{"id":237002,"date":"2025-06-18T12:54:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T12:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ascnet.ie\/techmate\/?page_id=237002"},"modified":"2025-08-10T14:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T14:34:11","slug":"rebranding-cs-courses","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ascnet.ie\/techmate\/actions\/rebranding-cs-courses\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebranding CS Courses &#8211; Action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; fullwidth=&#8221;on&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; box_shadow_style=&#8221;preset3&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_fullwidth_header title=&#8221;Strategic Rebranding of Computing Courses&#8221; button_one_text=&#8221;Back to All Actions&#8221; button_one_url=&#8221;https:\/\/ascnet.ie\/techmate\/actions\/&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; title_font_size=&#8221;25px&#8221; background_color=&#8221;#021024&#8243; 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_builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;Description&#8221; module_id=&#8221;action-desc&#8221; module_class=&#8221;content-block&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; text_text_color=&#8221;gcid-body-color&#8221; text_font_size=&#8221;15px&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;1.8em&#8221; background_color=&#8221;RGBA(255,255,255,0)&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;||-100px|||&#8221; border_color_all=&#8221;RGBA(255,255,255,0)&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{%22gcid-body-color%22:%91%22text_text_color%22%93}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h3>What is the Action?<\/h3>\n<p><span>Rebrand computing courses, which includes possible renaming and revising contents of the courses to make them more attractive to female applicants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;Facts&#8221; module_id=&#8221;action-facts&#8221; module_class=&#8221;content-block&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; text_text_color=&#8221;gcid-body-color&#8221; text_font_size=&#8221;15px&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;1.8em&#8221; background_color=&#8221;RGBA(255,255,255,0)&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;||-100px|||&#8221; hover_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243; custom_css_free_form=&#8221;||&#8221; border_color_all=&#8221;RGBA(255,255,255,0)&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{%22gcid-body-color%22:%91%22text_text_color%22%93}&#8221; sticky_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243;]<\/p>\n<h3>Quick Facts to Support this Action<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span><a href=\"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1145\/3502718.3524784\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Computing courses that attract more women use more people-oriented course branding materials<\/a> rather than things-oriented materials.<\/span><span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"testimonial-box\">\n<p>The University of California, Berkeley, renamed their introductory computing course for non-majors from \u201cIntroduction to Symbolic Programming\u201d to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/bjc.berkeley.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Beauty and the Joy of Computing<\/a>\u201d and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/education\/article\/tech-shift-more-women-in-computer-science-classes-5243026.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">it resulted in recruitment of more female than male students for the first time.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Harvey Mudd College rebranded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/christinawallace\/2016\/10\/20\/girls-in-coding-the-problem-is-getting-worse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">their introductory class<\/a> from &#8220;Introduction to programming in Java&#8221; to &#8220;Creative approaches to problem solving in science and engineering using Python,&#8221; and reports show that it became one of the effective actions to increase their female computing students from 10% to 40% in four years.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;implement&#8221; module_id=&#8221;action-implement&#8221; module_class=&#8221;content-block&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; text_text_color=&#8221;gcid-body-color&#8221; text_font_size=&#8221;15px&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;1.8em&#8221; header_line_height=&#8221;1.8em&#8221; background_enable_color=&#8221;off&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;||-100px|||&#8221; border_color_all=&#8221;RGBA(255,255,255,0)&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{%22gcid-body-color%22:%91%22text_text_color%22%93}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h3><span>Examples on How to Implement This Action<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span>Using more people-oriented as well as creative wordings rather than things-oriented wordings, for example, wordings \u201cstudents\u201d, \u201ccreative problem solving\u201d, \u201cpeople\u201d, \u201ccompanies\u201d, rather than \u201csoftware\u201d, \u201cprogramming\u201d and \u201csystems\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-dropdown\"><a href=\"#\" onclick=\"toggleDiv('tcd'); return false;\">\u27a4 Trinity College Dublin<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"tcd\" class=\"dropdown-content\">Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, renamed their M. Sc. In Multimedia Systems, to M. Sc. Interactive Digital Media, and the course has been reported to consistently attract a gender balanced pool of applicants (the researcher of TechMate completed this course).