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Does Outreach Impact Choices of Major for Underrepresented Undergraduate Students?

Published: 09 August 2015 Publication History

Abstract

Over the last decade, there has been a concerted effort to bring more diverse voices to the technology field, with much of this being done through outreach activities to girls and boys. Unfortunately, data demonstrating the long-term impact of outreach activities remains rare. To contribute to knowledge on the longitudinal effect of outreach programs, we used a quantitative methodology that followed a descriptive design approach to explore the impact of participation in outreach activities on the choice of undergraduate major. Of those surveyed, 45.3% of the 770 respondents recalled participating in these activities. The results indicate that these activities had a more positive impact on Asians and more negative impact on Hispanics. Blacks/African Americans were more likely to voluntarily participate in outreach activities than Hispanics, and whites were more likely to feel that they were a welcome part of the group than non-whites. The results also may indicate that when outreach programs are available in earlier grades, they are not reaching non-white participants to the same extent as white participants.

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    ICER '15: Proceedings of the eleventh annual International Conference on International Computing Education Research
    July 2015
    300 pages
    ISBN:9781450336307
    DOI:10.1145/2787622
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    Author Tags

    1. choice of major
    2. computing outreach
    3. effectiveness
    4. impact
    5. minorities
    6. underrepresented groups in computing

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