(1) DEP/RadGrad: Enhancing individualized learning plans and communities of practice to improve engagement, retention, and diversity in undergraduate computer science education Philip Johnson, Carleton Moore Dept. of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Hawaii Seungoh Paek, Peter Leong Dept. of Learning Design and Technology, University of Hawaii

(2) What do we want?

(3) What do we want? Retention! • Less students bailing on a STEM degree. Diversity! • More women, underrepresented groups

(4) Why do we want it?

(5) Why do we want it? 65% of students will work in jobs that don’t exist today.

(6) Why do we want it? CS majors have tripled since 2006 and will continue to grow.

(7) Why do we want it? US high school students rank near bottom of industrialized nations in math.

(8) Why do we want it? Fewer than 40% of STEM majors complete the degree.

(9) Why do we want it? Female participation in CS has declined from 37% in the mid- 1980’s to 18% in 2014

(10) Why do we want it? Google, Inc (2014)

(11) Why do we want it? Women are less likely to join and more likely to leave CS than men.

(12) Why do we want it? The epicenter for CS innovation suffers from entrenched sexual harassment

(13) What are “we” doing about it?

(14) What are we doing about it? Increase class size, increase academic barriers, reduce course offerings (Generation CS, 2017)

(15) What are we doing about it? Enrollment limits, increased class sizes, academic barriers disproportionately impact underrepresented groups

(16) What are we doing about it? Short-term educational programs do not provide analytical depth needed for leading edge of innovation

(17) What are we doing about it? Students must decide for themselves how to integrate these course offerings with their conventional degree program

(18) What are we doing about it? Great for target demographic, do not necessarily address overall engagement and retention

(19) DEP/RadGrad is a new approach

(20) Objectives of this project Improve engagement • Widen and deepen interest in CS Improve retention • Increase odds of finishing the degree Improve diversity • Increase engagement and retention among women and underrepresented groups

(21) The big idea “Old School” degree programs: • Single kind of activity (coursework) • Single metric for success (GPA) • “Career Planning” separate from “Academic Planning” Maybe part of the problem for engagement, retention, and diversity

(22) The big idea The “Degree Experience Plan (DEP)” • First class status for both curricular and extracurricular activities • GPA replaced by “ICE” metric (Innovation, Competency, Experience) • Explicit representation of disciplinary interests and career goals • Implemented in a “private social network” called RadGrad which includes game mechanics to encourage participation and appropriate degree planning behavior

(23) RadGrad Students specify interests, career goals, degree plan

(24) RadGrad RadGrad provides a faculty-curated database of interests and career goals appropriate to the discipline and department

(25) RadGrad Students design a degree plan containing both curricular and extracurricular activities based on interests, career goals

(26) RadGrad Progress and quality of degree plan assessed through Innovation, Competency, and Experience points, not GPA

(27) RadGrad Students “pay it forward” by providing non-anonymous (moderated) reviews of curricular and extracurricular activities.

(28) RadGrad Mentors (former students and high tech professionals) can support students through a modified “AMA” format.

(29) RadGrad RadGrad provides a specialized UI for academic advisors so they can help students more efficiently and effectively.

(30) Why might this work?

(31) Why might this work? Factors to increase gender diversity: 1. Positive reinforcement of CS pursuits from friends and family 2. Self-perception as interested in problem solving and belief that those skills can be translated to a successful career 3. Availability of curricular and extracurricular activities 4. Perception of CS as a career with diverse applications and potential for societal impact These factors are generally lacking in traditional degree programs. DEP/RadGrad addresses 2, 3, 4

(32) Why might this work? Communities of practice: • A domain of interest shared by all practitioners • Members engage in joint activities and discussions • Members are practitioners, not just people with shared interests. • Members develop a shared repertoire of resources CS Departments are not usually CoPs for undergrads RadGrad identifies CoPs, helps build them

(33) Why might this work? Individual learning plan: • Originally developed for middle and high school • Align academic activities with post-school goals (college, military, etc.) • Include academic planner, career explorer, personality and learning style assessments, resume builder, action plan University programs do not have ILPs DEP/RadGrad is an ILP

(34) Research Questions

(35) Research Questions What factors facilitate, or impede, student, faculty, and advisor utilization of DEP/RadGrad? What are the relationships between student demographic variables and (a) program retention and (b) diversity? What are the impacts of DEP/RadGrad utilization on (a) program retention and (b) diversity? What are the impacts of DEP/RadGrad utilization on student perceptions regarding (a) STEM learning and (b) career opportunities?

(36) Status We built it, now will they come? We have funding for graduate RAs. Contact [email protected] for more info