Gender and Ethnic Diversity in Computer Science

Delaney Nikoofekr, Jerridan Bonbright, Trinidad Ramirez

CST 462S: Race, Gender & Class Digital World

Brian Robertson

Fall 2021
 Introduction

Computer Science in the United States is a field that has historically seen little gender

and ethnic diversity. Data averaged from major institutions such as the University of Southern

California, Oregon State University, and University of California-Berkeley show that as of 2019,

78.3% of Computer Science graduates are male (Computer Science Stem Major). Ethnic data

from the same year shows that over 36% of these graduates are White, with Non-resident Aliens

coming in at a close second with 27%, followed by Asians at just under 18% (Computer Science

Stem Major). However, a steadily increasing number of female graduates, as well as graduates

from other ethnicities, has been emerging since 2012 (Computer Science Stem Major). Bridging

steadily as it may, there still remains a great divide in race and gender in the Computer Science

industry. It is for this reason that we have chosen to delve into the topic of gender and ethnic

diversity in the computer science field. Through our research we hope to come to an accurate

conclusion on this topic and support it using a series of empirical evidence developed from

historical to modern data, as well as anecdotal evidence from Computer Science students

themselves.

Literature Review

The computer science industry is one of the fastest-growing fields with an expected

growth of thirteen percent from 2016 to 2026 (“Are Computer Science Jobs in Demand?,” 2019).

Despite this growth, gender and ethnic diversity in the field has yet to see similar changes.

Although women make up fifty percent of the STEM workforce, their representation in computer

science positions is only twenty-five percent. Ethnic diversity in the field also suffers from

similar gaps. For example, Hispanic, and Black workers occupy 8% and 7% of computer

occupations respectively (Fry et al., 2021). These numbers shed light on the extent to which the
computer science industry, and STEM careers as a whole, are dominated by workers who are

either white, male, or both.

As an effort to move these ratios to a higher percentage of women and minorities, there

are a number of organizations in place with the specific goal of making computer science as a

career stand out to these groups. One example is Building, Recruiting, and Inclusion for

Diversity, or BRAID. BRAID is an organization that partners with colleges and focuses on ways

to attract women and students of color to computer science programs and support them along the

way (“Building, Recruiting,” n.d.). Another example of incentives for women and minorities to

join the computer science field is the smaller pay gap when compared to other industries. These,

as well as other incentives such as tech companies providing good work/life balance are just a

few examples of the push to get women and minorities interested in computer science careers.

When discussing gender and ethnic diversity in the computer science field, it often begins

with the hiring patterns and overall demographics of technology companies; however, to better

understand the reasoning behind this, let’s evaluate who is choosing computer science as a career

and why. Now that CS is increasingly implemented in school systems, it may help to research the

decisions people are making during grade school regarding studying computer science (K – 12),

except these decisions are influenced by many factors. For instance, the 2015 National

Assessment of Educational Progress displayed data showing that lower income students and

Black students in the 12th grade have access to less resources like CS classes (Wang, Moghadam,

2017). Although some schools have begun to find ways to incorporate technology into their

systems, they also need the funding to train kids on how to use it. In addition to using technology

at school and offering CS classes, this implies that the students will have CS homework and will

require a computer at home. Statistics showed that Black and Hispanic students are less likely
than White students to use a computer at home every day. The percentage of students that fall

into this category are 30% Black and 26% Hispanic compared to 45% of White students (Wang,

Moghadam, 2017). Aside from the statistics, social barriers have also influenced the diversity of

the CS field. As popular as computer science has become in the 21 st century alone, there is still a

perceived stereotype around it that the people in this field are usually male, nerdy, and lacking

social skills (Wang, Moghadam, 2017).

Research Question

Regarding gender and ethnic diversity in the computer science field, who is choosing

computer science careers and why? Is it a pure decision or is it one influenced by structural and

social barriers?

Research Design

Interview Questions:

1. How prepared do you feel for this course?

2. Do you find this course easy or difficult and why?

3. What advantages or disadvantages do you think come with working in the computer

science field?

4. Do you plan on taking CS courses in the future? Why or why not?

5. After taking this STEM course, do you think you will continue pursuing the computer

science field? Why or why not?

