2016; doi: 10.1109/FIE.2016.7757721.

Enhancing continuity between gender diversity interventions using hybrid social networks.

H Griffith, A Griffith, F Hajiaghajani

UIID-AD: 4193 DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2016.7757721

Abstract

Increasing gender diversity within the engineering workforce is crucial for ensuring competitive advantage in the global marketplace. Although non-systemic gender diversity interventions in engineering education report positive outcomes throughout the literature, the cumulative effect of such efforts has proven insufficient. While resource intensive mechanisms for improving coordination between offerings in order to enhance aggregate outcomes have been proposed, constrained funding environments limit the feasibility of such solutions. We have recently introduced a hybrid social networking-based framework for extending continuity between in-person programming in a work-in-progress paper. Such an approach offers the capacity to increase engagement between in-person interventions while introducing only limited marginal costs. The research described herein expands upon this effort by providing a more detailed description of the coordination effort, and also enhancing the survey pool used to examine potential barriers to participation amongst the target user population. Results from a survey of over 130 high school and college students are presented, with a particular focus on examining factors which threaten the feasibility of the proposed implementation. © 2016 IEEE.

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