- Email: [email protected]
Gender related correlations of computer science students
Accepted Manuscript Gender related correlations of computer science students Zoran Putnik, Ivana Štajner-Papuga, Mirjana Ivanović, Zoran Budimac, Katerina Zdravkova PII:
S0747-5632(16)30828-7
DOI:
10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.009
Reference:
CHB 4619
To appear in:
Computers in Human Behavior
Received Date: 24 July 2016 Revised Date:
1 December 2016
Accepted Date: 3 December 2016
Please cite this article as: Putnik Z., Štajner-Papuga I., Ivanović M., Budimac Z. & Zdravkova K., Gender related correlations of computer science students, Computers in Human Behavior (2017), doi: 10.1016/ j.chb.2016.12.009. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
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Gender Related Correlations of Computer Science Students Zoran Putnik Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
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e-mail: [email protected] Ivana Štajner-Papuga
Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
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e-mail: [email protected] Mirjana Ivanović
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Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia e-mail: [email protected] Zoran Budimac
Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Science,
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University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia e-mail: [email protected] Katerina Zdravkova
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Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, “Ss Cyril and Methodious” University in Skopje, FYR of Macedonia
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e-mail: [email protected]
Corresponding author: Zoran Putnik, at [email protected]
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Computers in Human Behavior, 2016 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Vol. X, No. X, 1–3, http://dx.doi.org/1111111
Gender Related Correlations of Computer Science Students ZORAN PUTNIKa*1, IVANA ŠTAJNER-PAPUGAa, MIRJANA IVANOVIĆa, ZORAN BUDIMACa a
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Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad
KATERINA ZDRAVKOVAb
Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, “Ss Cyril and Methodious” University in
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Skopje
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Abstract
In this article, statistical findings obtained by a large survey containing about 120 questions and options are presented. An inquiry using this survey was carried out on a considerable sample of students from four countries of Balkan region, studying different directions of computer science. Students belong to universities that are members of a joint educational project, plus three of the
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involved countries, emerged from the same country, former Yugoslavia, therefore the results are comparable. Data was analyzed and here we present the most interesting correlations and opinions about satisfaction and views about computer science studies and prospects. Students surveyed were of both female
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and male population, from two faculties of mathematics, and two faculties of
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electrical engineering from the four countries of the Balkan region.
Keywords: gender; success rate; professional ambitions; professional satisfaction
Introduction
Research on opinions of computer science students from Novi Sad, Serbia either considering gender differences (Ivanović et al., 2011, 2013a), or privacy issues (Ivanović et al., 2009, 2013b), has been going on for some time now. A large and
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Corresponding author: Email: [email protected]
© 2016 Published by Taylor & Francis
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General data about students, Questions considering students motivation for studying computer science, and Questions trying to investigate students’ ambitions and vision of future career.
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• • •
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interested base of students joined within common DAAD educational project2 (Budimac et al., 2012, 2014), and with bilateral and multilateral educational projects (SE-CSERC, 2014), (eLearning, 2014) was considered. Thus, there was an opportunity to survey their views and expectations for the future life in general and success within a field of computer science. The conducted survey included four universities, from four countries. Three of those countries came out from the same country, Yugoslavia. The fourth country belongs to the same region, so the expectation is that the results should be comparable. The main reason for that assumption is that all countries emerged from the similar background and have the similar level of the economic development. Observed universities are part of the mentioned DAAD project, and they conducted the same survey, dealing with three connected issues of computer science studies:
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Results were analyzed and two articles with the joint opinions and combined results for four countries were already published (Ivanović et al., 2011, 2013a). Still, looking into the data, there remained a suspicion that students from different countries might have diverse opinions on certain issues. Unfortunately, at that moment, the lack of data prevented deeper study of the problem. Finally now, after collecting enough data, it is possible to analyse if there is a statistically significant difference of opinions between countries or genders. For start, Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics concerning the number of students participating in our survey. Table 1: Students participating in a survey presented by country
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Our research of the gathered data showed not only that the opinions are different, but further that this difference is sometimes statistically significant. As it will be presented in this article, this difference is both visible between students from Novi Sad, Serbia and the rest of the countries. Also the difference exists between male population of Novi Sad students and the “rest of the world” surveyed. The rest of the article is organized as follows: in the second section, related work and overview of the literature is presented. Section three explains the questionnaire used and methodology in more details, while sections four and five present the most interesting statistical findings reached. The last section presents some conclusions, and directions for the future work.
