About

An alliance of six campuses from the California State University (CSU) system have united to transform the early computing experience of historically marginalized students in computing. This alliance brings together six CSU campuses, each with unique strengths and local challenges: Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo; CSU Dominguez Hills, CSU Fullerton, CSU Los Angeles, Cal Poly, Pomona, and San Francisco State University. Together the alliance serves over two thousand undergraduate students in computing who identify as Hispanic/Latino (Latinx).

We aim to transform early student experience in computing with the integration of socially responsible computing curriculum. This project's impact includes creating faculty learning communities to transform computing culture and curriculum that invites marginalized students to opt-in to computing.

We propose both curricular and pedagogical changes integrated throughout the first two computing courses to demonstrate the use of computing in addressing community needs and employing a new targeted socially responsible computing intervention using project-based learning to accomplish our goal.

These curricular changes are intended to provide the opportunity for students to see the alignment of communal goals with computing, provide opportunities to apply communication and other community cultural assets, andto ultimately increase students’ sense of belonging in computing.

This project unites computer science educators committed to broadening participation in computing with social scientists with expertise in evaluating inclusive STEM education and with expertise in training faculty working at Hispanic-Serving Institutions.

Our work focuses on developing and evaluating computing curriculum and pedagogy that integrates communal goals into introductory computing courses and promotes socially responsible computing.

Our cross-site collaboration uses a collective impact model to support our shared vision while allowing for site variances. The proposed faculty learning community (FLC) uses training and ongoing meetings to orient and support new instructors and expand the project impact beyond the grant personnel.