<\/div>\n<p class=\"text-dropdown\"><a href=\"#\" onclick=\"toggleDiv('mudducc'); return false;\">\u27a4 Harvey Mudd &amp; University of California<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"mudducc\" class=\"dropdown-content\">Harvey Mudd College and the University of California did not just rename their introductory computing courses, they also modified their content to make it more appealing to female applicants. For instance, the decision has been made at Harvey Mudd to replace Java with Python, to make programming easier to learn for novice programmers. Berkeley started each of their class with a discussion of a recent tech news article and added pair programming exercises.<\/div>\n<p>\n<script>\n    function toggleDiv(id) {\n      var x = document.getElementById(id);\n      x.style.display = (x.style.display === \"none\" || x.style.display === \"\") ? \"block\" : \"none\";\n    }\n<\/script>\n<\/p>\n<p>Review the current curriculum to reflect the degree\u2019s title and description, and <a href=\"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3502718.3524784\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ensure there are practical and people-oriented projects<\/a> included in the curriculum.<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;eval&#8221; module_id=&#8221;action-eval&#8221; module_class=&#8221;content-block&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; text_text_color=&#8221;gcid-body-color&#8221; text_font_size=&#8221;15px&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;1.8em&#8221; background_color=&#8221;RGBA(255,255,255,0)&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;||-100px|||&#8221; hover_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243; border_color_all=&#8221;RGBA(255,255,255,0)&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{%22gcid-body-color%22:%91%22text_text_color%22,%22text_text_color%22%93}&#8221; sticky_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243;]<\/p>\n<h3><span>Evaluation Approach<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span>The most straightforward way to see the impact of this action is to see the change in recruitment numbers, especially of those among underrepresented gender groups.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Alternatively, an intermediate impact is to be seen where feedback is collected from the first year students about their reasonings for choosing the recently rebranded programme. Themes for the feedback questionnaire:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Gender information;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Whether the enrolled students&#8217; first choice was this programme (and what other choices were involved);<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>What were the reasons of choosing this programme.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;Resources&#8221; module_id=&#8221;action-resources&#8221; module_class=&#8221;content-block&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; text_text_color=&#8221;gcid-body-color&#8221; text_font_size=&#8221;15px&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;1.8em&#8221; header_line_height=&#8221;1.8em&#8221; background_enable_color=&#8221;off&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;||-100px|||&#8221; border_color_all=&#8221;RGBA(255,255,255,0)&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{%22gcid-body-color%22:%91%22text_text_color%22%93}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h3><span>Resources<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The Beauty and Joy of Computing \u2013 Berkeley Introductory Computing Course <a href=\"https:\/\/bjc.berkeley.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/bjc.berkeley.edu\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;References&#8221; module_id=&#8221;action-references&#8221; module_class=&#8221;content-block&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; text_text_color=&#8221;gcid-body-color&#8221; text_font_size=&#8221;15px&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;1.8em&#8221; background_color=&#8221;RGBA(255,255,255,0)&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;||-100px|||&#8221; border_color_all=&#8221;RGBA(255,255,255,0)&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{%22gcid-body-color%22:%91%22text_text_color%22%93}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"boxed\">\n<p>K.V. Brown (2014). <i>Tech shift: More women in computer science classes<\/i>. Retrieved from<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/education\/article\/Tech-shift-More-women-in-computer-scienceclasses-5243026.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/education\/article\/Tech-shift-More-women-in-computer-scienceclasses-5243026.php<br \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wallace, C. (2016). <i>The Gender Ratio In Tech Is Getting Worse, Says New Research<\/i>. Forbes. Retrieved from<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/christinawallace\/2016\/10\/20\/girls-in-coding-the-problem-is-getting-worse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/christinawallace\/2016\/10\/20\/girls-in-coding-the-problem-is-getting-worse\/<br \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Grabarczyk, P., Freiesleben, A., Bastrup, A., &amp; Brabrand, C. (2022, July). <a href=\"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3502718.3524784\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Computing Educational Programmes with more Women are more about People &amp; less about Things<\/i><\/a>.<br \/>In Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, Vol. 1 (pp. 172\u2013178).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the Action? Rebrand computing courses, which includes possible renaming and revising contents of the courses to make them more attractive to female applicants.Quick Facts to Support this Action Computing courses that attract more women use more people-oriented course branding materials rather than things-oriented materials. 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