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Under the auspices of the "Pact for Stability of South-eastern Europe" and DAAD foundation, an educational project entitled “Software Engineering: Computer Science Education and Research Cooperation" joining 17 universities from ten countries lasts since 2001.
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Literature Overview
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Gender related issues are for the long time fascinating research topic, occupying considerable interest particularly in computer science education research and literature. Inherited stereotypes and long-established opinions and prejudices provoked a lot of research, restricted mostly by large gender disproportion within the field. In (Venkatesh, Morris, and Ackerman, 2000) is reported that this imbalance do not exist only in schools and universities, but continue even to the ranks of university teachers. Amount of female computer science lecturers decreases over the years at all educational levels. At the same time, while “... determining the link between technical knowledge of Lithuanian youth and their independence in performing jobs connected with engineering...” researchers found out that “level of theoretical knowledge of independent girls is higher than that of independent boys” (Kovieriene, 2010). There are two reasons that are often reported in literature for a decreasing number of women in computer science – negative stereotypes and low confidence regarding the field (in (Acker and Oatley 1993) for example). Evidence can be found also that women often do not receive the same level of support as men while trying to work in the field of computer science (Cohoon, 2002), and that "parents, friends and classmates seldom encourage women to choose and continue in the field of information technology". Even for women successful in studying, graduating, and continuing to work in the field of mathematics and computer science, there is evidence on perceived difference. In (Chronaki and Pechtelidis, 2012) it is claimed “Our study reveals how dominant discourses concerning ‘mathematics’ and ‘gender’ relate closely to subjectivity fabrication.” Even after applying into universities and start studying computer science, the difference is there! In (Radziemski and Mitchell, 2000) for example, authors conclude that “... in imitation of a national trend, the female students were perceived to be dropping out of the software engineering program in greater numbers and for different reasons than the male students ...”. Let us also mention results of a study dealing with gender differences for computer science students (Beyer et al., 2003), which conducted a survey similar to ours, with the following results: • •
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Theoretical predictions that females more incline to teamwork, are confirmed; Female participants also reported stronger interpersonal attachment with other team members, than males did; Female participants had considerably lower level of professional confidence. Yet, both gender participants said that they have not noticed any gender discrimination; There was no major discrepancy between genders considering aspects: (i) beliefs on the compatibility of family life and career in computer science, (ii) personal self-esteem and comfort level, and (iii) satisfaction with the choice and quality of studies; Men had radically higher educational aspirations than did women;
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Decrease of female students is evident at this institution, also.
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On the other hand, there are some articles bringing somewhat different conclusions. For example, in (Imhof, Vollmeyer, and Beierlein, 2007) authors present that “... results show that the gender gap is closing as far as computer access and self-efficacy are concerned. Also, female and male students report comparable amounts of computer usage for their studies.” Yet, within the same article, they also recognize that some differences still exist, and conclude that “... user behaviour appears to be genderspecific as males spend more time at the computer for personal purposes. There is also some evidence that male students outperform female students at a computer task.” Finally, since some of the results of our survey guide towards the same conclusion, here is an extract from the research performed in (Remmele and Holthaus, 2013), where authors consider the influence of the use of eLearning at universities and its’ influence gender-wise, concluding that “With the routinization of its usage eLearning is becoming a gender-neutral tool with no outstanding technological appeal.” Even more, authors claim the evidence that “... the results show that eLearning supports the attitude we call study as consumption, that is, the expectation that the main eLearning features are usual services to be provided by the educational institution. This attitude is to be found among male and female students alike.” Methodology
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General data questions, providing the data on: average grade, grades for some characteristic computer science and math courses, for quality of studies on various criteria, for acquired skills on certain aspects of studies, and similar; Questions looking into the "motivation for enrolment" issues, covering for example inquiries about role models, influence of some enumerated factors on their enrolment into studies, their opinion on the coverage of certain areas within studies, and similar; Final group consists of questions about the "ambitions regarding future career", with queries such as: job position they see themselves in after the completion of their studies, and ten years later, or opinion about the most promising fields of computer science.
