Pivoting During a Pandemic: Designing a Virtual Summer Camp to Increase Confidence of Black and Latina girls

Abstract

Out-of-school time programs like summer camps have shown to be beneficial for exposing students to computer science, particularly in school districts where computing classes are not offered. The COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for students who were already subject to the digital divide, as in-person camps came to a halt if they weren't prepared to pivot. In response, we created a virtual summer camp that provides informal computer science learning opportunities that were intentionally designed to increase the confidence of Black and Latina girls in computing and to promote positive perceptions of computer science education and career opportunities. Key to our approach is the recognition that representation in the camp's community of attendees, teachers, guest speakers, and in the content can foster confidence for Black and Latina girls in computing. In this paper, we draw on the intersectional computing framework and present the structural, instructional, and curricular design of the virtual program and present initial findings on the impact of the camp on computing confidence, intent to persist, social supports, and computing outcome expectations. Findings of a pre- and post-survey study of 107 camp attendees show that participating in the camp resulted in an increase in computing confidence as well as computing outcome expectations among Black and Latina girls.