6. Do you feel you have sufficient resources to succeed in tech courses? Please explain.

Interviews are to be conducted via a Google form for our individual sites which may

occur before, during, or after class. These interviews will be held no later than 10-5-2021. The
target audience for these interviews varies from site to site with the overall age range being

students from age 9 to 22 with the exception of a small number of individuals older than 22. The

majority of the participant audience comes from the lower to middle class and are diverse in

ethnicity.

Service Organizations

Delaney:

● Long Beach City College

● Location: Long Beach, California

● Mission: Long Beach City College is committed to providing equitable student

learning and achievement, academic excellence, and workforce development by

delivering high-quality educational programs and support services to our diverse

communities (Mission & Values 2019).

● Project: Tutoring for a Java-based Data Structures and Algorithms course

Jerridan:

● John Swett High School

● Location: Crockett, California

● Mission: Provide students a safe, equitable and restorative culture in a community

environment, The opportunity to realize their full potential, Access to a relevant,

rigorous, and exceptional learning experience, and more (“School Board” n.d.).

● Project: Teacher’s aide role consisting of lesson preparation and helping students.

Trinidad:
 ● Orange Note, Inc.

● Location: Fremont, California

● Mission: Orange Note, Inc. strives to empower students to become great not by

achieving more but by serving their generation.

● Project: Online Coding Instructor for the JavaScript STEM course, which entails

developing the curriculum, lesson plan, and class material like PowerPoint slides,

coding assignments, and quizzes. In addition, live Zoom class sessions are held to

teach the material, and office hours are allocated to assist students when they need

help on the class material

Conduct Research

As an instructor for Orange Note’s nonprofit JavaScript STEM course, I was able to get

my entire class of 6 students to answer the first two questions, and 1 student to answer all 6.

Since our research is discussing who and why people choose computer science as a field of

study, it makes sense gathering more information on people that study it at a young age where

they are still trying to figure out what they want to do for a living.

The student that answered all 6 questions is an Asian female child around the age of 10

that is currently taking my JavaScript course. She was a good candidate for this because she isn’t

sure if she wants to continue studying computer science, so it was a great opportunity to figure

out why.

From the high school group, fourteen students from two different Multimedia class

periods were sent the survey. These students are included in the target audience since, after high

school, they may choose to pursue a career in whichever field they prefer. This is a good time to

see what high school students’ opinions on computer science careers look like. These students
also have an unbiased opinion on the computer science field since many of them have not yet

enrolled in a typical CS (programming) course. With Multimedia being a technology-based

course that pairs well with certain CS careers (user interface/user experience), these students are

already acquiring skills that may be useful in these jobs whether they realize it or not.

For the Long Beach City College Site, there were three students total. One student was a

27 year old White female, self-proclaimed lower-middle class. The next student was a 25 year

old Asian male, and the last student was a Latino male, age not provided. They were around the

target age group’s upper echelon of average college-aged students, albeit slightly older than the

average which provided some further insight on the possible state of Computer Science student

age demographics. As for the gender gap, the female participant provided a response inline with

statistics from our prior research when asked about the disadvantages working in the CS field,

specifying that the field being “male dominated” is one such disadvantage.

Findings

Data Summary:

One of the more common themes between the JavaScript STEM course students simply

involved the difficulty of computer science. When asked about the negatives of working in the

computer science field, one student responded saying, "Sometimes it is really hard which makes

people frustrated." When the same student was asked about the difficulty of the JavaScript

STEM course, she said, "I find this course difficult because I haven't really had coding

experience before." Another student said, "Coding is difficult than I expect and sometimes I don't

understand it well." Aside from difficulty, a female student mentioned she would join a coding

club if her school had one. That said, in addition to difficulty, resources also add to the challenge

of pursuing computer science.

 As for the high school multimedia students, most did not feel inclined to take computer

science classes in the future. This makes sense since most of the students at this time in their

education are enrolled in the multimedia course to fulfill a requirement rather than for personal

interest. Many of the students also claimed to be at least somewhat prepared for the course due to

individual reasons such as having previous experience with computers or multimedia software.