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The questionnaire submitted to our students consisted of questions offering more than one hundred options for them to choose. Answers offered were either nominal scale questions (yes/no), or ordinal scale questions (1 to 5, Lickert scale). The questionnaire is divided into three main sections:
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Considering the interpretation of gathered data the following can be noted: •
The data was processed using software package "Statistica", suitable for statistical computing and graphical presentation of results (Statistica, 2014). During the analysis, our aim was to conclude whether there exists a statistically
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significant difference between the answers either of the members of two genders, or between the members of different countries. As it is done commonly, the threshold for the level of significance is 0.05; Since the observed variables are not normally distributed, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test, and its’ extension, Kruskal-Wallis test were used; When needed and/or interesting, other types of statistical analysis (Chi-square test, for example) were applied, and on occasion some basic descriptive statistics is given, in order to provide the reader with more insight into the gathered data.
The Main Findings
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The most interesting finding, proven by several results and analysis, was that students from Novi Sad, Serbia, have quite different opinion about a number of questions regarding their studies and their future life in the field of computer science. Going deeper into this analysis, it can be quite often recognized that there exists the difference between genders, in the sense that female students from Novi Sad occasionally do go along with students from other countries, while male Serbian students have in most of the cases exceptionally diverse opinion. Novi Sad males vs. other groups of students
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In this section the most surprising result of the analysis will be presented, i.e., analysis of the answers to the question “Do you think studies positively influence your intellectual development?” While no significant differences considering this question was expected, results are almost shocking considering male students from Novi Sad. Frequencies for answers were entered into a 2x2 table in order to evaluate relationship between two dichotomous variables, and the Chi-square test was applied on the results. The first variable was gender of the participant of a survey, while the second one was opinion about the influence of their studies on their intellectual development. Of course, the null hypothesis was that the variables are independent, i.e., that the opinion about the intellectual development does not depend on the gender of the respondent. Firstly, respondents from Novi Sad were tested. Based on the data given in Table 2, registered p-value was 0.0013 (which is less than the given level of significance of α=0.05), therefore there is a reason to reject the null hypothesis, and to conclude that male respondents have a different opinion than the females. Thus, the conclusion is that male respondents from Novi Sad are “vain”, thinking that their studies did not positively influence their intellectual development. Table 2: Do you think your studies positively influenced your intellectual development (Novi Sad)? What is interesting is that the situation is quite different with the rest of the countries
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and their students. Analogous data containing cumulative answers of students from Skopje, Sarajevo, and Tirana is given in Table 3, and as can be seen, is very different. Here obtained answers are as commonly expected. Table 3: Do you think your studies positively influenced your intellectual development (other countries)?
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Only a minor number of respondents thought that their studies did not positively influence their intellectual development. The registered p-value was 0.4678, which is much larger than the given level of significance of α=0.05. So based on sample information for Skopje, Sarajevo, and Tirana, the null hypothesis was accepted, and the conclusion is made that both genders have the same opinion on this issue.
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With the next group of questions inquiry is made about the satisfaction of students with several important elements of studying. First of all, there was a question asked about their liking of courses grouped into computer science courses, mathematical courses, and courses of general topics. Provoked by the previous findings, the results for Novi Sad group of students are presented first. Since observed variables for both genders in Novi Sad are not normally distributed, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used. The null hypothesis was that there is no significant difference between grades regarding the quality of courses, given by females and males. The results of the test applied to the grades that Novi Sad students gave to mentioned groups of courses, are presented in Table 4. Table 4: How do you rate quality of courses (Novi Sad students)?
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As can be seen from the table 4, for computer science group of courses and for courses of “general” topics, both genders from Novi Sad gave similar grades and have similar opinion. Yet, for the “mathematical” group of courses, registered p-value was 0.004888, or much less than the given level of significance of α=0.05, meaning that different genders have different opinions about the quality of the mathematical courses. Girls gave significantly higher grades to these courses. In the rest of the section, results for students from other countries are presented. Again, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used, with the same null hypothesis that there is no significant difference between grades given by genders. The results of the test applied to the grades students from other countries gave to various groups of courses, can be seen in Table 5. Table 5: How do you rate quality of courses (other countries)? The registered p-values for each group of courses are larger than the given level of significance of α=0.05, so the null hypothesis that genders has the same opinion about
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the quality of all types of courses, can be accepted. All in all, the only difference exists in opinions of male gender about the mathematical group of courses. One more time, males from Novi Sad! In order to further illustrate the above conclusions, some basic descriptive statistics considering the previous analysis for students from Novi Sad are presented in Table 6.
