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1. Vlog Commentary YouTube Influencers as Effective Advisors in College and Career Readiness for Minorities in Computing: An Exploratory Stud

   Cummings, R.T.; Huff, E.; Mack, N.A.; Womack, K.; Reid, A.; Ghoram, B.; Gilbert, J.E.; Gosha, K (February 2019, Proceedings of the 2019 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT))

   Poor computing identity contributes to a deficit in performance of Black American computing students compared to their other ethnic counterparts. As the demand for computing careers continues to increase, it is imperative to discover novel ways to improve the deficit of minority college and career performance in computing. Black American social media influencers that produce video log (vlog) commentary content were investigated on the YouTube platform to determine the influence they have on improving computing identity of minority students through computing and academic advisement. This exploratory study consists of two studies: (1) a synthesis of vlog commentary college and career advisement videos, coding for the quality of advisement, usability, and user experience, and (2) an advisor effectiveness and user experience survey using a selected minority social media influencer who provides computing college and career advisement. Findings suggest YouTube influencers were effective (over a series of measures), particularly for beginners in the computing field. As minorities heavily participate in and enjoy the use of YouTube and social media, computing advisement influencers on social media allow for supplemental advisement at a wide scale. Future studies intend to further experiment minority computing advisement through social media over a long term and at varying levels of interaction. Findings help validate existing academic advisement influencers and prompts new approaches for organizations and industries to engage with prospective Black American students and members for preparation and training purposes. 

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2. Platform Effects on Alternative Influencer Content: Understanding How Audiences and Channels Shape Misinformation Online

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2021.642394  

   Hiaeshutter-Rice, Dan; Chinn, Sedona; Chen, Kaiping (May 2021, Frontiers in Political Science)

   People are increasingly exposed to science and political information from social media. One consequence is that these sites play host to “alternative influencers,” who spread misinformation. However, content posted by alternative influencers on different social media platforms is unlikely to be homogenous. Our study uses computational methods to investigate how dimensions we refer to as audience and channel of social media platforms influence emotion and topics in content posted by “alternative influencers” on different platforms. Using COVID-19 as an example, we find that alternative influencers’ content contained more anger and fear words on Facebook and Twitter compared to YouTube. We also found that these actors discussed substantively different topics in their COVID-19 content on YouTube compared to Twitter and Facebook. With these findings, we discuss how the audience and channel of different social media platforms affect alternative influencers’ ability to spread misinformation online. 

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3. Student Persistence Factors for Engineering and Computing Undergraduates

   Gholezadeh, Sona; Petrulis, Bob; Gatzke Edward P (June 2023, ASEE Annual Conference)

   The research and evaluation team of an S-STEM project at a large, research-intensive Southeastern public university conducted a cross-sectional survey as a first step to compare factors which may influence undergraduate student persistence in engineering and computing. All engineering and computing students were invited to participate in the survey, and 282 (10.4%) provided responses. The respondents included 15 high financial need students who were participating in the S-STEM program, of which 7 were first-year students and 8 were sophomores. The remaining 267 respondents were undergraduates ranging from first-year to seniors. Survey questions were adapted from previously developed instruments on self-efficacy, sense-of-belonging, identity, community involvement, and overall college experience. Additional questions related to stress levels, academic life, use and effectiveness of academic supports, and the impacts of COVID-19 on their college experiences. The team compared responses by level of academic progression, declared major, gender, and race/ethnicity. Student responses showed a variety of similarities and differences between subgroups. Overall, the students said that they often attended lectures (in-person or online) and came to class prepared. At the same time, students rated these activities as the least effective academic supports. On the other hand, the students rated working assigned or extra homework problems and studying for exams as their most effective activities. Consistently among the subgroups, the students said their community involvement and identity as developing engineers were relatively low while self-efficacy and team self-efficacy were seen as stronger personal skills. The students said they were highly stressed about their grades and academic success in general, and about finances and future careers. They reported feeling less stress about aspects such as living away from home and negotiating the university social scene. Students reported spending the most time preparing for class in their first year compared to students in later years. Female students (104 responses) reported higher levels of community involvement, engineering identity, and engagement in college life compared to male students (142 responses) while there was little gender-related difference in self-efficacy and sense of belonging. Levels of self-efficacy and team self-efficacy did not show large differences based on year in college. Interestingly, first-year students expressed the highest levels of engineering identity while senior students the lowest. Senior students reported the lowest community involvement, sense of belonging, and engineering identity compared to other students. Overall, students from different races self-reported the same levels of self-efficacy. Black/African American students reported the highest levels of community involvement, college life, and identity. There were no substantial differences in self-efficacy among the different engineering and computing majors. This study is a first step in analysis of the students’ input. In addition to surveying the students, the team also conducted interviews of the participating S-STEM students, and analysis of these interviews will provide greater depth to interpretation of the survey results. Overall, the research and evaluation team’s intention is to provide insight to the project’s leadership in how best to support the success of first-year engineering and computing students. https://peer.asee.org/student-persistence-factors-for-engineering-and-computing-undergraduates 

