experiences in broadening participation in computing jerlando jackson (evaluator) tiffany barnes...

Experiences in Broadening Participation

in Computing

www.StarsAlliance.org Jerlando Jackson (Evaluator)

Tiffany Barnes (Co-PI)

The STARS Alliance:

http://www.starsalliance.org/

STARS:Students & Technology in Academia, Research and Service

IndustryPartners

Community Partners

Minority Institutions

ProfessionalOrganizations

K-12Partners

CommunityColleges

STUDENTS

Women’sInstitutions

Research Universities

The STARS Alliance

NC State

Meredith College

Georgia Tech

USF Lakeland

Landmark College(Vermont)

UNC Charlotte

Spelman College

Auburn

Florida State

Florida A & M

Five Regional Partnerships

The STARS Alliance

The STARS AllianceStudents & Technology in Academics, Research, and Service 4Barnes & Jackson

NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance Mission

• Broaden participation in computing for ALL students, particularly for underrepresented groups

• Target populations– middle school through graduate students

• How?– STARS Leadership: Instill a lifelong sense of responsibility to use

computing to improve quality of life


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance Alliance Projects

• Student Leadership Corps (SLC)• Includes leadership for Students with Disabilities

• Pair Programming• Teaching Math to the Visually Impaired• African-American Researchers in Computer

Science (AARCS)


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance SLC

• Student Leadership Corps (SLC)– Students will be introduced to mentoring, leadership

skills, research experiences, preparation for graduate school, professional development, and civic engagement. This will be achieved through: SLC monthly seminar series, electronic journals, SLC assignments, and peer mentoring.


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance Pair Programming

• Pair learning: – Driver/Navigator

• Pair programming benefits:– Comparable or better student performance & retention– Teachers prefer it (less work, higher quality results)

• Benefits outweigh the costs . . . – Some dysfunctional pair management– Need for pair evaluation (PairEval tool helps)

• Workshop: January 10-12, 2007 in Tampa– All are invited! Check out starsalliance.org for info


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance TMVI

• Teaching Math to the Visually Impaired– This demonstration project is an effort to teach math to

visually impaired students. The mathgenie is a program developed with the goal of providing a personal math reader to blind students trying to learn math in K-12.


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance Activities

• African-American Researchers in Computing Science– This is a demonstration project dedicated to increasing the

participation of African American students attending HBCUs in research related positions. The three components of this project include: targeted presentations, future faculty mentoring, and an annual mini-conference.


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS AllianceYear 1

Accomplishments

• Steering Committee:– First planning meeting held in January– Regular teleconferences for planning & update

• STARS Celebration– Successful Annual Conference held in August– Approx. 120 students, 25 faculty

• Student Leadership Corps– 2 universities implemented in Summer 2006– All implemented in Fall 2006


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance Accomplishments

• Web portal– StarsAlliance.org

• Evaluation– Instrument development in progress

• Alliance Organizational evaluation instruments• SLC pre-survey complete, post survey almost

– Training of graduate SLC students in interview techniques– Pre-Interviews of some SLC students

• Coordination with UNC Charlotte REU Site• Faculty recruiting at UNC Charlotte!• Workshop on Pair Programming & Mentoring planned for

January 10-12 in Tampa, FL


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS AllianceStudent Leadership

Corps• Hypothesis: students who participate in

outreach, service, or research using their computing skills are more likely to be retained.

• They also assist in recruiting younger students.• SLC is a framework that unifies “effective

practices” – civic engagement, service learning, mentoring,

professional development and research experiences.


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance SLC Components

• STARS Celebration• Alliance-wide summer workshop (Atlanta 2006, Charlotte

2007, Florida 2008)• Includes showcase of past SLC accomplishments.

Sponsored by TIAA CREF in 2007.