An interesting finding was that many students believed that computer science jobs are difficult

despite finding the multimedia class not difficult. With multimedia being a branch of computer

science, these students are acquiring skills that can be applied to careers in web design, user

experience design, and computer graphics but may not realize that it is in fact an element of

computer science.

The interviews with the college students revealed some changes in thought processes and

ideals within our test group. Rather than the desire to take a computer science course, most

students at the college level answered that they were taking the class because it was a major

requirement. The majority felt that they had the resources available to them to pass the class and

yet, interestingly enough, most did not feel prepared for the course. It would seem that their

feelings of unpreparedness generally sprouted from partially forgetting the prerequisite course

material, or the prerequisite course being taught in a different programming language than the

current course. When asked why they were pursuing computer science, there were mixed results.

A common theme of lucrative salaries as an advantage could be seen in the responses, but some

simply enjoyed the pursuit of challenge. As for the disadvantages, there were multiple comments

on the ever-changing nature of computer science and the requirement of constantly keeping up

with said changes. The one female student did however mention the field being male-dominated

as a disadvantage (Appendix C).

Common themes:

There were a number of notable common themes in the responses among all age groups.

Difficulty level was one of such similarities. From the kindergarten to college levels, there was a

consensus that computer science is hard. Both younger and older students commented on the

knowledge barrier that exists within the field. Another interesting theme that could be seen

across research sites was the fact that though students believed they had the resources to

succeed, they still felt unprepared for the course. However, their lack of preparation did stem

from different sources. Lastly, there were students of all levels that mentioned the desire for a

proper lecture time as two of the site courses are fully online. As we can see, COVID-19 is still

a large contributor to the difficulty of computer science as the lack of a more structured course

with face to face lectures negatively impacts many students.

Synthesis:

Within the context of our test groups, all of the students’ decisions and answers to the

interview questions, save one, were not based on race or gender at all but the pure difficulty of

computer science. We believe that this provided us some valuable insight on the conclusions that

we drew from our results.

Conclusions

From the data that we have gathered from our research and interviews we can conclude

that most students’ choice to enroll in and pursue computer science is not based on societal

constructs or barriers. Though, we carry a significant amount of skepticism due to the small size

of our interview sample pool. Be that as it may, the majority of key points in our research

question were indeed answered. Interviews with the pre-college students at sites A and B showed
us that those who were interested in walking the computer science path were mostly male, and

those actively majoring in it at site C were also primarily male. We were unable to make any

significant conclusions with regards to race or ethnicity due to lack of data.

In order to maintain a blind aspect in our interview process to obtain “clean” findings, we

chose not to directly ask students if any social constructs influenced their decision to study

computer science. Responses showed that the younger students belonging to the 10-13 age group

were interested in computer science because they liked learning new things and enjoyed the

results of their own creations (Appendix B). However, high school and college students’ interests

were primarily piqued by the allure of a large paycheck (Appendix A, C). The results of our

interviews displayed an apparent absence of societal constructs being the catalyst for students’

choices to pursue computer science. However, even though it did not seem to influence their

academic path, it may still be present in their minds. Specifically, one female student at site C

mentioned the field being male-dominated as a disadvantage (Appendix C). She was the sole

student to mention race or gender across all research sites, though it was unclear whether or not

this affected her decision to major in it.

If there is one principle of social justice covered in the CST 462 course that was

concretely reflected in our conclusion, it is wealth. Younger students seemed to enjoy the thought

of computer science purely because of the challenge and enjoyment of learning new things

(Appendix B). Some older students belonging to sites A and C appeared to retain this sentiment,

but the appeal of a high salary prevailed among survey responses (Appendix A, C). The three

college students that belonged to site C were asked follow-up questions regarding their financial

status after the initial survey. Only one of the three students responded, believing that they

belonged to the lower middle class having a prior income of $30,000 before enrolling full time.
Interestingly enough, this is close to the earnings of LBCC graduates of $32,100 and average

city college graduates in general of $34,600 as of 2013 (Long Beach City College Profile

(2021-22): Long Beach, CA). Furthermore, currently 75% of LBCC students and 76% of all city

college students are receiving some form of financial aid (Long Beach City College Profile

(2021-22): Long Beach, CA). Assuming students make more money after they graduate than

before, then these statistics show that the majority of current LBCC students and by extension

LBCC Computer Science students would be around the lower-middle class. If there is one

conclusion to be drawn from the interview answers and income data on community college

students, it is that wealth is perhaps the biggest societal motivator for lower-middle class

students to join the computer science field.