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Table 6: Basic descriptive statistics (Novi Sad students)
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While the differences in means and standard deviations between groups of courses are visible from the above table, the natural question arises whether those differences are significant. Kruskal-Wallis test (extension of the previously used non-parametric MannWhitney U test) was applied to check the null-hypothesis that there is no statistically significant difference between grades for groups of courses. For the complete set of students containing both genders, as well as for the female students observed separately, there is no statistically significant difference of grades between different groups of courses. Still, for the male observed separately, pvalue is bellow the given level of significance of α=0.05 by a very narrow margin (p=0.0493). Although the males have different opinion, the difference is not strong enough to influence the results for the complete set of students (i.e. both genders from Novi Sad).
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The basic descriptive statistics for students outside of Novi Sad are given in Table 7. Table 7: Basic descriptive statistics
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Consistent with the analysis resulted from the Mann-Whitney test here it can also be observed that the opinions of both genders are much more similar than in the case of Novi Sad. Here the Kruskal-Wallis test was applied in order to test the differences between grades for various groups of courses. Unlike the case of Novi Sad, this time, for the complete set of students of other countries, same as for the female and male students observed separately, there is statistically significant difference of grades for the groups of courses. Again, mathematical group of courses is the least appreciated group. So, same as with the previous question, students from Novi Sad as a whole, have different opinion than the other groups of students. But, after separating opinions by gender, there is a point where males from Novi Sad fit with students from other countries, while females do not. Novi Sad vs. other students The second group of typical answers contain results where both genders of Novi Sad students answered a given question in a similar fashion, yet quite different than the answers of the students from other countries. This type of behavior is more common
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and it resulted on more than one occasion. Concern for the Future
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The first question generating this type of results is the question “Do you feel worried about your future career in the field of CS?” What to expect here – we were not sure, but such a different results between countries were never expected! Again, the frequencies required to evaluate relationship between two dichotomous variables are given in Table 8. The first variable was gender of the survey participant, while the other variable was opinion about their probable future career in the field. Null hypothesis was that the variables are independent, i.e., that opinion about the future career does not depend on the gender of the respondent, while the alternative hypothesis was that it does. The respondents from Novi Sad were tested first. From the data given in Table 8, the obtained p-value was 0.9394, which is distinctly greater than the given level of significance of α=0.05. Therefore, based on the sample information, the null hypothesis was accepted and the conclusion is that both genders from Novi Sad feel similarly secure about their future career in the field of computer science. In case of Novi Sad, this means that both genders are rather positive about their professional prospects. Table 8: Do you feel worried about your future career in the field of CS (Novi Sad)?
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Situation is very different with the rest of the countries and their students in a twofold manner. Analogously data containing cumulative answers of students from Skopje, Sarajevo and Tirana are given in Table 9. Table 9: Do you feel worried about your future career in the field of CS (other
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countries)?
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It is not only that there is (much) larger percentage of students of both genders who are worried about their future in the field, but there is also a statistically significant difference between genders. Namely, if the null hypothesis is that the variables are independent, i.e. that opinion about their future career does not depend on the gender of the respondent; there are different results than in the case of Novi Sad. The registered p-value was 0.0301, which is smaller than the given level of significance of α=0.05. This time, based on the sample information, the null hypothesis was rejected, and the alternative one was accepted. The conclusion is that genders have different opinion on this issue. In other words, females are more concerned with the future career, that their male counterparts. A look into the differences between Novi Sad on one hand, and the others, was taken, disregarding gender issue, and the following data is gathered: •
Out of 129 respondents from Novi Sad, 40 expressed their concern with the future career, while
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Out of 252 respondents from other cities, 106 expressed their concern.
