Broadening Participation Research Project: Exploring Computing Careers through a Virtual Career Fair Using Embodied Conversational Agents

扩大参与研究项目：使用具体会话代理通过虚拟招聘会探索计算机职业

• 批准号: 1533627
• 负责人: Kinnis Gosha
• 金额: $ 35万
• 依托单位: Morehouse College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1533627&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Broadening; Participation; Research; Project; Exploring

Morehouse College will conduct a research project to uncover new insights regarding the effect of culturally relevant career exploration resources on high school students' career interests. The researchers propose a mixed-methods research design using quantitative and qualitative data to examine the effects of using embodied conversational agents (ECAs) in virtual career exploration fairs with rural and urban high school students. Building on previous research that shows that ECAs are as effective as humans when used to mentor undergraduate students interested in pursuing graduate school, the researchers will explore whether the research extends to high school students considering computing careers.Guided by the "possible selves" and "social cognitive career theory (SCCT)" frameworks, researchers will examine students' perceptions of computing and computing careers before and after each career exploration fair, noting the effect and impact of questions and answers (Q&A), storytelling, and culturally relevant storytelling. The ECAs will represent minority individuals in authentic computing professions. The specific research questions are: 1) In what ways do students' career interests and perceptions change following virtual career exploration fairs using ECAs? 2) How do culturally relevant ECAs differ based on student perceptions and identities? and 3) What roles do gender, race, ethnicity, grade level, and location (rural/urban) play in students' career identities? Survey data will be analyzed to determine the relative impact of the virtual career exploration fair on student self-efficacy, interest in computer science careers, and predictive factors of the SCCT?The project presents a potentially sustainable solution for motivating urban and rural high-need school districts to explore computing careers. Data collected on student attitudes, interests, and self-efficacy will help guide improvements to the ECAs and ensure they are broadly applicable for future uses.

莫尔豪斯学院（Morehouse College）将进行一个研究项目，以发现有关文化相关职业探索资源对高中生职业兴趣的影响的新见解。研究人员建议使用定量和定性数据进行混合方法研究设计，以研究使用体现的对话剂（ECA）在与农村和城市高中学生的虚拟职业探索集中。基于先前的研究的基础，该研究表明，ECA在指导有兴趣追求研究生院的大学生时与人类一样有效，研究人员将探索研究是否扩展到考虑计算职业的高中生是否扩展到“可能的自我”和“社会认知职业理论（SCCT）”框架，研究人员对学生的观察和计算效果的探索和计算效果，并在探索方面的探索和计算效果，并在探讨了探索和计算的事业，并在探讨了探索和计算的事业，并将（问答），讲故事和与文化相关的讲故事。 ECA将代表少数人在真实的计算专业中。具体的研究问题是：1）使用ECAS虚拟职业探索展览会后，学生的职业兴趣和看法会改变什么方式？ 2）根据学生的看法和身份，与文化相关的ECA有何不同？ 3）在学生的职业身份中，性别，种族，种族，年级和地理位置（乡村/城市）扮演着什么角色？将分析调查数据，以确定虚拟职业探索公平对学生自我效能感，对计算机科学职业的兴趣以及SCCT的预测因素的相对影响？该项目为激励城市和农村高需求的学区提供了潜在的可持续解决方案，以探索计算机职业。收集的有关学生态度，兴趣和自我效能感的数据将有助于指导ECAS的改进，并确保它们广泛适用于将来的用途。