Potential Factors for Retention and Intent to Drop-out in Brazilian Computing Programs

Motivation: Enrollments in Brazilian computing degrees are at an all-time high, but graduation numbers have not increased at the same rate. Moreover, enrollment growth has mainly attracted male students, steadily expanding the gender gap in Brazilian computing programs. Such high attrition rates hav...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Duran, Rodrigo, Bim, Silvia Amélia, Gimenes, Itana, Ribeiro, Leila, Correia, Ronaldo Celso Messias [UNESP]
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UNESP
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.unesp.br:11449/300727
Acceso en línea:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3607537
https://hdl.handle.net/11449/300727
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:CS degrees
drop-out
gender gap
Retention
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spelling Potential Factors for Retention and Intent to Drop-out in Brazilian Computing ProgramsCS degreesdrop-outgender gapRetentionMotivation: Enrollments in Brazilian computing degrees are at an all-time high, but graduation numbers have not increased at the same rate. Moreover, enrollment growth has mainly attracted male students, steadily expanding the gender gap in Brazilian computing programs. Such high attrition rates have a great economic impact and may disproportionately affect women and students of color. Previous works investigated reasons for student drop-out and retention in specific courses or barriers to entrance in computing programs in narrower contexts or in a single institution. Objectives: We investigate potential actionable factors for intent to drop out in computing programs and what factors might lead students to remain in a computing program in several Brazilian institutions. We investigated how such factors may be affected by students' race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. Method: We analyzed Likert-style answers from an online survey with 3,193 students currently enrolled in Brazilian computing programs. Results: The results show that students value salary/job-related factors as the most important factors to potentially remain in a computing program. The excess of theoretical courses and the difficulty of programming and mathematics courses are the top-ranked factors by students to potentially abandon a computing degree. However, while there is little effect of gender, race/ethnicity, or socioeconomic status in retention factors, potential drop out factors such as a the fact that it is a male-dominated field, harassment, and the difficulty of courses were rated as more important by women. Also, costs and the difficulty of courses are relevant factors for the intent to drop out when analyzing students' race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Discussion: We explore the implications of our findings for Computing programs, particularly (but not restricted to) the Brazilian context. We conjecture reasons for such students' perspectives regarding intent to drop out and retention factors and provide recommendations of actions for instructional designers, curriculum developers, and other key stakeholders to address issues related to gender, students' wellness, perceived authenticity of courses, and other relevant factors. Since we only observed small interactions between race/ethnicity and retention and intent to drop out factors, which may indicate a lack of sensitivity from the instrument, we present suggestions to address such limitations in future work.Federal Institute of Mato Grosso do SulFederal University of Technology-Parana (UTFPR)Universidade Estadual de MaringáUniversidade Federal do Rio Grande do SulSâo Paulo State University (Unesp) School of Technology and SciencesSâo Paulo State University (Unesp) School of Technology and SciencesFederal Institute of Mato Grosso do SulFederal University of Technology-Parana (UTFPR)Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM)Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do SulUniversidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)2025-04-29T18:50:25Z2023-09-12info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3607537ACM Transactions on Computing Education, v. 23, n. 3, 2023.1946-6226https://hdl.handle.net/11449/30072710.1145/36075372-s2.0-85173237442Scopusreponame:Repositório Institucional da UNESPinstname:Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)instacron:UNESPengACM Transactions on Computing Educationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessDuran, RodrigoBim, Silvia AméliaGimenes, ItanaRibeiro, LeilaCorreia, Ronaldo Celso Messias [UNESP]2025-10-22T18:16:10Zoai:repositorio.unesp.br:11449/300727Repositório InstitucionalPUBhttp://repositorio.unesp.br/oai/requestrepositoriounesp@unesp.bropendoar:29462025-10-22T18:16:10Repositório Institucional da UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)false
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Potential Factors for Retention and Intent to Drop-out in Brazilian Computing Programs
title Potential Factors for Retention and Intent to Drop-out in Brazilian Computing Programs
