The 54th Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education was organized by the Association for Computing Machinery‘s (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) and is the organization’s flagship annual conference. The SIGCSE Technical Symposium addresses problems which are common among educators working to develop, implement and/or evaluate computing programs, curricula, and courses. The hybrid symposium provided a forum for sharing new ideas for syllabi, laboratories, and other elements of teaching and pedagogy, at all levels of instruction. The symposium provided a diverse selection of technical sessions and opportunities for learning and interaction.
This year’s hybrid conference will be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, between March 15-18. All times listed below will reflect the local time zone, Eastern Time. More venue and event information can be found here, and SIGCSE registration information can be found online here.
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Where is NCWIT?
Booth #503
Want to learn more about the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and get resources to take home? Representatives from NCWIT and our collaborative partners can be found during exhibit hours at the times and dates listed below:
- Thursday, March 16: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
- Friday, March 17: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
- Saturday, March 18: 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Groups represented: AccessComputing, AccessCSforAll, Break Through Tech, Computing Research Association – Committee on Widening Participation, CSforALL, Centering Women of Color in STEM, The Early Research Scholars Program, Institute for African American Mentoring in Computing Sciences, NCWIT, STARS Computing Corps.
Hybrid Presentations
Advice for Building Recruiting Pipelines from High School to College: BridgeUp STEM Program
Thursday, March 16th – 10:45 a.m. – 12 p.m / Metro Toronto Convention Centre | 716
Join a panel discussion with NCWIT and Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) about the challenges, necessary logistics, and practical advice around creating high school-to-college computing recruitment pipelines for women and gender non-conforming students. The conversation will be framed by the joint experience of NCWIT and the College of Computing at Georgia Tech in developing BridgeUP STEM – an on-going, two-year program consisting of coursework, tiered mentorship, research internships, and community events. Panelists will share insights and important take-aways, including what did and did not work well for project planning, recruiting participants, structuring activities, and negotiating flexible formats to accommodate students’ needs as well as unexpected challenges. Attendees will also get guidance on how to replicate similar programs at their own institutions and attract a greater diversity of students to computing.
NCWIT panelists include:
- Dr. Sherri Sanders, Director of Higher Education Initiatives and BridgeUP STEM;
- Dr. Chris Hovey, BridgeUP STEM Evaluator and Higher Education Research Associate; and
- Matt Muchna, BridgeUP STEM Project Manager
Georgia Tech will be represented by:
- Ashmitha Julius Aravind, BridgeUP STEM undergraduate Helen Fellow
- Dr. Betsy DiSalvo, BridgeUP STEM Faculty Mentor, Associate Professor, and Interim Chair School of Interactive Computing
- Cedric Stallworth, Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence
- Michael Johnson, BridgeUP STEM coding instructor and PhD candidate, College of Computing
To register for this presentation, click here.
Engaging with Identity, Inclusion, and Intersectionality: Videos that Spark Conversations
Thursday, March 16: 1:45 p.m. – 3 p.m. | Metro Toronto Convention Centre | 718B
This SIGCSE TS 2023 Special Session is designed to help attendees gain understanding and confidence in using inclusive language to refer to and support a broader diversity of people in computer science. Inclusive terminology is fluid because it reflects evolving understandings of people and identities. This session provides tools to not only learn current best practices, but also to navigate the changing landscape of respectful, human-centered language that aligns with the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Framed by an NCWIT resource — Videos that Spark Conversations — and led by a panel of expert practitioners in the CS Ed community, attendees will watch and discuss three short videos on topics including norms for discussing identities, disability, and ethnicity. In this session, participants will:
- Learn inclusive terminology and the reasons why specific terms are used for three types of identities through expert-guided small group discussions; and
- Learn how to use the Videos that Spark Conversations resource to enable participants to share what they have learned.
Panelists include:
- Christopher Lynnly Hovey, National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and University of Colorado – Boulder
- Brianna Blaser, University of Washington
- Vidushi Ojha, University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign
- Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
To get more event information and register for this session, click here.
Challenges and Successes in Writing BPC Plans for NSF Proposals: Peers Discuss Approaches
Thursday, March 16: 3:45 – 5 p.m. | Metro Toronto Convention Centre | 718A
In 2021, National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate implemented a Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) plan requirement for all medium and larger research proposals in Core, CPS, and SaTC. This panel is comprised of faculty and administrators from US computing departments who participated in writing Departmental or Project BPC plans and represents a range of institutions — as well as a range of departmental awareness of BPC prior to writing their plans. Regardless of where they or their departments are in the spectrum of knowing about and implementing BPC activities, and regardless of the current demographic makeup of the students in their major, they all encountered challenges as they wrote their plans. They all also experienced successes, not the least of which is that they succeeded in getting a plan written in accordance with the current guidelines. With the support of a moderator, three panelists will share their experiences developing BPC plans with the audience, offering lessons learned and tips for overcoming common challenges. Audience members will also receive helpful links and handouts to facilitate the writing of their own departmental or project plans.
Presenters include:
- Wendy Dubow, National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)
- Dorian Arnold, Emory University
- Brittany Fasy, Montana State University
- Mariantonieta Gutierrez Soto, Penn State University
To get more event information and register for this session, click here.