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After testing hypothesis for differences between two proportions, the p-value of 0.0179, was obtained, i.e., less than level of significance of α=0.05. Based on these data, the null hypothesis was rejected, and the alternative one was accepted, concluding that students from Novi Sad are less concerned about their future career, than their colleagues from other Balkan countries. Communication
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The next pair of questions posted to students was about their satisfaction with the general “communication” they had during their studies. The first question inquired about the communication with the “human staff”, i.e. with professors and assistants at their institution. One more time, observed variables for both genders are not normally distributed, so non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used. Our null hypothesis was that there is no significant difference between grades given by females and males. The reader will not be bothered with the whole table, but instead just the final results and conclusions are presented. For Novi Sad students, registered p-value was 0.010070, which is smaller than the given level of significance of α=0.05, so the conclusion is that gender is a significant factor while grading relationship with the staff in Novi Sad. In addition let us note that females from Novi Sad gave higher grades to the communication with their lecturers than males did. The second question dealt with students’ satisfaction with the application of eLearning facilities at our Department, which is considered as a sort of “communication with the electronic staff”. This time, registered p-value was 0.013584, which is again smaller than the given level of significance of α=0.05. Again, the null hypothesis has been rejected and the conclusion is that the grading of application of eLearning in Novi Sad is significantly different, depending on gender. As in the previous test, females graded eLearning facilities higher than male students. The same tests were repeated with the data collected for students outside of Novi Sad. The registered p-value in the first case was 0.149301, which is quite greater than the given level of significance of α=0.05. So, unlike in the case of students from Novi Sad, based on the sample information, the null hypothesis was accepted and the conclusion is that there is no significant difference in the opinion about communication with lecturers, when gender is concerned. When eLearning is in question, the registered p-value was 0.468871, which is again greater than the given level of significance of α=0.05. One more time, students from outside of Novi Sad gave different answers and have different opinion, than students from Novi Sad! In order to investigate further into this difference, the data collected for Novi Sad students was reorganized in order to see if there is the difference in opinion about communication with the regular “live” staff, and “electronic staff”. Collected data is
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presented in Table 10. Table 10: Communication with lecturers and with eLearning facilities (Novi Sad students)
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After applying Pearson Chi-square Non-parametric test of independence, the obtained registered p-value is less than the given level of significance, showing that actually there is a connection between satisfactions of students concerning these two questions – students are usually either satisfied or dissatisfied with both. Preparation for the Future
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The next question was about students’ opinion about “how well their studies prepared them for the future”, and in particular how do they feel about their future career. Students from Novi Sad had different opinion even on this question that we were sure they would answer the same as students from other faculties/countries. Yet, this time, at least gender had no influence, i.e. both females and males from Novi Sad had the same opinion on this issue, quite different than females and males from other countries. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used, and our null hypothesis was that there is no significant difference between grades given by students from other analyzed countries. The results for this question are given in Table 11.
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Table 11: How do you rate your satisfaction with how your studies have prepared you
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For female students, the registered p-value was 0.017005, which is smaller than the given level of significance of α=0.05, so the null hypothesis has been rejected and it can be concluded that females from Novi Sad, have different opinion that females from other countries. Novi Sad females were more negative and have more pessimistic opinion than other females. Their average grade, on the scale 1 to 5, was 3.390244, while for female students out of Novi Sad, this average grade was 3.827586. The male students were considered also. Again our null hypothesis was that there is no significant difference between grades given by males from other analyzed countries. The registered p-value was 0.001696, which even more emphasizes the difference, so again the conclusion was similar, i.e. males from Novi Sad have different opinion than males from other countries. That is, Novi Sad male students were more negative and more pessimistic than males from other countries. Their average grade, on the scale 1 to 5, was 3.180556, while for male students out of Novi Sad, this average grade was 3.726115. As a side effect, a general feeling that females usually are less pessimistic than males within their countries can be recognized. Even though, differences are small, this can be observed from the Table 12 containing basic descriptive statistics. Table 12: Basic descriptive statistics about future career
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Conclusion
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While trying to extend our research about opinions of genders regarding their studies into the research considering differences between countries, some rather interesting results emerged. As presented in this article, on several very important questions, students from Novi Sad had quite different opinions than students from other considered countries. With these questions, differences between genders were relatively trivial. Yet, the story does not end here. There is also a considerable number of questions, where yet another issue appears. Not only that Novi Sad students have different opinion than students from other countries, but also there exists a difference between genders in Novi Sad. While females fit into the opinion of others, male students from Novi Sad have sometimes very unique and distinctive attitudes. The most characteristic differences are: • the male students from Novi Sad, think that their studies did not positively influence their intellectual development; • they are also of the opinion, that mathematical courses presented to them during their studies, are not worthy of their attention, did not help them in their studies, and will not help them in their professional lives; • while students from other countries same as females from Novi Sad rated their communication with teaching personnel and with e-Learning facilities relatively positive, males from Novi Sad again are negative about it; • for both genders in Novi Sad, it stands that they are quite secure about their future careers, compared to students from other countries, being more concerned about their prospect, and • Yet, both genders from Novi Sad are more pessimistic than students from other countries, about “how well their studies prepared them for the career in computer science”.
