HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Blending Socioeconomic-Inclusive Design into Undergraduate Computing Curricula to Build a Larger Computing Workforce

在改进的本科生STEM教育：拉美裔服务机构(HSI计划)的支持下，该Track 2项目旨在通过解决计算机科学(CS)学生的留住问题，特别是那些社会经济地位(SES)较低的学生，来服务于国家利益。这项工作是第一次调查一种新的计算教学方法，这种方法承认社会经济多样性，包括第一代大学生，同时通过在本科计算机科学课程的所有四年中使用社会经济包容性放大法(SESMag)在计算课程中不断培养包容性和公平性。该项目将利用SESMag方法，并帮助教师将其整合到学生CS核心课程的所有四年中。拟议的方法建立在早期工作的基础上，将是“微创的”，并且占用非常少的课堂时间。取而代之的是，公平和包容将被广泛地整合到计算机科学课堂和学生已经在做的工作中。通过20多名教师和2000多名学生的参与，该项目将实施该方法，并评估其有效性、可行性、可持续性，以及对一些注册在同一课程、在同一房间举行、但导致不同学业结果的学生的学业结果的影响。这一问题将在公共的城市机构中进行研究，但也适用于其他机构，包括那些农村和多样性较少的机构，可以适用于其他STEM学位课程。这种方法建立在公平设计方法和包容性设计之前的工作的坚实基础上。计算机教育的知识将通过以下贡献得到提高：嵌入社会经济设计的新课程课程；培养教师成功地将社会经济公平设计嵌入他们的课程的教师课程；这些变化对学生在课堂上的学术成功的影响的经验证据；计算机课程和专业对文化影响的经验证据；以及支持在其他课程中采用这种方法的材料的开发。以学生为中心的研究问题涉及留任、学术成果和教育氛围，而以教师为中心的研究问题则考察教师的动机、方法的可行性和可持续性。这种方法将使所有学生都有机会在课堂上获得相同的学术体验，而不受外部因素(社会经济因素)的影响，从而增加为信息社会和经济作出贡献的计算机专业人员的数量。该项目的主要目标是改善(1)计算教育经验和(2)计算学生进入其计算专业的实践的公平性和包容性。这项工作的结果将与西班牙裔服务机构计算联盟(CAHSI)共享，该联盟是美国国家科学基金会埃迪·伯尼斯·约翰逊包括的联盟。HSI计划旨在加强本科生STEM教育和HSI的能力建设。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2 project aims to serve the national interest by addressing the retention of computer science (CS) students, especially those of low socioeconomic status (SES). This work is the first to investigate a new approach to teaching computing that acknowledges socioeconomic diversity, including first-generation college students, while continually fostering inclusivity and equity by using the SocioEconomic Inclusivity Magnifier method (SESMag) in computing courses throughout all four years of an undergraduate computer science curriculum. The project will leverage the SESMag method and help faculty integrate it throughout all four years of the students’ CS core curriculum. The proposed approach, built on earlier work, will be “minimally invasive” and occupy very little classroom time. Instead, equity and inclusion will be integrated pervasively into the computer science classroom and the work the students are already doing. Through the participation of over 20 faculty and over 2000 students, this project will implement the approach and evaluate its effectiveness, feasibility, sustainability, and impact on academic outcomes for some students registered in the same courses, held in the same room, but result in different academic outcomes. This problem will be examined in a public, urban institution but applies to other institutions, including those that are rural and less diverse institutions and could be adapted to other STEM degree programs.This approach builds on solid foundations from equitable design methods and prior work in inclusive design. Knowledge of computing education will be advanced by contributing: new course curricula that embeds socioeconomic design; an educate-the-faculty curriculum to foster faculty success at embedding socioeconomic equitable design into their courses; empirical evidence of the impacts of the changes on the student’s academic success in the classroom; empirical evidence of impacts on the culture in computing classes and majors; and development of materials supporting the adoption of this method in other classes. Student-focused research questions address retention, academic outcomes, and educational climate, while faculty-focused research questions examine faculty motivation, feasibility of the approach, and sustainability. This approach will equip all students with the opportunity to have the same academic experience in a classroom, regardless of external factors (socioeconomic factors), increasing the number of computing professionals contributing to the information-based society and economy. The primary goal of the project is to improve equity and inclusivity of (1) the computing education experience and (2) the practices that computing students take into their computing professions. Results from this work will be shared with the Computing Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institutions (CAHSI), an NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Alliance. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.