Much research has been conducted on barriers to attracting and retaining women in undergraduate computing programs. Below is a list of practices suggested by research to increase participation of women, followed by NCWIT Social Science Advisory Board white papers.
- Key Practices for Retaining Undergraduates in Computing
- Top Ten Ways You Can Retain Students in Computing
Strategic Planning for Increasing Women’s Participation Undergraduate Computing Workbook
This workbook presents some guidelines for strategically planning a multi-pronged approach to retain females — and all students — in undergraduate computing programs of study. Download this resource here.
NCWIT Recruitment Workbook A strategic planning outline for recruiting women in undergraduate computing (also check out the accompanying CSTA video of NCWIT Senior Social Scientist Lecia Barker discussing what research tells us about recruiting)
Strategy Trumps Money: Recruiting Undergraduate Women into Computing (IEEE Computer). Download the article here.
Gearing Up for Change: Institutional Reform in Undergraduate Computing Programs
NCWIT's Gearing Up for Change: Institutional Reform in Undergraduate Computing Programs address the components that affect a student’s experience in an undergraduate computing program and conditions that need to be present in order for organizational change to occur. Download this resource here.
NCWIT Survey-in-a-Box: Student Experience of the Major
NCWIT's Survey-in-a-Box: Student Experience of the Major is a set of resources for assessing, interpreting, and improving the climate of undergraduate computing departments to improve retention of and increase enrollment by all students. Visit our Survey-in-a-Box page to read more or download this resource.
- "Top 10 Ideas for Involving More Women in Computing - Academic Version"
- "The Category of 'Girl' with Respect to Technology"
- "The Goal of 'Parity' in Information Technology"
- "Transitions in the Gender Role of Historical Occupations: The Role of Cultural Forces"
Practices
- How Do You Retain Women through Collaborative Learning? Peer-Led Team Learning (Case Study 2)
- How Do You Introduce Computing in an Engaging Way? Storytelling (Case Study 1)
- How Do You Introduce Computing in an Engaging Way? Unplugged (Case Study 2)
- How Do You Introduce Computing in an Engaging Way? Teaching Programming and Language Concepts Using LEGOs® (Case Study 4)
- How Can REU s Help Retain Female Undergraduates? Faculty Perspectives (Case Study 1)
- How Do You Retain Women through Collaborative Learning? Pair Programming (Case Study 1)
- How Does Engaging Curriculum Attract Students to Computing? Media Computation at Georgia Tech (Case Study 1)
- How Do You Recruit or Retain Women Through Inclusive Pedagogy? Conversational Classroom, The (Case Study 1)
- How Do You Recruit or Retain Women through Inclusive Pedagogy? Designing for Diversity (Case Study 2)
- What Makes Electronic Mentoring Effective? MentorNet - www.MentorNet.net (Case Study 1)
- What are the Important Components of Targeted Recruiting? Girls Exploring Science, Engineering, and Technology Event - GESET (Case Study 1)
- How Do You Provide Intentional Role Modeling? Regional Celebrations of Women in Computing - R-CWIC (Case Study 1)
