An intervention programme for women in computing courses: Does it make a difference?

This paper discusses the outcomes of an intervention programme conducted in 1995 and 1996 at La Trobe University, Bendigo in Australia. The programme was aimed at improving the retention rates of first year women students in computing courses. Anecdotal and survey evidence provided by a pilot programme in 1994 suggested that the problems experienced by the women included: unwillingness to compete for scarce resources, lack of confidence to ask questions in tutorials and laboratory sessions, feelings of intimidation, and misleading preconceptions about the content of computing courses. The intervention programme addressed these problems. The programme was evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative methods to provide a comprehensive picture of the students and the factors affecting their performance in the computing courses. Structured interviews conducted in 1995 revealed that the pace and content of the first programming subject overwhelmed the women. They lacked confidence in using the computer hardware and were embarrassed to show their ignorance of this. In 1996 structured interviews and focus groups gave a different picture again. A questionnaire was administered to all first year students in 1995 and 1996. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed using the first programming subject result as the dependent variable, and responses from the questionnaire, attendance at the intervention programme and Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER) as terms in the model. Interestingly, the results of the ANCOVA showed that gender, having a home computer, previous user computing experience and attendance at the intervention programme were not significant factors. Final year secondary school mathematics, previous programming experience and year of study were significant factors, with age and the TER of the student highly significant factors.