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4. Do I Think I’m an Engineer? Understanding the Impact of Engineering Identity on Retention

   Hughes, Bryce E.; Schell, William J.; Annand, Emma; Beigel, Romy; Kwapisz, Monika B.; Tallman, Brett (June 2019, American Society for Engineering Education)

   National reports have indicated colleges and universities need to increase the number of students graduating with engineering degrees to meet anticipated job openings in the near-term future. Fields like engineering are critical to the nation’s economic strength and competitiveness globally, and engineering expertise is needed to solve society’s most pressing problems. Yet only about 40% of students who aspire to an engineering degree follow the path to complete one, and an even smaller percentage of those students continue into an engineering career. Underlying students’ motivation to transform their engineering interest into an engineering career is the psychological construct of engineering identity. Engineering identity reflects the extent to which a person identifies with being an engineer. Previous research has focused on experiences or interventions that promote engineering identity, and some qualitative work has suggested students who are retained in engineering experience differences in engineering identity, but little research has tested the relationship between retention and engineering identity, especially modeling change in engineering identity over four years of college. The data for this study were taken from the 2013 College Senior Survey (CSS), administered to students at the end of their fourth year of college by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) at the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. Students’ responses to CSS items were then matched to their responses to the Freshman Survey (TFS), also administered by CIRP, at the very beginning of their first year of college. For this study, all students who indicated their intended major as engineering at the start of college constituted the sample, which included 1205 students at 72 universities. The dependent variable is a dichotomous variable indicating if students marked engineering as their major at the end of the fourth year of college. The main independent variable of interest in this study is engineering identity. Engineering identity was computed using exploratory factor analysis with three items from the CSS indicating the importance to students of becoming an authority in their chosen field, being recognized for contributions to their field, and making theoretical contributions to science. Hierarchical generalized linear modeling with robust standard errors was used to model engineering retention as the dependent variable was dichotomous in nature and the data were “nested” in structure (students nested within universities). Control variables include a pretest of engineering identity from the TFS, college experiences known to predict retention and other outcomes in engineering, demographic variables, precollege academic preparation, choice of engineering major, academic and social self-concept at college entry, and institutional characteristics. In the final model, engineering identity was a significant predictor of engineering retention, controlling for all other factors including the engineering identity pretest. 

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5. “Shadowbanning is not a thing”: black box gaslighting and the power to independently know and credibly critique algorithms

   https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1994624  

   Cotter, Kelley (October 2021, Information, Communication & Society)

   Efforts to govern algorithms have centerd the ‘black box problem,’ or the opacity of algorithms resulting from corporate secrecy and technical complexity. In this article, I conceptualize a related and equally fundamental challenge for governance efforts: black box gaslighting. Black box gaslighting captures how platforms may leverage perceptions of their epistemic authority on their algorithms to undermine users’ confidence in what they know about algorithms and destabilize credible criticism. I explicate the concept of black box gaslighting through a case study of the ‘shadowbanning’ dispute within the Instagram influencer community, drawing on interviews with influencers (n = 17) and online discourse materials (e.g., social media posts, blog posts, videos, etc.). I argue that black box gaslighting presents a formidable deterrent for those seeking accountability: an epistemic contest over the legitimacy of critiques in which platforms hold the upper hand. At the same time, I suggest we must be mindful of the partial nature of platforms’ claim to ‘the truth,’ as well as the value of user understandings of algorithms. 

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