Can Programming Boot Camp Help Under-represented College Students Succeed in Computing Degrees? (Abstract Only)

Programming Boot Camp is one strategy to overcome the perceived and actual difficulties undergraduate students encounter in an introductory programming course. It is estimated that of the over two million students starting computer science studies in universities and colleges all over the world in 1999, 33% dropped or failed their first programming course. Consequently, undergraduate students delay enrolling in programming courses, which interrupts progress toward their degree and decreases confidence in their ability to succeed in college and computing careers. Programming Boot Camp provides a combination of intense programming labs with professional development and community building activities to help increase confidence, create awareness of opportunities, and build a supporting peer network. How does this strategy work on different campuses with different demographics? Attendees will be able to connect with people who have implemented boot camp, are interested in sharing resources, and discussing how appropriate a boot camp would be for their students. Those who have already implemented a boot camp will be encouraged to share their curriculum, workshop strategies, and how effective they were in goals like: increasing the programming skills of the participants and their confidence in it, inspiring participants to persist in computing, and building a network of mentors and peers to support persistence in computing. Participants who seek to increase success in programming courses will be encouraged to discuss campus specific needs to gather input from those who have implemented boot camps and how they adapted the concept to their population and institutional culture.