TY - GEN
T1 - Welcome to the Course
T2 - 2020 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2020
AU - Kizilcec, Rene F.
AU - Saltarelli, Andrew
AU - Bonfert-Taylor, Petra
AU - Goudzwaard, Michael
AU - Hamonic, Ella
AU - Sharrock, Rémi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 ACM.
PY - 2020/4/21
Y1 - 2020/4/21
N2 - First impressions influence subsequent behavior, especially when deciding how much effort to invest in an activity such as taking an online course. In computer programming courses, a context where social group stereotypes are salient, social cues early in the course can be used strategically to affirm members of historically underrepresented groups in their sense of belonging. We tested this idea in two randomized field experiments (N=53,922) by varying the social identity and status of the presenter of a welcome video and assessing online learners' persistence and achievement. Counter to our hypotheses, we found lower persistence among women in certain age groups if the welcome video was presented by a female instructor or by lower-status peers. Men remained unaffected. The results suggest that women are more responsive to social cues in online STEM courses, an environment where their social identity has been negatively stereotyped. Presenting a male and female instructor together was an effective strategy for retaining women in the course.
AB - First impressions influence subsequent behavior, especially when deciding how much effort to invest in an activity such as taking an online course. In computer programming courses, a context where social group stereotypes are salient, social cues early in the course can be used strategically to affirm members of historically underrepresented groups in their sense of belonging. We tested this idea in two randomized field experiments (N=53,922) by varying the social identity and status of the presenter of a welcome video and assessing online learners' persistence and achievement. Counter to our hypotheses, we found lower persistence among women in certain age groups if the welcome video was presented by a female instructor or by lower-status peers. Men remained unaffected. The results suggest that women are more responsive to social cues in online STEM courses, an environment where their social identity has been negatively stereotyped. Presenting a male and female instructor together was an effective strategy for retaining women in the course.
KW - computer science
KW - education
KW - gender
KW - inclusion
KW - psychology
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85086468423
U2 - 10.1145/3313831.3376752
DO - 10.1145/3313831.3376752
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85086468423
T3 - Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
BT - CHI 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PB - Association for Computing Machinery
Y2 - 25 April 2020 through 30 April 2020
ER -