TY - GEN
T1 - Computer Science Cohorts in New Student Orientation to Promote Departmental Identification, High Impact Practices
AU - Hug, Sarah
AU - Nicolas, Suzie
AU - Morreale, Patricia
AU - Diplan, Nohelia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Owner/Author.
PY - 2024/5/16
Y1 - 2024/5/16
N2 - Sufficiently serving computer science students at minority serving institutions entails systematic communication of the "hidden curriculum"- the unwritten rules and tacit norms of traversing a disciplinary academic space- knowledge that students might learn from those with college-going backgrounds. At Kean University, department-run new student orientation has become a mechanism for integrating new students into the institution as well as into the computer science department's community. The course addressed what Kezar and Holcombe call "Elements of STEM student success", or the needs of students at the intersection of first-generation familial experiences and STEM student college newcomers. In this work in progress experience report, we use data from retrospective pre post surveys to show student participants in the orientation indicate greater intent to engage in High Impact Practices, greater confidence in their major choice, and strong identification with their STEM discipline. The authors discuss how systemic, department level orientation processes at institutions that serve underrepresented student populations can impart academic and career path blueprints that move beyond institutional retention and improve equitable advancements in computing.
AB - Sufficiently serving computer science students at minority serving institutions entails systematic communication of the "hidden curriculum"- the unwritten rules and tacit norms of traversing a disciplinary academic space- knowledge that students might learn from those with college-going backgrounds. At Kean University, department-run new student orientation has become a mechanism for integrating new students into the institution as well as into the computer science department's community. The course addressed what Kezar and Holcombe call "Elements of STEM student success", or the needs of students at the intersection of first-generation familial experiences and STEM student college newcomers. In this work in progress experience report, we use data from retrospective pre post surveys to show student participants in the orientation indicate greater intent to engage in High Impact Practices, greater confidence in their major choice, and strong identification with their STEM discipline. The authors discuss how systemic, department level orientation processes at institutions that serve underrepresented student populations can impart academic and career path blueprints that move beyond institutional retention and improve equitable advancements in computing.
KW - cohort development
KW - diversity and inclusion
KW - first year students
KW - new student orientation
KW - Retention
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85194815977&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3653666.3656079
DO - 10.1145/3653666.3656079
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85194815977
T3 - RESPECT 2024 - Proceedings of the Conference for Research on Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology
SP - 278
EP - 283
BT - RESPECT 2024 - Proceedings of the Conference for Research on Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology
PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
T2 - 9th Conference for Research on Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology, RESPECT 2024
Y2 - 16 May 2024 through 17 May 2024
ER -