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This research paper studies barriers to students continuing in undergraduate computing programs. On the journey to a computing profession, every course has the potential to be an off-ramp away from students’ goals. Every student who leaves a computing degree has a last class they took before not continuing, and a reason they didn’t continue. Based on qualitative analysis of open-ended questions in surveys of students in eight undergraduate computer science and engineering (CSE) courses, we identify common barriers students anticipate, and learn what encourages them to persist onto the next CSE course. For example, even for students within the major, a commonly reported barrier was the perceived inability to enroll in their next computing course due to unclear enrollment systems and requirements. We disaggregate the data by three demographic categories—race/ethnicity, gender, and admissions-type—to understand potential disparate impacts of CSE majors at our large, research- intensive university. Solutions to the reported barriers faced by students may include student-focused interventions, policy and programmatic changes at the department level, and broader institutional or external support. Keywords: 5.b.vii. Computer science, 10.f. Retention, 3. Diversity
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Learning and Engineering Student Retention
This study investigates institutional student retention for engineering majors in a 4-year university setting. Student participant retention was tracked for engineering majors within the institution following enrollment in an introductory to engineering design graphics course that employed active learning sequences. Student retention data was compared to an institution baseline of engineering majors following enrollment in the engineering design graphics course where differences were examined. Notable student retention differences were identified through analysis of the institutional baseline data for participating students.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1900348
- PAR ID:
- 10169402
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the annual midyear conference of the Engineering Design Graphics Division American Society for Engineering Education
- ISSN:
- 1949-5560
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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