In-Person Presentations
Birds of a Feather – A Town Meeting: SIGCSE Committee on Expanding the Women-in-Computing Community
Thursday, March 16: 6:30 p.m. – 7:20 p.m. | Metro Toronto Convention Centre | 718A
This gathering is part of the proceedings for SIGCSE 2023. The forum provides an important annual meeting for a large group of people who work to increase the representation of women in computing in their separate organizations and who do not customarily have an opportunity to share ideas face-to-face. Abstract: In January 2004, the second SIGCSE Committee — “Expanding the Women-in-Computing Community” — was created. The SIGCSE Board approved the charter because the underrepresentation of women in computing is an international problem and an embarrassment for our profession. A BOF provides SIGCSE program advertising that will create a large audience for a discussion of both underrepresentation issues that attendees’ institutions have and also solutions that successful gender issues projects provide. The discussion leaders connect to three of the most important organizations that relate to underrepresentation:
- Tracy Camp, the Computing Research Association’s Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research (CRA-WP)
- Ruth Lennon, the Association for Computing Machinery’s Council on Women in Computing (ACM-W)
- Lecia Barker, the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)
Paper: How do Teaching Practices and Use of Software Features Relate to Computer Science Student Belonging in Synchronous Remote Learning Environments?
Friday, March 17: 1:45 – 2:10 p.m. | Metro Toronto Convention Centre | 714
This paper is presented as one of the SIGCSE TS 2023 Papers focused on Online and Remote Learning. Abstract: When faculty behaviors foster students’ sense of belonging in class, students report better learning experiences and are more likely to remain in the major. Sense of belonging is the feeling of being a valued and legitimate member of a community. Student belonging is relevant to the classroom, the program of study, and the institution at large. Understanding teacher immediacy behaviors that cultivate belonging in postsecondary synchronous remote classrooms is important for retaining students in computing, where remote coursework is increasingly used to address increases in enrollment. This paper reports on an exploratory, survey-based study on the relationship between instructor immediacy behaviors and use of conferencing software features (e.g., chat, breakout rooms) with student sense of belonging in synchronous remote learning environments. Responses from 125 computing students from approximately 53 courses across the US show that students feel a moderate sense of belonging in their courses, with no differences found across demographic groups. Belonging was found to have a strong relationship with students’ overall opinions of their courses and their likelihood of completing the major. Students’ camera preferences and instructor camera requirements had no effect on belonging. A regression analysis showed that no tool use variables predicted student sense of belonging. However, two teacher immediacy behaviors, increase in frequency of setting aside class time to talk about upcoming course content and use of humor, were significantly associated with an increase in sense of belonging. Learn more here.
Presenters include:
- Lecia Barker, National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and University of Colorado – Boulder (CU – Boulder)
- Noah Q. Cowit, NCWIT and CU – Boulder
Paper: How Do I Get People to Use My Ideas? Lessons from Successful Innovators in CS Education
Friday, March 17: 1:45 p.m. – 2:35 p.m. | Metro Toronto Convention Centre | 801B
This paper is presented as one of the SIGCSE TS 2023 Papers focused on Sharing Ideas and Resources in CS Education. Abstract: Improving Computer Science (CS) education requires increasing the meaningful usage of research-supported pedagogy and curriculum. Studies on propagation have largely looked at dissemination and adoption from the perspective of adopters: what motivates them to discover, experiment with, and continue using innovative teaching. This study adds to a growing body of research on approaches to encourage adoption by examining the perspectives and advice of successful propagators—education researchers who have had their innovations widely adopted. Drawing on interviews with fourteen CS education researchers, this paper identifies both points of convergence and unique insights across several broad areas: barriers to adoption, the structure of academia, relevant principles of design and techniques for deployment, and strategies for propagation. Notable findings include: the structure of academia has aspects that both impede and facilitate successful propagation; traditional academic funding sources do not adequately support ongoing propagation; and some successful strategies for getting the word out involve oblique approaches for reaching potential users. This exploration of common successful approaches can serve as a guide for developers and educational advocates when working to attract new users and broaden impact. Learn more here.
Presenters include:
- Christopher Lynnly Hovey, National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and University of Colorado – Boulder
- David Bunde, Knox College
- Zack Butler, Rochester Institute of Technology
- Cynthia Taylor, Oberlin College
Poster: How do Computing Students Perceive Social Presence in Synchronous Remote v. In-Person Courses
Saturday, March 18: 8:30 – 10:30 a.m. | Metro Toronto Convention Centre | Exhibit Hall G
As computing departments increasingly use synchronous remote learning (SRL) to offer courses, this poster reports on initial survey results to better understand undergraduate computing students’ experiences with SRL as compared to in-person educational environments, particularly the extent to which SRL fulfilled their needs for developing social bonds with faculty and other students. Regardless of demographic categories, students feel that social presence factors in classes are important and find in-person environments better at accommodating them. Learn more here.
Presenters include:
- Lecia Barker, National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and University of Colorado – Boulder (CU – Boulder)
- Christopher Lynnly Hovey, NCWIT and CU – Boulder
- Noah Q. Cowit, NCWIT and CU – Boulder
Reception with NCWIT
Bingo, Networking, and Wine
Friday, March 17: 6 – 7 p.m. | Metro Toronto Convention Centre | 700 Level Foyer
Join NCWIT representatives for a social wrap up as SIGSCE 2023 comes to a close.
