Use of Images in Computer Science Course Promotion

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What is the Action?

Use gender inclusive and positive images when advertising a computer science course, to make it more appealing to female applicants.

Explore another action that deals with advertising of computer science courses – Promotion Materials for Computer Science Courses.

Quick Facts to Support this Action

One of the commonly accepted? reasons for women not choosing computer science as their field of study is stereotypes about computing being a male domain and having a certain image of a computer scientist predominantly associated with the “geek” culture). Images that depict different types of students in the discipline can be a tool to combat these stereotypes.

    Ways to Implement this Action

    Review the existing images provided for promotion of computing courses, and to make sure than the people depicted in them represent an inclusive and diverse population where at least 50% are women (include women of colour, ability/disability, broad age range etc).

    Evaluation Approach

    Compare female recruitment statistics before and after implementation, ideally over several recruitment cycles.

    To assess impact in a shorter term, survey existing students.

    Proposed ideas for survey questions:

    1. When you look at the images used in Computer Science advertising materials, how well do they represent people like you? (Likert scale from Very well to Not at all)

    2. Do the images suggest that Computer Science is a field that is welcoming to women? (Likert scale from Strongly Agree to Strongly disagree)

    3. How diverse do you find the people shown in the images (in terms of gender, ethnicity, roles, etc.)? (Likert scale from Very diverse to Not diverse at all)

    4. Which kinds of images make Computer Science feel most appealing to you?
    (Examples such as, for instance, women working with technology, students in a classroom, teamwork settings etc.)

      5. In one or two sentences, how could the choice of images be improved to make Computer Science advertising more appealing to women? (Open text box)

      S. Cheryan, V. C. Plaut, C. Handron, and L. Hudson. The stereotypical computer scientist: Gendered media representations as a barrier to inclusion for women. Sex Roles, 69(1):58–71, 2013.

      P. Grabarczyk, A. Freiesleben, A. Bastrup, and C. Brabrand. Computing Educational Programmes with more Women are more about People & less about Things. In Proc. of the 27th ITiCSE, pages 172–178. ACM, 2022.

      E. M. Mercier, B. Barron, and K. M. O’Connor. Images of self and others as computer users: The role of gender and experience. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 22(5):335–348, 2006.