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In order not to bother and bore readers with too many numerical results, out of around 130 questions/options offered to students within a survey, let there be mentioned that there is a vast number of not mentioned opinions that are in accordance with those presented here. The results given are the most characteristic ones, and therefore are presented here. Reasons behind this behaviour of students are not quite clear, and require additional investigation which will be carried out in the future. Acknowledgement Authors are partially supported by Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia, through project no. OI174023: "Intelligent techniques and their integration into wide-spectrum decision support".
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References
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Acker, S., K.Oatley. 1993. Gender Issues in Education for Science and Technology: Current Situation and Prospects for Change. Canadian Journal of Education. Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 255-272. Beyer, S., K.Rynes, J.Perrault, K.Hay, and S.Haller. 2003. Gender Differences in Computer Science Students. SIGCSE Bulletin. pp. 49-53. SE-CSERC. 2014. Software Engineering: Computer Science Education and Research Cooperation. Joint project of 9 countries and 16 universities. http://www2.informatik.huberlin.de/swt/ intkoop/daad/ eLearning. 2014. eLearning support system with application of data-mining and data security. Joint project of Dept. of Mathematics and Informatics (Novi Sad) and Faculty of Electronics, Computing and Informatics (Maribor, Slovenia). http://perun.pmf.uns.ac.rs/ Budimac, Z., Z.Putnik, M.Ivanović, K.Bothe. 2012, A View on a Successful International Educational Project in Software Engineering. e-Informatica Software Engineering Journal, Vol. 6, Issue 1, pp. 47-59, DOI: 10.5277/e-Inf120104. Budimac, Z., Z.Putnik, M.Ivanović, K.Bothe, K.Zdravkova, and B.Jakimovski. 2014. MultiCountry Experience in Delivering a Joint Course on Software Engineering - Numerical Results. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. Vol. 15. No. 1, pp. 84-110. Chronaki, A., Y.Pechtelidis. 2012. ‘Being Good’ at Maths: Fabricating Gender Subjectivity. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education. 1 (3), 246-277. Cohoon, J. M. 2002. Recruiting and Retaining Women in Undergraduate Computing Majors. SIGCSE Bulletin. Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 48-52. Imhof, M., R.Vollmeyer, C.Beierlein. 2007. Computer use and the gender gap: The issue of access, use, motivation, and performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 23, 2823–2837, DOI:10.1016/j.chb.2006.05.007. Ivanović, M., T.Welzer, Z.Putnik, M.Hölbl, Ž.Komlenov, I.Pribela, T.Schweighofer. 2009. Experiences and privacy issues - usage of Moodle in Serbia and Slovenia. Article presented at Interactive Computer Aided Learning Conference, ICL2009, September 23 – 25, in Villach, Austria. Ivanović, M., Z.Putnik, A.Šišarica, Z.Budimac. 2011. The IT Gender Gap: Experience, Motivation and Differences in Undergraduate Studies of Computer Science. The Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education – TOJDE. April 2011, Vol. 12, Nr. 2, Article 12. Ivanović, M., Z.Putnik, Z.Budimac, K.Bothe, K.Zdravkova. 2013. Gender Influences on Studying Computer Science – Balkan Case. Article presented at 6th Balkan Conference in Informatics, September 19-21, in Thessaloniki, Greece. Ivanović, M., Z.Putnik, Ž.Komlenov, T.Welzer, M.Hölbl, T.Schweighofer. 2013. Usability and Privacy Aspects of Moodle - Students' and Teachers' Perspective. Informatica, An International Journal of Computing and Informatics. Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 221-230. Kovieriene, A. 2010. The link between technical knowledge of the youth and their technical abilities: The role of gender. Informatics in Education. 9 (1), 81-90. Radziemski, C., K.Mitchell. 2000. Different Is Good: Barriers To Retention For Women In Software Engineering. Presented at the 30th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, October 18 – 21, in Kansas City, USA. Remmele, B., M.Holthaus. 2013. De-Gendering in the Use of E-Learning. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. Vol. 14. No. 3, pp. 27-42. Statistica (data analysis software system). 2014. StatSoft, Inc., http://www.statsoft.com Venkatesh, V., M.G.Morris, P.A.Ackerman. 2000. A longitudinal field investigation of gender differences in individual technology adoption decision making processes, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Vol. 83, Issue 1, pp. 33–60.
