2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Shifts in Perceptions of Career Pathways: The Impact of an S-STEM Program on Lower-Income Computing Students

Presented at Computing and Information Technology Division (CIT) Technical Session 6

Background
Research on broadening participation in computing tends to focus on self-efficacy, identity, teaching impacts, and retention of students within computing education. Comparatively, less research focuses on students’ career pathways, perceptions of career pathways, and co-curricular support interventions to support their career pathways.
Context
This study is part of ProgramName, an NSF-funded S-STEM collaborative effort among three public universities - University1, University2, and University3 – to support lower-income students pursuing computer science, information technology, cybersecurity, and computer engineering degrees, provides financial assistance based on their unmet financial needs and co-curricular activities to support three main computing career pathways: research (graduate school), internship (industry profession), and entrepreneurship.
Purpose
To better support and understand the impact of the program initiatives, this paper focuses on how ProgramName’s co-curricular activities impact students’ perceptions of career pathways. We present a matched pairs analysis of pre-and post-survey of the cohort’s perspectives of their future career pathways. This survey focuses on the students’ self-assessed knowledge/understanding, interest, and likeliness of choosing each career pathway.
Theoretical Framework and Research Question:
We draw on Lee’s (2019) metaphors that guide broadening participation discussions: pipeline, pathway, ecosystem. Drawing on pathway and ecosystem metaphors as theoretical guidance, we emphasize that all the stakeholders in a computing education ecosystem can support a student’s trajectory toward diverse career pathways.
Design/Method
As the education research team on this larger scholarship support program, we conducted a pre-and post-survey for the cohort in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. These items were developed from our findings in an interview study conducted at one participating university in Fall 2021. Using R, we performed a matched pairs t-test to understand how the program activities impacted their knowledge and interests in the career pathways.
Findings
Our findings suggest that students generally gained knowledge and understanding of each career pathway but did not have a significant shift in interest towards or away from any specific career pathway. However, some statements were close to significant and may exhibit significance with a larger sample size. These patterns may be explored in a subsequent multiple cohorts for greater statistical power. We conceive of student interest not as fixed but as a data point to allow local program leaders to adjust their presentation, shift their language, and address specific pressing questions or fears we find students hold about the pathways.
Implications
First, this research contributes to the literature on computing education literature by our integrated approach to considering the ecosystem of the ProgramName intervention program and the student perceptions of their computing career pathways. Secondly, we emphasize the idea of meeting students where they are and using tools like surveys and interviews to understand their perspective. By gaining a sense of where students are, programs can increase their ability to meet students where they are and these actionable recommendations for S-STEM initiatives and other interventions focused on career pathways can enhance their impact by refining the focus of their content and messaging for lower-income students.

Authors

Ms. Nivedita Kumar http://orcid.org/https://0009-0000-8354-9776 Florida International University [biography]

Nivedita is pursuing her Ph.D. in Engineering & Computing Education at Florida International University. She has a background in computer science engineering. For her dissertation, Nivedita aims to uncover the caste-based inequities within engineering & computing education.
Dr. Stephen Secules http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3149-2306 Florida International University [biography]

Stephen is an Assistant Professor Engineering and Computing Education at Florida International University. He has a prior academic and professional background in engineering, having worked professionally as an acoustical engineer. He has taught a number of courses on design, sociotechnical contexts, education, and learning. He conducts research on equity and culture in engineering education and supports undergraduate and graduate student researchers through the Equity Research Group.
Maimuna Begum Kali http://orcid.org/https://0000-0003-1770-7363 Florida International University [biography]

Maimuna Begum Kali is a Ph.D. candidate in the Engineering and Computing Education program at the School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering Education (SUCCEED) at Florida International University (FIU). She earned her B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). Kali's research interests center on exploring the experiences of marginalized engineering students, with a particular focus on their hidden identity, mental health, and wellbeing. Her work aims to enhance inclusivity and diversity in engineering education, contributing to the larger body of research in the field.
Mrs. Tiana Solis http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0036-1124 Florida International University [biography]

Tiana Solis is an instructor and a part-time Ph.D. student at Florida International University. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Computer Science from SUNY (State University of New York) Polytechnic Institute in Utica, New York.

Her research and instructional interests include student access and success in computing, Diversity Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education.
Dr. Atota Bedane Halkiyo Arizona State University [biography]

Dr. Halkiyo is a Postdoctoral Associate at the School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering Education at Florida International University. Dr. Halkiyo graduated in Education Policy and Evaluation from Arizona State University and uses mixed methods but largely qualitative inquiry to study his primary research interest: enhancing higher education equity for all students, particularly those from international and/or underrepresented backgrounds (e.g., women and/or Black students in engineering). He envisions researching and removing possible systemic learning barriers from the curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and learning environment to make education more responsive to all learners. Halkiyo taught and worked at a university in Ethiopia, where he was also a principal investigator of the “Engendering Higher Education Curricula” research project. Dr. Halkiyo is a Fulbright-Hays Fellow, where he conducted his dissertation research on global education policy transfer from the global West/North to the global South/East, specifically Ethiopia, Africa.
Dr. Mark Allen Weiss Florida International University [biography]

Mark Allen Weiss is Distinguished University Professor, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the College of Engineering and Computing, and Associate Director in the School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University
Dr. Michael Georgiopoulos University of Central Florida [biography]

Michael Georgiopoulos received the Diploma in EE from the National
Technical University in Athens, his MS degree and Ph.D. degree in EE
from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, in 1981, 1983 and
1986, respectively. He is currently a Professor in the Department of EECS
at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL. From September 2011 to June 2012 he served as the Interim Assistant Vice President of Research at the Office of Research and Commercialization. Since July 2012 he is serving as the Interim Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

His research interests lie in the areas of Machine Learning and applications with
special emphasis on neural network and neuro-evolutionary algorithms,
and their applications. He has published more than 60 journal papers
and more than 170 conference papers in a variety of conference and
journal venues. He has been an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks from 2002 to 2006, and an Associate Editor of the Neural Networks journal from 2006 to 2012. He has served as the Technical Co-Chair of the IJCNN 2011.
Mrs. Jacqueline Faith Sullivan University of Central Florida [biography]

Since 2012, Jackie Sullivan (MSEnvE), has been an Adjunct Instructor at UCF (Orlando) in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) and has instructed the first year engineering students since 2015. Ms. Sullivan worked in consulting engineerin
Dr. Ken Christensen P.E. University of South Florida [biography]

Ken Christensen (christen@csee.usf.edu) is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Florida. Ken received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1991. Hi
Angela Estacion

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