• SLC monthly seminar series• During Fall/Spring semesters at STARS and via webcast

• SLC leadership projects• Outreach, research, service, internship

• Peer mentoring• Have a mentor; serve as a mentor


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance STARS Celebration

• STARS Leadership– Past projects– “How-tos” & planning sessions for new projects

• Technical track– Exposure to different fields/research in computing

• Professional Development– Diversity– Communication skills– Life/work balance


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance Celebration 2006

• Address the elephant in the room– Diversity: race, ethnicity, differing abilities– Embrace the differences– Build community and move ahead

• Focus on diversity– Made some uncomfortable– But comfortable enough to give feedback– Uncovered stereotypes– Facilitated discussion


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance Celebration 2006

• Students enthusiastic about workshop– Empowered to take leadership– Technical sessions– Learning about other programs– Seeing diverse people in computing

• Faculty enthusiastic– Designed by committee with many agendas!– Still successful

• Next year:– More technical tracks, separate student/faculty tracks– Like a Grace Hopper Conference for BPC (i.e. not just women)


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance Evaluation

• Comprehensive and cohesive evaluation of multiple programs• Across multiple institutions• Across multi-year participation • Will allow insights for replication efforts• Will bring insights about effects for:

– Alliance structure– University Faculty– Students– K-12 Counselors, kids, parents, teachers

• Three-Tiered Outcomes Model:– Organizational Outcomes (e.g., Alliance)– Program Level Outcomes (e.g., Demonstration Projects)– Individual Level Outcomes (e.g., Students)


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance Alliance Outcomes

• Increased student enrollment in computing and IT programs• Increased student awareness about computing and IT• Increased student readiness to enter computing and IT

graduate school and workforce• Increased participation of undergraduates entering computing

and/or IT graduate school or workforce• Increased graduate rates of computing and IT students• Increased persistence and declaration of students majoring in

computing or IT• Increased college adjustment and GPA for students in

computing or IT


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance Alliance Outcomes

• Sustained Alliance Efficacy

• Institutionalize Alliance Partnerships

• Increased national awareness of effective practices for Alliance development

• Serve as a model and repository for BPC

The STARS AllianceStudents & Technology in Academics, Research, and Service

STARS Alliance

Preliminary results


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance Alliance infrastructure

• Time is major issue for both faculty & students• Need tools to facilitate:

– Collaboration– Communication– Management– Timelines & deadlines– Tracking– Reporting– Sharing resources


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance

Cross-institutional collaboration

• Faculty see this as very successful

• Students excited to meet students from other places

• Recruiting across Alliance!

• Looking forward to building more


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS AllianceSynergy with existing

programs

• Essential to success

• Examples:– Charlotte REU & CRA-DMP Summer 2006– Mentoring on NCSU campus– Intel Opportunities at Georgia Tech

• Share resources and minimize work


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS AllianceRecruiting students

• A challenge at first: What is STARS?

• Now: More students want to join!

• Creating ways for non-funded students to join– STARS Alliance club– Course credit, other avenues

• Creating ways to recognize participation


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS AllianceReplication

of best practices

• A Challenge!• How do you make professors do something

new?• You must show how it benefits them• Need a cookbook approach


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS AllianceEffects of Alliance on

faculty careers

• Writing circles• Mentoring within the Alliance

– happening informally

• Collaborations– Landmark College, REU Site proposal, Gaming

programs at UNCC, Auburn


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS Alliance Sustaining changes

• Student STARS Alliance club– Other methods for credit for participation?– Certificate, transcript credit, course credit

• Faculty recruiting at UNC Charlotte: – 2 new black faculty, 2 new women

• Existence of Alliance is raising awareness:– Deans and departments are using STARS Leaders

for recruiting and involving them in dept activities and policy-making, marketing


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS AllianceHow can I become a

star?

• Join our advisory boards• Provide mentors through Industry affiliates• Provide speakers for seminars or STARS

Celebration • Sponsorship• Replicate our models

– Replicate the evaluation as well


NSF-BPC 2006

STARS AllianceCompeting points of

view…• SLC

– different implementations, same evaluation– everyone differing in approach to SLC

• Interventions: extracurricular v curricular?• Impact on faculty careers

– To do it or not to do it?– Told not to do it, but we do it anyway– Social relevance to engaging students but why not for faculty?– PUBLISH IT, tie it to metrics of success for faculty careers

• Different definitions of computing/IT• Support, institutionalization, sustaining…• Infrastructure

STARSAlliance.orgStudents & Technology in Academia, Research, and Service

PI: Teresa Dahlberg [email protected]: Tiffany Barnes [email protected]

Lead Evaluator: Jerlando Jackson

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

experiences in broadening participation in computing jerlando jackson (evaluator) tiffany barnes...

Documents

service stars alliance

stars alliance slide

stars leadership

graduate students

impaired students

slc students coordination

blind students

younger students