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Gender/Country Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Serbia FYR Macedonia Total
Female 11 20 42 58 131
Male 13 31 66 114 224
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Table 1: Students participating in a survey presented by country
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Female Male
Yes 48 61
No 1 18
Table 2: Do you think your studies positively influenced your intellectual development
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(Novi Sad)?
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Female Male
Yes 86 155
No 1 4
Table 3: Do you think your studies positively influenced your intellectual development
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(other countries)?
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Group of Courses
Mann-Whitney U Test, By variable Gender Rank Sum Rank Sum U Z Z p-value Valid N Valid N female male adjusted female male 3176.500 5208.500 1951.500 -0.038821 -0.040748 0.967497 49 80
Computer science Mathematics 3684.000 4444.000 1363.000 2.711592 2.814352 0.004888 49 General 3513.000 4743.000 1583.000 1.725547 1.815762 0.069408 49
78 79
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Table 4: How do you rate quality of courses (Novi Sad students)?
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Group of Courses
Mann-Whitney U Test, By variable Gender Rank Rank U Z Sum Sum female Male Computer science 10585.00 20043.00 6580.00 -0.835672 Mathematics 11610.00 18280.00 6034.000 1.566824 General 10533.50 18627.50 6692.50 0.011543
Z adjusted
p-value
Valid N female -0.893769 0.371446 89 1.628425 0.103436 88 0.012357 0.990141 87
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Table 5: How do you rate quality of courses (other countries)?
Valid N male 158 156 154
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Number of participants CS female 49 CS male 80 Mathematics female 49 Mathematics male 78 General female 49 General male 79
Mean 3.714286 3.687500 3.836735 3.269231 3.795918 3.417722
Minimum Maximum Standard Deviation 2 5 0.957427 1 5 0.962509 2 5 0.943110 1 5 1.112772 2 5 0.934960 1 5 1.032890
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Table 6: Basic descriptive statistics (Novi Sad students)
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Variable
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Variable
Number of participants CS female 89 CS male 158 Mathematics female 88 Mathematics male 156 General female 87 General male 154
Mean 3.921348 3.993671 3.454545 3.256412 3.735632 3.727273
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Table 7: Basic descriptive statistics
Minimum Maximum Standard Deviation 2 5 0.786603 1 5 0.817771 1 5 1.081815 1 5 1.052627 2 5 0.841645 1 5 0.802551
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Female Male
Yes 15 25
No 34 55
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Table 8: Do you feel worried about your future career in the field of CS (Novi Sad)?
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Female Male
Yes 46 60
No 44 102
Table 9: Do you feel worried about your future career in the field of CS (other
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countries)?
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NOT Satisfied with use of eLearning
67
21
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Satisfied with communication with lecturers NOT Satisfied with communication with lecturers
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Table 10: Communication with lecturers and with eLearning facilities (Novi Sad
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students)
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Career in Mann-Whitney U Test - By variable Location the field Rank Sum Rank Sum U p-value Z Z of CS Novi Sad “others” adjusted
Valid N “others”
Female Male
87 157
2198.00 6875.00
6058.00 19459.50
Valid N Novi Sad 1337.00 -2.27761 -2.38660 0.017005 41 4247.50 -3.01632 -3.13896 0.001696 72
Table 11: How do you rate your satisfaction with how your studies have prepared you
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for the career in CS?
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Number of participants Novi Sad female 41 Novi Sad male 72 Novi Sad all 113 Others female 87 Others male 157 Others all 244
Mean 3.390244 3.180556 3.256637 3.827586 3.726115 3.767795
Minimum Maximum Standard Deviation 1 5 0.918642 1 5 1.214077 1 5 1.116266 2 5 0.942620 1 5 0.971461 1 5 0.960566
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Table 12: Basic descriptive statistics about future career
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Male students think studies did not positively influence their intellectual growth, Mathematics courses presented to them will not help them in professional lives; Both genders are secure about their future careers in Serbia; Booth genders are not in FYRO Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania; Both genders in Serbia are pessimistic how their studies prepared them for career.
