BlackGap Tech

 

Check these comments below to see what’s going on here:

There’s a lack of representation of Black students and workers in computing.

To mitigate this, it is necessary to prepare Black computing students

for the tech workforce through accessible advisement from near peers.

We wanted to get Black influencers to advise computing career readiness.

We also wanted to validate influencers as advisors/mentors.

So we developed a proposal for a Black advising influencer platform tailored for Black computing students and early professionals!

This use case includes the following research methods:

Exploratory research: Context analysis | Personas | Procedural Task analysis

Expert and user research: Management of research assistants | Synthesis code manual development & analysis | User survey

Prototyping: Wireframing | Intermediate-fidelity prototyping

Anticipated delivery: Academic writing | Presentation development | Academic dissemination 

Explore more:

< Exploratory_Research>

< Background >

More on this lack of representation…

Black population in US

13%

Black representation stats in computing

Earn bachelor’s degree in:

  3%       5%           7%

 CS           Computer engineering             IT

 

Work at high-tech companies:

  3%          3%            7%

    Silicon Valley    Technical positions   At tech company


Work as computing faculty:

2%    3%

Tenure Non-tenured

References

Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2019.

Charleston - Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 2012.

DeCuir-Gunby - Urban Education .2016.

Dillon – Computing Research Association & ACM. 2015.

< Personas >

Ok…who needs an advisement platform?

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< procedural_task_analysis >

Gotcha! But what exactly are they doing?

Networking with peers

Networking with peers

Influencer advisement

Influencer advisement

Promote resources & opportunities

Promote resources & opportunities

< context_analysis >

Cool! Seems a bit broad though…

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< Expert_&_User_Research >

< code_manual >

What even makes a vlog-commentary advisement video for computing careers?

Advisement satisfaction = Mentor Effectiveness Scale

Accessibility & aesthetics = Interaction design foundation UX principles

Effectiveness & efficiency (Short term usability scale)

< Synthesis >

What videos do those things?

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< User_Survey >

How do people actually feel about videos like this?

Graduate Students

Participants:

  • 20 participants; 22-54yo; All Black/AfAm

  • STEM students from 3 HBCU

  • Computing students attending a computing conference

Materials:

  • Video on projector: Jarvis Johnson – How to Get Into Software Engineering

Procedure:

  1. Facilitator introduce study/consent

  2. Watch video in group on projector

  3. Report attitudes on survey

    Undergraduate Students

Participants:

  • 21 participants; 17-29yo; 13M, 7F, 1 undisclosed

  • 19 Black/AfAm; 1 multi-racial; 1 undisclosed

  • STEM students at 3 HBCUs

Materials:

  • Video individually embedded in survey: Jarvis Johnson – How to Get Into Software Engineering

Procedure:

  • Facilitator introduce study/consent

  • Begin survey, identify social media preferences

  • Watch video

  • Return to survey and report attitudes on survey

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Graduate students

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All Undergrad STEM students

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Undergrad CS students

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Undergrad Non-CS STEM students

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We have a bit of a problem here…

Limitations

The video was provided

  • Only one task

  • No other social media platform used

  • No long-term use research

  • *Mentoring Effectivness scales and System Usability scale have critiques about validity and reliability…

 

< Prototyping >

< Wireframing >

Following. But how would this be set up?

Mobile - Community tab
Desktop - Community tab
Mobile - Channel home page (scrolled down)
Desktop - Channel home page (scrolled down)
Mobile - Channel home page
Desktop - Channel home page

< Mock-up >

Nice, but how would it actually look?

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Looks good!

Channel

  • Multiple hosts

    • Different career paths, personalities, and intersections of identities

  • Several video posts on various topics

    • Personal and professional advice

    • Coding tutorials

    • Tech industry news

  • Video posts having variation

    • Commentary

    • Story-times

    • Informational

    • Reader requests/reading audience stories

    • The video was provided

    Community tab

  • Varying community posts

    • Career/internship opportunity notices

    • Research study notices

    • Channel updates/housecleaning

    • Host shout-outs

    • Audience shout-outs

  • Audience engagement

    • Insightful/interesting status to spark convo

    • Polls and other engagements

    • Host responds to audience

    • Different career paths, personalities, and intersections of identities

< Anticipated_Delivery >

< Recommendations >

Cool…so what now?

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< Delivery_So_Far >

Have you done anything with this idea?

Academic Presentations

  • Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT) - 2019

    • Conference - Minneapolis, MN

  • HBCU STEM Undergraduate Success center, 2019

    • Symposium - Atlanta, GA

  • Academic Publications

  • IEEE Computing in Science and Engineering 2020

    • Journal article

  • Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT) – 2019

    • Conference article

Is that all that you want to do with this idea?

Next steps

  • Research Long-term effects

  • Develop for Other career and majors

  • Support on more social media platforms

  • Include an expert (or maybe intelligent) conversational virtual mentoring system via DM and external platforms