Exploring the Needs and Preferences of Underrepresented Minority Students for an Intelligent Virtual Mentoring System

Many reports highlight a significant lack of minority representation in graduate computing programs. However, effective mentorship has been heavily documented in research as pivotal for students aspiring to persist and excel in computing. Research suggests that virtual mentoring, a form of mentorship between a human user and a computer/software agent, viably supplements existing mentoring practices, which removes the inconveniences of meeting in-person and addresses the lack of willing and suitable mentors. The aim of this research is to develop an intelligent virtual mentoring system (VMS) and to help prepare minority students for matriculation through graduate computing school. In order to design and develop an effective intelligent virtual mentoring system, it is critical to improve the understanding of existing mentoring relationships and user preferences. This paper presents findings from focus groups with minority graduate students and explores their needs and preferences in a mentor.

[1]  Earl W. Huff,et al.  The Development of a Conversational Agent Mentor Interface Using Short Message Service (SMS) , 2018, SIGMIS-CPR.

[2]  Kinnis Gosha,et al.  Development of a Twitter graduate school virtual mentor for HBCU computer science students , 2018, ACM Southeast Regional Conference.

[3]  Juan E. Gilbert,et al.  Creating a Pipeline for African American Computing Science Faculty: An Innovative Faculty /Research Mentoring Program Model , 2014 .

[4]  Christopher B. Newman,et al.  RETHINKING RACE IN STUDENT-FACULTY INTERACTIONS AND MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS WITH UNDERGRADUATE AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE MAJORS , 2015 .

[5]  Juan E. Gilbert,et al.  Virtual Graduate School Mentoring Using Embodied Conversational Agents , 2015 .

[6]  D. James,et al.  Participation of African Americans in e-Health and m-Health Studies: A Systematic Review. , 2017, Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association.

[7]  Luciana Benotti,et al.  Engaging high school students using chatbots , 2014, ITiCSE '14.

[8]  Ronald A. Berk,et al.  Measuring the Effectiveness of Faculty Mentoring Relationships , 2005, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[9]  Chris Liska Carger.  Attending to New Voices. , 1997 .

[10]  William A. Smith,et al.  “Assume the Position . . . You Fit the Description” , 2007 .

[11]  Shaun R. Harper,et al.  Institutional Efforts to Improve Black Male Student Achievement: A Standards-Based Approach , 2012 .

[12]  Eric Bridges.  Racial identity development and psychological coping of African American males at a predominantly white university , 2010 .

[13]  Shederick A. McClendon,et al.  Mentoring Graduate Students of Color: Myths, Models, and Modes , 1999 .

[14]  Corey Schimpf,et al.  The Underrepresentation of Women in Computing Fields: A Synthesis of Literature Using a Life Course Perspective , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Education.

[15]  Lemuria Carter,et al.  Exploring User Acceptance of a Text-message Base Health Intervention among Young African Americans , 2015, AIS Trans. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[16]  Mark A. Gooden,et al.  Culturally Responsive School Leadership , 2016 .

[17]  Albert A. Rizzo,et al.  Evaluation of Justina: A Virtual Patient with PTSD , 2008, IVA.

[18]  Juan E. Gilbert,et al.  African Americans in the U.S. computing sciences workforce , 2015, Commun. ACM.

[19]  J. Fereday,et al.  Demonstrating Rigor Using Thematic Analysis: A Hybrid Approach of Inductive and Deductive Coding and Theme Development , 2006 .

[20]  Barbara Ericson,et al.  Sisters Rise Up 4 CS: Helping Female Students Pass the Advanced Placement Computer Science A Exam , 2016, SIGCSE.

[21]  Jylana L. Sheats,et al.  A Theoretically-Grounded Investigation of Perceptions About Healthy Eating and mHealth Support Among African American Men and Women in New Orleans, Louisiana , 2018, Family & community health.

[22]  Demond T. Hargrove.  This is How We Did It: A Study of Black Male Resilience and Attainment at a Hispanic Serving Institution Through the Lenses of Critical Race Theory , 2014 .