BPC-DP: Using Learning Communities to Recruit Women and Minorities in Computing

伊利诺伊州立大学（ISU）提出了一个示范项目，招收更多的女性、非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人进入it相关专业。ISU有信息系统、电信管理、计算机科学、工业计算机系统、商业信息系统和会计信息系统六个专业。这些专业范围使学生能够表达他们在该领域的各种兴趣和才能。一个附带的项目目标是使学生对计算机领域的各种职业机会产生积极的态度。该项目针对的是那些可能永远不会将IT作为学术选择的一年级和二年级学生。它旨在克服吸引这些学生学习计算机的主要障碍之一：他们对该领域的初级课程没有足够的兴趣。这一障碍将通过针对那些已经证明有数学能力但没有参加计算机课程的学生来克服：它将从1700多名国际州立大学学生中挑选一年级和二年级学生参加的有限数学课程。这些学生有可能成功地完成与it相关的专业。该项目将有许多目标，包括强调计算机职业的机会和多样性，提供校园内外的榜样，使该领域人性化，激励学生探索计算机职业，使用博客等技术支持的流行场所，创造学术和社会环境，以及教育数学教师关于有限数学课程与计算领域之间的联系。它将以1)学习社区研讨会、2)在线学习社区和3)教师学习社区为特色，所有这些都旨在营造一个支持女性和少数族裔参与计算机专业的学术和社会环境。一个由两名外部评估人员组成的团队将关注项目的过程和结果。

Illinois State University (ISU) proposes a demonstration project to recruit a greater number of women, African-Americans, and Hispanics into an IT-related major. There are six such majors at ISU: Information Systems, Telecommunications Management, Computer Science, Industrial Computer Systems, Business Information Systems, and Accounting Information Systems. This range of majors allows students to express their varied interests and talents in the field. A collateral project goal is to generate positive student attitudes toward the diverse career opportunities in computing. The project targets first and second-year college students who may never investigate IT as an academic option. It aims to overcome one of the chief impediments to attracting these students to computing: they are not interested enough to take an initial course in the field. This obstacle will be overcome by targeting students who have proven mathematical ability but are not enrolled in a computing course: it will draw from a population of 1700-plus ISU students in a Finite Mathematics course taken by mostly first- and second-year students. There is a realistic possibility that these students could succeed in completing an IT-related major. The project will have a number of objectives, including highlighting the opportunities in, and diversity of computing careers, providing role models from on and off campus who will humanize the field, motivating students to explore careers in computing, using tech-enabled popular venues like blogs, creating an academic and social environment, and educating Math faculty about connections between the Finite Math course and computing fields. It will feature 1) learning communities seminars, 2) online learning communities, and 3) faculty learning communities, all aimed at fostering an academic and social environment that is supportive of female and minority participation in a computing major. A team of two external evaluators will focus on both the process and outcomes of the project.