Collaborative Research: Multisite Comparison of Embedding Socially Responsible Design Across the Undergraduate Computer Science Curriculum

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving postsecondary computer science (CS) education by integrating socially responsible design (SRD) into CS classes. Integrating SRD practices into four-year CS curricula aims to teach students improved ways to build software that benefits everyone. Earlier work piloting this approach was promising but small scale, and the current project plans to generalize upon this pilot to enable faculty at four universities to teach minimal, incremental elements of SRD content in selected courses across the curriculum. After students apply these practices to the software they create in their classes, the project aims for students to carry these skills into their future careers. The significance of this NSF IUSE: ESL Level 2 (Engaged Student Learning) work is that computer science education and the students’ resulting software development practices may improve, thereby strengthening CS skills among up to 30,000 STEM students. The project also aims to increase the national capacity for STEM student learning through increased retention, involving faculty from four universities across four states and up to 30,000 students enrolled in those programs. Prior work explored this approach using a single SRD method at a public urban university with small class sizes in an R2 setting. This project’s scope is to generalize this approach to four universities, large and small, rural and urban, private and public, in-person and online, R1 and R2 in four states (Colorado, New Jersey, Oregon, and Virginia), leveraging various SRD methods in these contexts. This project seeks to explore these forms of generality to determine how student academic performance (as measured by grades, retention, and software design outcomes) improves, how the educational climate of each program improves, and how faculty develop pedagogical content knowledge needed to embed SRD in their classes. At each university, participating faculty choose which class to teach SRD in and how they go about it, improving faculty buy-in. Faculty may initially participate in a workshop to find the right SRD fit for their class(es) and to meet other faculty working with SRD, building a pedagogical community. The project plan involves each university embedding SRD integrations into selected courses in year 1, with redesigns for additional classes in years 2 and 3. The project plans to evaluate faculty and student learning outcomes in each iteration. Goals of this project include evaluating what faculty learn, how SRD is incorporated, and the why behind faculty decisions; along with the ease of embedding SRD into CS classes; and student learning. This project aims to produce new, enduring improvements in computer science education for faculty and students, while increasing the number of broadly trained, STEM-engaged students who graduate and join industry or government to create tomorrow’s software. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.