Retaining Women in CS Majors Using Research-Based Initiatives

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Retaining Women in CS Majors Using Research-Based
Initiatives

• Maureen S. Biggers
• College of Computing
• Georgia Institute of Technology

J. McGrath Cohoon National Center for Women
IT University of Virginia
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Retention Is Increasingly Important
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Mean Annual Undergraduate Attrition 1995 -
2000
Women are especially at risk
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Who is Likely to Persist?
Some of your students will leave no matter what
you do
Some of your students will stay no matter what
you do
Some of your students will allow you to
influence their decisions to stay or leave
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Overview

• Five sets of retention recommendations
• Based on research
• Institutional retention
• Retention in computing majors
• Assess your departments retention practices
• A few words of advice about change

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Retention on One Hand

• Routinely facilitate academic success
• Promote community
• Maintain interest
• through curriculum
• Support students
• Monitor outcomes

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Facilitate Academic success Routinely
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Provide Feedback and Context

• Test early and often
• Put Performance in Context

• A llllllllll
• B llllllllllllllllllllll
• C lllllllllllllll
• D lll
• F ll
• A75 100
• B 60 74

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Emphasize Homework

• Skill building through

Practice Practice Practice
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Research Experiences for Undergrads
REU
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Encourage Participation

• Find some truth in whatever students say
• Inhibit show-offs
• Promote asking questions

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Train Teaching Assistants

• Critical to student experience
• Feedback context
• Practice builds skill
• Participation
• Encourage persistence

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Encourage Student Persistence
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Promote community
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Use Collaborative Learning

• Peer led team learning
• Pair programming
• www.umkc.edu/cad/si

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Collaborative Learning Benefits Retention and

• Community academic achievement
• Greater sense of academic community
• Quality interaction with profs and peers

• Higher test scores
• Higher levels of student involvement
• Higher levels of enthusiasm
• Pursuit of topics to more advanced levels

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Promote Peer Support

• Avoid isolating women and minorities
• Facilitate student interaction
• Study groups
• ACM
• Womens groups
• Peer mentoring

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Create A Comfortable Climate

• Use inclusive language
• Spotlight women for their accomplishments,
  not their gender

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Maintain interest through curriculum
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Highlight Curricular Flexibility

• CS and

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Highlight Relevance

• Use meaningful examples
• Describe how skills can be applied
• Especially in ways that help people

• Programming is a tool
• Survey course

Computer science is creating the applications,
processes, and tools that allow computers to
solve real world problems not being a code
monkey
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Support students
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Mentor for Diversity

• Reach out to women

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Intervene and be Intrusive

• The first 3 - 6 weeks on your campus can make or
  break for program completion
• therefore . . .
• FRONTLOAD

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Use Intrusive Academic Advising

• Early Warning System
• Call those who miss 2-3 consecutive classes
• Below C on first test
• Failure to register

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Intentional Role Modeling

• Describe your personal history
• highlight shared elements
• Explain how they could achieve what you achieved

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Monitor outcomes
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Collect Data to Track Results

• Measure goal attainment
• Report results
• Revise
• Continue/
• Discontinue

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Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)

• Minute Paper
• What is the most important thing youve learned
  in class today?
• What is the main, unanswered question you have?

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More CATs

• Punctuation Lectures
• Stop and reflect on what students were doing
• Productive Study Time Logs
• Record time spent studying for class
• When
• How productively
• http//www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/assess.htm

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NCWIT SEM Survey

• Student Experience of the Major

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Assess Retention Outcomes

• Track enrollment
• Track course outcomes
• Report results

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Change is a process
Gender Diversity in Computing
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Create Conditions for Change
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Retention on One Hand

• Routinely facilitate academic success
• Promote community
• Maintain interest
• through curriculum
• Support students
• Monitor outcomes

Overall Advice Start right Classroom experience
is critical