Recommendations

As far as future research is concerned, refining questions and organizing surveys across a

greater audience may be beneficial in revealing new findings. With improvements to survey

structure as well as a more in-depth method of data analysis, it is likely that new conclusions will

become apparent if this research is to continue. That being said, our findings were a great sample

and led us to a few possible solutions that we feel are worth implementing. These

recommendations are suggested as an effort to increase the interest in computer science careers

among people of different backgrounds.

We found that the individual perceptions of the computer science industry are something

that can vary greatly from person to person and have the possibility to evolve over time. With

many of the younger students having mixed ideas on what the industry involves, we feel that it is

important to convey a realistic image of what computer science jobs actually entail. This is

something that can be done effectively by providing computer science courses as an

extracurricular or possibly as an extension of math courses around the high school level. Being

that this age is where many students decide their career paths, it could be an effective way to

draw a more diverse audience into the field.

Extending on the topic of diversity, support organizations with a focus on encouraging

and assisting minority, female, and lower class students can be beneficial to making the computer

science field more inclusive to people of all backgrounds. The integration of these groups with

high schools in all community types has the potential to not only encourage diversity but also

help teens and young adults get started on a career path with endless opportunities. Said groups

would have the responsibility of creating interesting and engaging activities and materials that

students can use to practice computer science concepts early on.

 References

About 2. Orange Note, Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2021, from

https://www.orangenote.org/our-story.

Are computer science jobs in demand? National University. (2020, March 12).

https://www.nu.edu/resources/are-computer-science-jobs-in-demand/.

Building, recruiting, and inclusion for diversity (braid): Accelerating equity in computing and

technology. Momentum. (n.d.). https://momentum.gseis.ucla.edu/research/braid/.

Community College Review. (n.d.). Long Beach City College Profile (2021-22): Long Beach,

CA. Community College Review. Retrieved October 12, 2021, from

https://www.communitycollegereview.com/long-beach-city-college-profile.

Computer Science Stem Major. Data USA. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2021, from

https://datausa.io/profile/cip/computer-science-110701#demographics.

Fry, R., Kennedy, B., & Funk, C. (2021, April 1). Stem jobs see uneven progress in increasing

gender, racial and ethnic diversity. Pew Research Center Science & Society.

https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/04/01/stem-jobs-see-uneven-progress-in-incre

asing-gender-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/.

Mission & Values. Long Beach City College. (2019, November 27). Retrieved September 28,

2021, from https://www.lbcc.edu/mission-values.

​Ramirez, T. (2021, October). Interview with 10-13-Year-Old JavaScript STEM Course Students.

personal.

Wang, J., & Hejazi Moghadam, S. (2017, March). Diversity barriers in K-12 computer science

education: Structural and social. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical

Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 615-620).

 Appendix

Appendix A

Interview With Students in High School Multimedia Class

These interviews were conducted via a Google Form that was sent out to students enrolled in an

elective multimedia class at a public high school. The survey consisted of six questions that

allowed for a paragraph-style response in which students were encouraged to give detailed

answers. Since this course is an elective, some students chose it intentionally while for others, it

was the only class that fit their schedule.

1. Do you plan on taking Computer Science courses in the future? Why or why not?

I might to get myself more familiar with photoshop, but I want to focus on art in the future so I

don't think I will take more.

No, I do not plan on taking Computer Science courses in the future because they are too difficult.

I would consider taking a Computer Science courses in the future because it's a course that is

very interesting to me.

Maybe, I would consider taking some Computer Science courses in the future. I think that it

would be fun and interesting. I also know that people who major in this field make a lot of

money.

I'm not sure I might if I really end up liking by the end of the year. if very fun and relaxing.

