MULTI-LEVEL STUDENT PEER ASSISTED MENTORING (MSPAM) OF COMPUTER SCIENCE FEMALE STUDENTS AT UNDERGRADUATE

Abstract

- The percentage of female students majoring in computer science is much smaller than that of male students. Computer science has one of the lowest shares of women degree recipients among the broader field of Science and Engineering, with reports of only nineteen percent of the computer science degrees in 2016 been awarded to women at University of Zambia. As such, fewer women than men enter the computing profession, leading to a gender disparity in the computing workforce. A number of factors as suggested as contributing to the current state of poor performance of female in the computing field: women lack confidence; negative stereotype; male orientated culture; lack of appropriate role models in the field, self-efficacy, the curriculum is not tailored to suit their interests and many more, that contribute to this disparity. One way to improve the current state of Female in computer science is to mentor female in the computer science at both undergraduate and in industry. The study used mixed methodology to collect data which are observation, interviews, Literature review, asking questions, gathering information and then presenting the facts. This study proposes Multi-level Student Peer Assisted Mentoring (MSPAM) computer science female at undergraduate, an approach to optimize peer mentoring by organizing mentors into levels.