Abstract:This study examines an aspect of gender and racial/ethnic gaps in undergraduate computing by focusing on sense of belonging among women and underrepresented minority (URM) introductory computing students. We examine change in sense of belonging during the introductory course as well as the predictors of belonging, with attention to conditional effects by gender and URM status. Results show that sense of belonging outcomes are a product of both incoming student characteristics and college environments and experiences, highlighting the important role the computing faculty play in fostering belonging. These and other findings are discussed, focusing on sense of belonging among women, URM students, and URM women.

As enrollments in computer science (CS) undergraduate programs are booming, CS departments are struggling to accommodate more students while also seeking to bring more women and underrepresented minority (URM) students into the field. A particular burden has been placed on introductory CS (i.e., CS1) courses to navigate these important, but sometimes competing, realities. As CS departments employ strategies to manage growing enrollments and recruit more diverse students into their CS1 courses, administrators and faculty will benefit from knowing more about the students who take these courses and how they may differ based on their major (CS majors and non-majors), gender, and race/ethnicity. This paper presents findings from a national study of CS1 courses and discusses key differences in introductory course students' demographic and background characteristics and pre-course experiences across these groups.

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