spellingShingle Potential Factors for Retention and Intent to Drop-out in Brazilian Computing Programs
Duran, Rodrigo
CS degrees
drop-out
gender gap
Retention
title_short Potential Factors for Retention and Intent to Drop-out in Brazilian Computing Programs
title_full Potential Factors for Retention and Intent to Drop-out in Brazilian Computing Programs
title_fullStr Potential Factors for Retention and Intent to Drop-out in Brazilian Computing Programs
title_full_unstemmed Potential Factors for Retention and Intent to Drop-out in Brazilian Computing Programs
title_sort Potential Factors for Retention and Intent to Drop-out in Brazilian Computing Programs
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Duran, Rodrigo
Bim, Silvia Amélia
Gimenes, Itana
Ribeiro, Leila
Correia, Ronaldo Celso Messias [UNESP]
author Duran, Rodrigo
author_facet Duran, Rodrigo
Bim, Silvia Amélia
Gimenes, Itana
Ribeiro, Leila
Correia, Ronaldo Celso Messias [UNESP]
author_role author
author2 Bim, Silvia Amélia
Gimenes, Itana
Ribeiro, Leila
Correia, Ronaldo Celso Messias [UNESP]
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Federal Institute of Mato Grosso do Sul
Federal University of Technology-Parana (UTFPR)
Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM)
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv CS degrees
drop-out
gender gap
Retention
topic CS degrees
drop-out
gender gap
Retention
description Motivation: Enrollments in Brazilian computing degrees are at an all-time high, but graduation numbers have not increased at the same rate. Moreover, enrollment growth has mainly attracted male students, steadily expanding the gender gap in Brazilian computing programs. Such high attrition rates have a great economic impact and may disproportionately affect women and students of color. Previous works investigated reasons for student drop-out and retention in specific courses or barriers to entrance in computing programs in narrower contexts or in a single institution. Objectives: We investigate potential actionable factors for intent to drop out in computing programs and what factors might lead students to remain in a computing program in several Brazilian institutions. We investigated how such factors may be affected by students' race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. Method: We analyzed Likert-style answers from an online survey with 3,193 students currently enrolled in Brazilian computing programs. Results: The results show that students value salary/job-related factors as the most important factors to potentially remain in a computing program. The excess of theoretical courses and the difficulty of programming and mathematics courses are the top-ranked factors by students to potentially abandon a computing degree. However, while there is little effect of gender, race/ethnicity, or socioeconomic status in retention factors, potential drop out factors such as a the fact that it is a male-dominated field, harassment, and the difficulty of courses were rated as more important by women. Also, costs and the difficulty of courses are relevant factors for the intent to drop out when analyzing students' race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Discussion: We explore the implications of our findings for Computing programs, particularly (but not restricted to) the Brazilian context. We conjecture reasons for such students' perspectives regarding intent to drop out and retention factors and provide recommendations of actions for instructional designers, curriculum developers, and other key stakeholders to address issues related to gender, students' wellness, perceived authenticity of courses, and other relevant factors. Since we only observed small interactions between race/ethnicity and retention and intent to drop out factors, which may indicate a lack of sensitivity from the instrument, we present suggestions to address such limitations in future work.
publishDate 2023
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2023-09-12
2025-04-29T18:50:25Z
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3607537
ACM Transactions on Computing Education, v. 23, n. 3, 2023.
1946-6226
https://hdl.handle.net/11449/300727
10.1145/3607537
2-s2.0-85173237442
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3607537
https://hdl.handle.net/11449/300727
identifier_str_mv ACM Transactions on Computing Education, v. 23, n. 3, 2023.
1946-6226
10.1145/3607537
2-s2.0-85173237442
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv ACM Transactions on Computing Education
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Scopus
reponame:Repositório Institucional da UNESP
instname:Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
instacron:UNESP
instname_str Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
instacron_str UNESP
institution UNESP
reponame_str Repositório Institucional da UNESP
collection Repositório Institucional da UNESP
repository.name.fl_str_mv Repositório Institucional da UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
repository.mail.fl_str_mv repositoriounesp@unesp.br
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