2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The rapid expansion of the computing field creates a continuous demand for skilled computing workers. However, there is a dearth of postsecondary students in computing majors and the field lacks the diversity present in the U.S. population. This project, funded by the NSF DUE/HSI Program, developed artificial intelligence (AI) courses and a college credit certificate that will attract a diverse group of community college students to AI, build interest in the field, and start the development of a 4-year degree program. Increasing capacity to attract and train students in AI serves the national interest, and the Hispanic-Serving Community College (HSCC) context makes the learning accessible to more students. This collaboration between the community college, university and industry partners, a non-profit organization, and social scientists attempts to more fully understand how to implement, assess, and expand computing pathways for a diverse group of students, especially in the community college (CC) context.

One of the primary main objectives for the project was to develop and implement an interdisciplinary AI certificate, which was completed at the HSCC. Throughout the first years of the certificate courses offerings, the research team has conducted a phenomenological study using computing identity development theory (Lunn et al, 2021; Rodriguez et al., 2022) and Hispanic-Servingness frameworks (Garcia et. al., 2019) to inform semi-structured interviews with students. The team has interviewed 35 students from a range of majors (i.e., data analytics, cybersecurity, and philosophy) and various background demographics (i.e., race, ethnicity, age, nationality, socio-economic status).

Findings from the early interviews show that students pursued the computing certificate for career advancement or re-skilling purposes. Students applied their new-found computing skills in their small businesses, their jobs, and they expect those skills to assist them in future employment. Finally, throughout the coursework, students were often affirmed in their interests and provided opportunities to build computing identity by demonstrating knowledge from course content. We found that students were recognized by their family, friends, and coworkers as computing people, and these support systems reaffirmed their learning, aspirations, and identities within computing.

In addition to prior work highlighting student motivation for pursuing the certificate and applications of their newly developed skills and computing identities, in the past year of the grant we explored the experiences of men of color, how the HSCC serves its minoritized students, and what institutional practices created barriers to identity development. Our recent findings highlight the need for intentional HSCC servingness and consideration of the various social identities (i.e. Latine, men of color, working full time, low income, post traditionally aged) present in community college students to make the courses accessible and beneficial. The findings are significant in thinking about how the HSCC AI certificate is structured as well as its delivery to students. In addition, our work takes an institutional focus, reinforcing the responsibility for colleges and universities to prepare themselves for minoritized students to improve diversity in the computing field instead of expecting these students to change themselves to fit the institution's historical practices.