contributions on streamlining student outcomes assessment processes and has been an invited presenter at the ABET Symposium on multiple occasions. He was named an ABET Fellow in 2021. Estell is also a founding member and current Vice President of The Pledge of the Computing Professional, an organization dedicated to the promotion of ethics in the computing professions.

Estell is Professor of Computer Engineering and Computer Science at Ohio Northern University, where he currently teaches first-year programming and user interface design courses, and serves on the college’s Capstone Design Committee. Much of his research involves design education pedagogy, including formative assessment of client-student interactions, modeling sources of engineering design constraints, and applying the entrepreneurial mindset to first-year programming projects through student engagement in educational software development. Estell earned his BS in Computer Science and Engineering degree from The University of Toledo and both his MS and PhD degrees in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Abstract

The retro 80s game, Oregon Trail, taught and inspired a generation about a significant historical event in the United States - the beginning of westward expansion. The game has achieved almost cult-like status, but this does not exclude the game from flaws concerning the lack of representation and other Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) issues. Female representation has been and continues to be an issue within computing fields and computer gaming. Given that women are stakeholders in educational software and part of the audience, it is essential they see themselves being positively represented. Creating a version of the Oregon Trail game that presents a more realistic view of women’s contribution to westward expansion could help combat some of the negative gender stereotypes in existence.

The first-year aspiring software developers (of all genders) will create a historical-based interactive fiction gamification app. Specifically, the students will create a game exploring the nature of American Western Expansion through the lens of the women who undertook the dangerous journey along the Oregon Trail in the mid-1800s. The authors’ motivation is to combat negative stereotypes found in the original game and provide positive representation to current and future students. The primary goal of the project is to develop first-year programming students’ ability to use storytelling in software development. Additionally, will provide students with opportunities to exam diversity issues within a familiar context, help to develop social awareness, and appreciate different perspectives. This project is a springboard for a future special topics course on storytelling with the bonus of providing the current computer science majors with more experiences with major software development.

This paper will provide background on the project, lesson plans, details of the course assignments, and results of end survey results regarding the project. This paper will supply all interested audience members with materials developed “in-house” to add in adoption efforts by others. Accordingly, a “Card” - i.e., an information repository – will be created for this paper on the Engineering Unleashed website operated by KEEN. This card provides instructional materials mentioned in this paper and can be freely downloaded, reviewed, adopted, and if desired modified, by anyone for use in their courses under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC license.

Citation
Format

Coffman-Wolph, S., & Estell, J. K. (2022, July), Work-In-Progress: Tackling DEI Issues in the Classroom Through Interactive Historical Fiction Paper presented at 2022 First-Year Engineering Experience, East Lansing, Michigan. 10.18260/1-2--42263

TY - CPAPER
AB - The retro 80s game, Oregon Trail, taught and inspired a generation about a significant historical event in the United States - the beginning of westward expansion. The game has achieved almost cult-like status, but this does not exclude the game from flaws concerning the lack of representation and other Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) issues. Female representation has been and continues to be an issue within computing fields and computer gaming. Given that women are stakeholders in educational software and part of the audience, it is essential they see themselves being positively represented. Creating a version of the Oregon Trail game that presents a more realistic view of women’s contribution to westward expansion could help combat some of the negative gender stereotypes in existence.

The first-year aspiring software developers (of all genders) will create a historical-based interactive fiction gamification app. Specifically, the students will create a game exploring the nature of American Western Expansion through the lens of the women who undertook the dangerous journey along the Oregon Trail in the mid-1800s. The authors’ motivation is to combat negative stereotypes found in the original game and provide positive representation to current and future students. The primary goal of the project is to develop first-year programming students’ ability to use storytelling in software development. Additionally, will provide students with opportunities to exam diversity issues within a familiar context, help to develop social awareness, and appreciate different perspectives. This project is a springboard for a future special topics course on storytelling with the bonus of providing the current computer science majors with more experiences with major software development.

This paper will provide background on the project, lesson plans, details of the course assignments, and results of end survey results regarding the project. This paper will supply all interested audience members with materials developed “in-house” to add in adoption efforts by others. Accordingly, a “Card” - i.e., an information repository – will be created for this paper on the Engineering Unleashed website operated by KEEN. This card provides instructional materials mentioned in this paper and can be freely downloaded, reviewed, adopted, and if desired modified, by anyone for use in their courses under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC license.
AU - Stephany Coffman-Wolph
AU - John K. Estell
CY - East Lansing, Michigan
DA - 2022/07/31
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Work-In-Progress: Tackling DEI Issues in the Classroom Through Interactive Historical Fiction
UR - https://peer.asee.org/42263
DO - 10.18260/1-2--42263
ER -