I do not know yet because I haven't thought about it yet.

No, because I'm not very tech savvy.

I'm not sure

Even though taking computer science courses in the future sounds fun, I will not be taking

courses. I have of other goals and challenges in my life that are my first priority.

i dont really know

Maybe, because it provides well-paying jobs

No, I just wanted to learn the basics of photoshop.

Maybe. Im not sure yet.

I'm unsure but I'm probably most likely not.

2. Why did you choose to take this course? Please explain.

It seemed like an easy class.

I chose to take this course because it was a good way to fulfill my requirements.

I chose to take this course because I wanted to learn how to photoshop.

I needed an art class and this class is one that seemed fun and interesting as I have never used

Photoshop before.

people have told me it fun and there wasn't many first periods left

Because I wanted to take art in class and this was the only art available in first period.
I chose to take this course because it looked interesting and fulfilled my requirements.

I thought it would be interesting.

The reason I chose to take this course is because it seemed interesting and fun. Also, I wanted to

learn how to make and change thing into your own perspective.

i was interested in graphics and photoshop

It was the only class for 2nd period

My friends took it last year and said it was a good class.

It seemed interesting and like a fun thing to learn how to do.

It seemed interesting and fun.

3. How prepared do you feel for this course? Think of any courses, school services, online

resources, etc. that have prepared you.

I feel pretty prepared because of previous experience I have had with digital art programs.

I feel somewhat prepared because we have online resources.

I would say I'm half prepared for this course because I had some background knowledge already

in middle school but still have room for improvement.

I feel some what prepared as I have worked with editing software's before such as Final Cut Pro

X and imovie.
I came into this course with no computer skills and this class really help with that computer skill

I was lacking

I have never drawn something in a computer until Computer Science, only in my tablet.

I wasn't very prepared for this course. The most technology that I've worked with is video games

and chrome books for school.

this was my first experience.

When I first started taking this class, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know how to prepare

for it or even knew how to prepare for it. But, after some time taking this course, I learned how

to prepare for it. Mostly, you have to have great listening, good at reading instructions, and

having patience.

I wasnt really prepared i am very creative and have a lot of ideas though

Not really prepared

I took CAD freshman year, but the class is really easy and the teacher wants to help.

I don't have any past experience but I'm a pretty quick learner so I feel prepared.

I think using the internet and seeing things has prepared me.

4. What advantages or disadvantages do you think come with working in the computer

science field?
I believe there are many advantages as computers and digital graphics are very important in

today's modern age.

I think that working in the computer science field would be less stressful.

One disadvantage I think comes with working in the computer science field is how independent

you have to be working on an assignment.

I think that working in the computer science field is beneficial as they make a lot of money. But I

think a disadvantage would be being independent, working by yourself, not interreacting so

much with people.

not getting and outdoor work and maybe not leaving the house for wok so not much gas

spending.

I think you would be able to known how to program in the near future in Computer Science but I

don't think it makes a lot of money.

Some advantages that come with working in the computer science field are that you can earn a

lot of money and that there will always be important jobs related to computer science.

its a Challenge

I feel that there are many advantages when working in the computer science field. Such as,

giving you possibilities to change the world, showing broad, in-depth, and useful skills, and even

having high incomes. Some disadvantages to the computer science field is a bad sleep schedule,

short attention span, and loss of privacy.

I think an advantage is that you can help people and invent new things but i think a disadvantage

is that it takes a lot of work

Adv - Good pay Dis - Can't think of one

I think working in the computer science would be kind of boring for some people. I am more of a

hands on person.

Advantages would be having all/most of your work online. That could also be a disadvantage

though, due to outages and malfunctions.

It's very hard.

5. Do you find this course easy or difficult and why?

I think it is easy because the steps are laid out very clearly so we can succeed.

I find this course easy because it mostly involves following directions.

I find this course a little easy because of the tutorials given to us, but difficult when there isn't

one.

As of right now, I would say that this course has been easy, I have had some set backs, as some

assignments are harder to follow then others.

its different with different thing we do it can be sometimes easy and other time i ask for help

because I'm really stumped

I find it pretty easy (and I'm probably gonna regret saying that) because the instructions are

pretty simple but sometimes hard to understand.

