Developing an Online Community for Women in Computer and Information Sciences: A Design Rationale Analysis

Author

Rosson, Mary Beth ; Thiry, Elizabeth ; Zhao, Dejin ; Carroll, John M.

Author_Institution

Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

4-7 Jan. 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

10

Abstract

We describe the evolutionary development of an online community system designed to support a devel-opmental learning community of women - wConnect. The goal of this community is to engage, connect and support women at different developmental levels with respect to education and career goals in the computer and information sciences. We chronicle the system´s development through design rationale motivated our decisions about how to support the online community activities. We present initial design goals, summarize the path we have followed thus far, and present a de-sign rationale account of the decisions influencing this path. We close with a brief summary of wConnect and our future plans for its online community system.

Keywords

Internet; computer aided instruction; computer science education; information science education; career goal; computer science; design rationale analysis; developmental learning community; education support; evolutionary development; information science; online women community; wConnect; Communities; Educational institutions; Facebook; Programming profession; Prototypes;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

System Sciences (HICSS), 2011 44th Hawaii International Conference on

Conference_Location

Kauai, HI

ISSN

1530-1605

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9618-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HICSS.2011.159

Filename

5718711