ACM Education Council 8/24/2015

You should (and absolutely can) keep diversity in sharp focus during the enrollment

surgeLisa Kaczmarczyk, Evaluation & Assessment Consulting

Alvaro Monge, California State Long BeachHeather Pon-Barry, Mount Holyoke CollegeSuzanne Westbrook, University of Arizona

Jeff Offutt, George Mason University

California State UniversityLong Beach: CSULB

• Public, large Master's College and University located in Long Beach California (population ~470,000).– Enrollment: 37,500 students– Diverse student body: 37% Latino/Latina, 23% Asian/Pacific Islander, 20% Caucasian,

4% African Americans.– Hispanic Serving Institution– More than 50% of undergraduates Pell eligible

• Computer Engineering and Computer Science Department– Fall 2014: 1149 FTES (80% are undergraduates), Fall 2010: 617 FTES– % of Latino/a students dropped from 26.7% to 21.8% in these years– % of women remains flat at about 11%– % of Asian students has increased from 26.3% to 44.6% ACM Education Council 8/24/2015

CSULB: Addressing growth• Working with NCWIT Extension Services Undergraduate Program (NCWIT ES-UP).• Improve outward facing image: web site, brochures, and social networks• Actively recruit at the community colleges where there’s a larger number of

underrepresented students. • Recruit from students enrolling in non-major courses• Create CS1 sections for students with no prior programming experience and other

sections for those with that experience.• Assign faculty with more teaching experience to the first-year courses.• Increase level of student-student interaction and student-faculty interaction as a way to

retain students.• Use engaging instructional material from NCWIT’s EngageCSEdu.

ACM Education Council 8/24/2015

• Liberal Arts College for women• 2189 undergraduates

• Computer Science Department• 4.5 tenure-track faculty + 2 visitors• Majors: 87 (2015), 55 (2014), 47 (2013), 31 (2012)• Many double major in CS + another field (over 50%)

Heather Pon-Barry – 8/14/15 - RESPECT

20+% first-gen

women

ACM Education Council 8/24/2015

• Can we support larger enrollments while maintaining close contact with students and providing careful feedback?

• Megas and Gigas Educate (MaGE)• Community of peer educators, role-models• MaGE Training course (half-semester)

• Self-reflection on learning and motivation• Peer mentoring roles• Diversity, inclusion, and giving feedback• Code review practice

Heather Pon-Barry – 8/14/15 - RESPECTACM Education Council 8/24/2015

University of ArizonaComputer Science and Information Science

• Public State Research 1; 41K students total; 33K undergrads• CS: ~16 TT faculty, 3 Lecturers, some adjuncts• IS: ~5 TT faculty, 1 Lecturer, numerous adjuncts• Number of Total Majors

– CS (includes pre-CS) F13:748 -> F14:984 -> F15:1224– IS F13:168 -> F14:193 -> F15:204

• Percent Female and percent URM– CS F13: 12%, 26% -> F14: 14%, 27% -> F15: 15%, 28%– IS F13: 19%, 27% -> 23%, 29% -> 23%, 30%

• Degrees conferred (Total / %Female / %URM)– CS SP13: 77/13%/9% -> SP14: 94/10%/12% -> SP15: 112/12%/9%– IS SP13: 9/22%/11%) -> SP14: 27/11%/22% -> SP15: 38/18%/13%

ACM Education Council 8/24/2015

Challenges of increased enrollment on diversity and possible solution

• Can be difficult to establish and maintain community and sense of belonging among undergrads in large classes - to make them feel “known”

• Limited funding to increase faculty size• Section Leader programs in both CS and IS have potential to

help with this – but need to have a dedicated department focus on retaining female and URM students and on recruiting female and URM SLs

ACM Education Council 8/24/2015

George Mason University• Public state research university

– 34K students (65% undergrad)– Virginia DC suburbs– Extremely diverse student body (<50% European, 33% first generation)

• Computer Science department– 44 faculty members– 1000 undergraduate majors (2014: 900, 2010: 450)– 365 MS students, ~150 PhD students

• Undergraduate majors– 14% female, 46% European, 27% Asian

• CS 1 growth: 2015—500+, 2014—484, 2011—215• CS 2 growth: 2015—250+, 2014—214, 2011—106

SPARC

ACM Education Council 8/24/2015

cs.gmu.edu/~kdobolyi/cs112/

The SPARC ConceptThe Black-belt Model

• Self-paced demonstration of skills and knowledge

• Students earn stripes and beltsCollaborative practice problems (peer learning)

Automated grading of assessments

Online content deliveryInstructors work with students

individually

Self-paced learning

No competitionMultiple attempts are

allowed

SPARC

ACM Education Council 8/24/2015