I find this course somewhat difficult because it is hard to think of something creatively and make

it happen on photoshop.

easy

I find this course very easy and fun. Even though sometimes it can be a lot of work, making

things of your own can open you eyes to new experience and interests of the field of computer

science.

i found it kind of easy at first but now we're making more complex things so it is getting more

difficult

It's in between

I find it easy because there are only 5 of us in the class, so the teacher doesn't let us fall to far

behind.

I think its difficult but its easy if you want it to be easy and you really push yourself to learn and

adapt.

I find this course difficult because I don't know a lot of the tools.

6. Do you feel you have sufficient resources to succeed in tech courses? Please explain.

Yes
For certain tech courses like this one, yes.

Yes, I do feel that I have sufficient resources to succeed in tech courses.

I do think so.

in the classroom, yes but at home, no. That's hard because most people can't do the homework at

home only in the class period.

I do not know yet because I have no idea what you are supposed to have in a tech course except

for a computer, keyboard, and mouse.

Yes, I feel like if I wanted to pursue a career in tech. there would be a lot of tools at my disposal

that I could use to help me.

yes

Yes, I feel that I have sufficient resources to succeed in the tech and computer science field. Just

having confidence and patience is already enough to help you through this course.

i dont know

Yes.

Yes I do.

Yes, I do.
 Appendix B

Interview with 10-13-Year-Old JavaScript STEM Course Students

This interview was conducted via Google Forms. Since I am an instructor for my service

learning project, I decided to run this interview as a quiz in Google Classroom. The student is a

10-year-old female Asian student from the East Coast. She was a good candidate for the

interview because she is unsure if she wants to continue studying computer science, and it

seemed like a great opportunity to support our research topic and find out why.

1. After taking this STEM course, do you think you will continue pursuing the computer

science field? Why or why not? (minimum 50 words required)

I think that I might continue pursuing the computer science field. I might do it at school or when

I have free time like in the summer. I don't really have time during the school year to do things

like that. But, IF there was a coding club in my school I might join.

I think I will continue computer science but I am not sure. It is best to finish what you have

started and I think that once I actually accomplished something in computer science it made me

pretty happy and I also enjoy seeing what I have made. Sometimes it can be hard but I start to

understand it later.

Yes, I think so it was fun.

Yes, I think so it was fun and exciting because all the courses made me learn a new things.
Coding is difficult than I expect and sometimes I don't understand it well, but it's fun and

fulfilling to learn new things. However, I am not yet sure if I can do it professionally in this field.

This is because I still feel like there will be too many difficulties and blockages. I think I need

time to learn a little more to determine if it's an area I can do well.

I'm not too sure, but I'd certainly incorporate what I have learned. I do plan to take the skills I've

learned further. To earn credits for "future studies" in jobs and colleges, I will always keep my

interest in coding. I know there is certainly a way to use coding for things like my website or

even creating software dedicated to my performance song mixers.

2. Why did you choose to take this STEM course and learn about JavaScript? Generally,

what sparked your interest in tech? (minimum 50 words required)

I chose this STEM course partly because I like things including tech things and making things

too. My dad also brought this up to me and he said it would be a good idea to join. I don't really

know why I have interest in tech. I think it might be because I just like challenges and learning

new things.

I started to take this STEM course about JavaScript and last time the HTML and CSS course was

because someone actually recommended this class for me. So me and my mom decided that I

would take this course. Really I didn't know anything about coding before taking these classes.

But I think that thanks to corona I got to learn a lot more about coding, electronics, and stuff like
that cause I had to do everything online. So I had to go to school online, see my friends online,

basically do most everything online that I used to be able to do not virtually.

I chose to do this JavaScript course because, I learned that we are going to make a game.

I wanted to create a website which could interact on the web while learning html and css, so I

wanted to learn java script because it had such a function.

Through this class, I learned the important functions of java script and learned the languages of

java script. It was so fun to let birds fly or cats run.

