Online Learning Communities to Recruit and Retain Students in Information Technology Programs

Over the last decade the percentage of women and non-Asian minorities within the US IT workforce has dropped, and the number of undergraduates pursuing computer science degrees has dropped, leading to predictions of a shortage of US citizens who are trained IT professionals. Prevailing labor projections regarding the shortage of information technology (IT) professionals provide impetus for increasing computing-related majors. Recruiting from among first and second-year students within a university can be quite productive because many students who major in computer science initially intend a different major. Also, undergraduates commonly choose a new major during their first two years on campus. Blogging utilizes a popular communication technique for today´s college students. The Net Generation has embraced the concept of publishing on the Web, which bodes well for the project´s use of tools like blogs for recruitment purposes, and better prepare the target population (women and minority students) to succeed in a computing major.