Online Learning Communities to Recruit and Retain Students in Information Technology Programs

Abstract

Over the last decade the percentage of women and non-Asian minorities within the US IT workforce has dropped, and the number of undergraduates pursuing computer science degrees has dropped, leading to predictions of a shortage of US citizens who are trained IT professionals. Prevailing labor projections regarding the shortage of information technology (IT) professionals provide impetus for increasing computing-related majors. Unfortunately, many highly talented female and minority students never investigate IT or computer science as an academic option. Current NSF-funded investigation of attitudes toward IT held by US young adults identifies a number of stereotypes regarding IT that are causing difficulty in recruiting interest in IT course work, particularly among under-represented groups such as women. These include the notion that IT professionals are geeky White or Asian males who work long, hard hours in isolation, doing boring things with little chance for creativity or fun. To be successful in marketing IT course work, it is likely that such stereotypes need to be somehow overcome, and that these stand in the way of college IT recruiting programs that depend on antecedent interest in IT. However, our own previous research into undergraduate freshman attitudes toward STEM has suggested that negative perceptions can be countered and positive attitudes toward STEM can be maintained by interventions in the curriculum that humanize STEM professional life and show the social importance of STEM development. Applying this research to the problem of IT recruitment, the suggestion is that it is possible to generate interest in IT even after a student has begun college with no particular antecedent interest in IT.