ITiCSE 2007, Dundee, Scotland, UK

Studying Our Inclusive Practices:Course Experiences of Students with Disabilities

Katherine DeibelComputer Science and

EngineeringUniversity of Washington, Seattle

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This is a Methodology Paper

▬More about:▬Research Challenges▬Data collection methods▬Analysis methods

▬Less about:▬Presenting findings▬Interpreting findings

How to best study the course experiences of CS students with

disabilities

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Outline

▬Motivation: Inclusive Education

▬Methodology

▬Research challenges

▬Interview study design

▬Implementation and Early Findings

▬Implementation Details

▬Early findings

▬Conclusion and Future Work

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Inclusive Education

▬Incorporate accommodations into one’s educational practices [Loreman, 2005]▬Minimizes accommodation requests

▬Proactive instead of reactive

▬Focus on all forms of disabilities

Support all students of all abilities in all learning situations

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What about Computing Education?

How successful are we at including students with

disabilities?

How do we answer that question?

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Approach

Go straight to the source: Students with disabilities in CS

courses

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Definition Challenges

▬Disability is medically and legally defined

▬Not all “disabled” people identify as having a disability▬ To avoid stigmatization (e.g., depression,

learning disabilities, etc.)

▬ Cultural beliefs (e.g., Deaf culture)

▬Implications:▬ Study should explore all disabilities

▬ Calls for participants need to be carefully worded

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Call for Participation

Do you have a physical, mobility, psychiatric, or learning disability?

Are you Deaf or hard of hearing?

Do you have ADD/HD, depression, or anxiety issues?

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Visibility Challenges

▬Not all disabilities are readily visible

▬Disability services keep lists of students registered as having a disability:▬ Students must request accommodations

▬ Students with invisible disabilities tend to delay requesting accommodations [Cory, 2005]

▬Implications:▬ Cannot rely solely on students registered

with disability services

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Recruitment of Participants

▬Do not rely on list of students from disability services

▬Recruit from the entire course▬Course mailing lists

▬Course webs

▬Course bulletin boards

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Population Challenges

▬Only 9.8% of U.S. college freshmen have a disability [Scott et al., 2004]

▬CS undergraduates: 7.2% [NSF, 2004]

▬Represents a wide diversity of disabilities

▬Implications:

▬Expect a small number of participants

▬Participants will have different disabilities

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Achieving a Large Sample

▬Recruit from multiple courses

▬Recruit from multiple terms

▬Recruit across multiple institutions

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Summary of Challenges

▬Difficulty in recruiting participants

▬Small number of participants

▬Unlikely to have multiple participants with the same disabilities

▬Multiple iterations of the study necessary to collect a large sample

▬Data validity is a concern

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A Qualitative Approach

Illustrative Case Study

Semi-Structured Interviews

Grounded Theory Analysis

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Illustrative Case Study

▬In-depth investigation of a phenomenon

▬Looks at only a few instances

▬Develop theories to illustrate what is occurring in those instances

▬Theories generated can be explored in further studies

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Semi-Structured Interviews

▬One-on-one interviews

▬Prepared questions are only a guide

▬Subject drives the conversation

▬Multiple interviews can be conducted

▬Captures changes over time

▬Allows exploration of a wide variety of topics

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Sample Interview Questions

▬How does your instructor run the course? What do you like? Not like?

▬How does your disability affect your education? How will it affect you in this course?

▬Assuming that your instructor(s) knew about your disability, how would you want them to respond to you as a student?

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Grounded Theory

▬Analysis approach for qualitative data [Taylor & Bogdan, 1998]

▬Inductively develop themes from data

▬Occurs throughout the data collection process

▬Themes evolve as more data is analyzed

▬Interview questions are adapted to further explore and challenge themes

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Previous Disability Studies

▬Students with dyslexia [Edwards, 1994]

▬Invisible disabilities & accommodations [Cory, 2005]

▬Disability and Queer Women [Whitney, 2006]

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Implementation Details

▬Student interviewed twice

▬Two iterations have been completed

▬First Iteration (in paper):

▬Two participants

▬Second Iteration (recently conducted):

▬Two participants

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Observations

▬Many participants not registered with disability services

▬Richness of conversations

▬Many themes arise out of the data

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Identified Themes

▬Self-Advocacy

▬Family Support

▬Not Registering With Disability Services

▬Multimodal Presentation

▬Benefits of Online Course Artifacts

▬Access Breakdowns

▬Podcasting

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Theme: Course Artifacts Online▬Availability of course slides,

textbooks, and code produced in class noted as helpful:▬Seth: bypasses hearing

problem

▬Alan: reduces need for note taking

▬Pam: less anxiety if gets lost

▬Dave: less anxiety if misses lecture or gets behind in course

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Sub-Theme: Podcasting

▬Several courses at UW are now audio recorded and available as podcasts

▬Desirability of podcasts noted:▬Seth: beneficial in other courses

▬Alan: alternative to notetaking and limited access tutorials

▬Dave: Never used podcasts in other courses

Would have used for CS1

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Conclusions and Future Work▬Research challenges for this are

exist

▬Methodology addresses the challenges

▬Rich data set to be analyzed further

▬For the future…

▬More interviews?

▬Helping researchers at other universities?

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Acknowledgements

▬The participants

▬Sheryl Burgstahler and Rebecca Cory, DO-IT, University of Washington

▬British Computer Society

▬Graduate & Professional Student Senate, University of Washington

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Thank you

Questions?

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Extra Slides

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Implementing Inclusion

▬Implemented and studied with success at many schools [Clough & Corbett, 2000].

▬Numerous inclusion guides exist:

▬K-12: Loreman et al., 2005.

▬College: Burgstahler, 2005; Strange, 2000.

▬Involves good pedagogical practices:

▬Reflective learning, collaborative learning, attention to different learning styles, etc.

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Participants

AlanAnimation course

Art

Developmental Disability

Registered with DRS

Dave* CS1

Psychology

OCD, depression, anxiety

Not registered with DRS

SethCS1

Intended CS major

Deaf in one ear

Not registered with DRS

Pam CS2

Intended CS or EE major

Generalized anxiety disorder

Not registered with DRS

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Theme: Self-Advocacy

▬All participants viewed themselves as responsible for managing their disabilities▬Alan: contacting faculty before

start of term

▬Seth: sitting in best places for hearing, selecting study locations

▬Pam:monitoring anxiety, attending to deadlines

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Theme: Family Support

▬Families involved Alan and Seth in K-12 accommodation discussions

▬Alan: Parents intervened after accommodations fell through

▬Exceptions do exist:

▬Dave: Family denies existence of psychological conditions

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Theme: Disability Services

▬All participants had invisible disabilities▬Three not registered with disability

services:▬Seth is able to self-accommodate ▬Pam and Dave do not view selves as

disabled▬Similar to findings by Cory, 2005

▬Alan does register with disability services:▬Accommodations: books on tape,

electronic text▬Has realized he needs the support

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Theme: Multimodal Presentation▬Beneficial if instructor presents

material both orally and visually

▬Seth: bypasses hearing problem

▬Alan: potentially overwhelming if too much text is presented

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Sub-Theme: Access Breakdowns▬Access breakdowns are problematic:

▬Pam: TA never passed on password to textbook;

Lost access to exercises▬Alan: Course textbook decided

at last minute

Most lectures were software tutorials

DVD tutorials available only at limited times in a specific lab