I somehow got to know about coding. We have a whole lot of coding books at home. They were

interesting to read for fun. When I started learning to code, it was a great and new experience for

me because I love learning new things. As my interest in coding grew, I thought about things that

could be done for fun, and useful purposes. It would be extremely useful to learn and then

help/teach other younger students.

I chose this STEM course partly because I like things including tech things and making things

too. My dad also brought this up to me and he said it would be a good idea to join. I don't really

know why I have interest in tech. I think it might be because I just like challenges and learning

new things.

3. How prepared did you feel for this course? Please explain.
I didn't feel that prepared for this course. I didn't feel that prepared because I didn't have coding

experience. I only did a really easy type of coding with blocks to put together. That is why I did

not feel that prepared for this course.

4. What positives or negatives do you think come with working in the computer science

field?

Negatives: Sometimes it is really hard which makes people frustrated

Positives: It helps you out a lot in life

5. Do you find this course easy or difficult? Why?

I find this course difficult because I haven't really had coding experience before. I don't really

know how to do the rest of the game for coding and trying to figure it out makes me really

frustrated.

6. Do you feel you have enough resources to succeed in tech courses? If so, please explain. If

not, why?

Not really. I do not think that we have enough resources to succeed in tech courses. I think this

because we are not in 'in person' it is hard. We don't have the option to go 'in person' and with in

person there is more advantages like we can have the instructor right by our side to help us.
 Appendix C

Interview with three Computer Science students at a Community College

These interviews took place via a Google Forms survey distributed to all students in the CS 22

course at Long Beach City College. CS 22 is a data structures and algorithms class taught in

Java. CS 21, a one semester entry level Java course and the lowest level programming course

offered, is one of the prerequisites. Students may instead choose to take CS 11 and CS 12, one

semester long entry level programming courses in C++, instead of CS 21 to cover the same

prerequisite. CS 22 is a mix of students that have taken the CS 21 path and the CS11/CS12 path.

Out of 38 students, only 3 chose to respond to the survey. Out of the three students that

responded, two were male and one was female. When asked to provide detailed explanations,

most students chose instead to provide brief answers. Responses have been edited for proper

grammar.

Female Student 1: White, Age 27.

Male Student 1: Asian, Age 25.

Male Student 2: Latino, Unknown age.

1. Why did you choose to take this course? Please explain.

Female Student: It was a major requirement.

Male Student 1: I decided to take this course for my degree path of Computer

Science, this course will allow me to further become a better equipped programmer

for the future.

Male Student 2: It's part of my major: Computer Science

2. How prepared do you feel for this course? Think of any courses, school services, online

resources etc. that have prepared you.

Female Student: I took the prerequisite CS21.

Male Student 1: I feel semi-prepared. I feel like my cs courses in the past will help,

and other bits of info and tips I've received from others who have taken this course.

Male Student 2: I feel moderately prepared. I would feel more prepared if I had

taken a java course before. I've only taken C++ so far.

3. Do you find this course easy or difficult and why? *

Female Student: Difficult, as I am having a hard time remembering what I learned in

CS 21 in Spring last year.

Male Student 1: Not too bad so far.

Male Student 2: So far I would say on the difficult side of things. There is a lot of

technical knowledge that you must be familiar with from the start.

4. Do you plan on taking Computer Science courses in the future? Why or why

not? *

Female Student: Yes, I am a Computer Science major.

Male Student 1: Yes, I love CS and programming in general.

Male Student 2: Yes. It's my major.

5. What advantages or disadvantages do you think come with working in the

computer science field?

Female Student: Advantages are many open jobs, good pay and interesting work.

Disadvantages are you have to keep learning and it's a male dominated field.

Male Student 1: There are many advantages such as it being a field that will

constantly evolve and change, though this could also be seen as negative.
Male Student 2: It requires a logical mind and a lot of troubleshooting, but you can

get a six-figure salary in a growing field.

6. Do you feel you have sufficient resources to succeed in tech courses? Please

explain.

Female Student: Yes.

Male Student 1: Not exactly, I wish that these courses had lecture times and class

meetings to give a more hands-on approach to learning.

Male Student 2: Sufficient, yes. But my laptop can be unreliable at times