End-User Programmers Repurposing End-User Programming Tools to Foster Diversity in Adult End-User Programming Education

Efforts to improve diversity in computing have mostly focused on K-12 and university student populations, so there is a lack of research on how to provide these benefits to adults who are not in school. To address this knowledge gap, we present a case study of how a nine-member team of end-user programmers designed an educational program to bring job-relevant computing skills to adult populations that have traditionally not been reached by existing efforts. This team conceived, implemented, and delivered Cloud Based Data Science (CBDS), a data science course designed for adults in their local community in historically marginalized groups that are underrepresented in computing fields. Notably, nobody on the course development team was a full-time educator or software engineer. To reduce the amount of time and cost required to launch their program, they repurposed end-user programming skills and tools from their professions, such as data-analytic programming and reproducible scientific research workflows. This case study demonstrates how the spirit of end-user programming can be a vehicle to drive social change through grassroots efforts.

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