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• • • • •
S0747-5632(16)30828-7
DOI:
10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.009
Reference:
CHB 4619
To appear in:
Computers in Human Behavior
Received Date: 24 July 2016 Revised Date:
1 December 2016
Accepted Date: 3 December 2016
Please cite this article as: Putnik Z., Štajner-Papuga I., Ivanović M., Budimac Z. & Zdravkova K., Gender related correlations of computer science students, Computers in Human Behavior (2017), doi: 10.1016/ j.chb.2016.12.009. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
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Gender Related Correlations of Computer Science Students Zoran Putnik Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
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e-mail: [email protected] Ivana Štajner-Papuga
Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
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e-mail: [email protected] Mirjana Ivanović
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Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia e-mail: [email protected] Zoran Budimac
Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Science,
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University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia e-mail: [email protected] Katerina Zdravkova
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Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, “Ss Cyril and Methodious” University in Skopje, FYR of Macedonia
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e-mail: [email protected]
Corresponding author: Zoran Putnik, at [email protected]
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Computers in Human Behavior, 2016 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Vol. X, No. X, 1–3, http://dx.doi.org/1111111
Gender Related Correlations of Computer Science Students ZORAN PUTNIKa*1, IVANA ŠTAJNER-PAPUGAa, MIRJANA IVANOVIĆa, ZORAN BUDIMACa a
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Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad
KATERINA ZDRAVKOVAb
Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, “Ss Cyril and Methodious” University in
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b
Skopje
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Abstract
In this article, statistical findings obtained by a large survey containing about 120 questions and options are presented. An inquiry using this survey was carried out on a considerable sample of students from four countries of Balkan region, studying different directions of computer science. Students belong to universities that are members of a joint educational project, plus three of the
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involved countries, emerged from the same country, former Yugoslavia, therefore the results are comparable. Data was analyzed and here we present the most interesting correlations and opinions about satisfaction and views about computer science studies and prospects. Students surveyed were of both female
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and male population, from two faculties of mathematics, and two faculties of
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electrical engineering from the four countries of the Balkan region.
Keywords: gender; success rate; professional ambitions; professional satisfaction
Introduction
Research on opinions of computer science students from Novi Sad, Serbia either considering gender differences (Ivanović et al., 2011, 2013a), or privacy issues (Ivanović et al., 2009, 2013b), has been going on for some time now. A large and
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Corresponding author: Email: [email protected]
© 2016 Published by Taylor & Francis
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General data about students, Questions considering students motivation for studying computer science, and Questions trying to investigate students’ ambitions and vision of future career.
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interested base of students joined within common DAAD educational project2 (Budimac et al., 2012, 2014), and with bilateral and multilateral educational projects (SE-CSERC, 2014), (eLearning, 2014) was considered. Thus, there was an opportunity to survey their views and expectations for the future life in general and success within a field of computer science. The conducted survey included four universities, from four countries. Three of those countries came out from the same country, Yugoslavia. The fourth country belongs to the same region, so the expectation is that the results should be comparable. The main reason for that assumption is that all countries emerged from the similar background and have the similar level of the economic development. Observed universities are part of the mentioned DAAD project, and they conducted the same survey, dealing with three connected issues of computer science studies:
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Results were analyzed and two articles with the joint opinions and combined results for four countries were already published (Ivanović et al., 2011, 2013a). Still, looking into the data, there remained a suspicion that students from different countries might have diverse opinions on certain issues. Unfortunately, at that moment, the lack of data prevented deeper study of the problem. Finally now, after collecting enough data, it is possible to analyse if there is a statistically significant difference of opinions between countries or genders. For start, Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics concerning the number of students participating in our survey. Table 1: Students participating in a survey presented by country
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Our research of the gathered data showed not only that the opinions are different, but further that this difference is sometimes statistically significant. As it will be presented in this article, this difference is both visible between students from Novi Sad, Serbia and the rest of the countries. Also the difference exists between male population of Novi Sad students and the “rest of the world” surveyed. The rest of the article is organized as follows: in the second section, related work and overview of the literature is presented. Section three explains the questionnaire used and methodology in more details, while sections four and five present the most interesting statistical findings reached. The last section presents some conclusions, and directions for the future work.
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Under the auspices of the "Pact for Stability of South-eastern Europe" and DAAD foundation, an educational project entitled “Software Engineering: Computer Science Education and Research Cooperation" joining 17 universities from ten countries lasts since 2001.
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Literature Overview
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Gender related issues are for the long time fascinating research topic, occupying considerable interest particularly in computer science education research and literature. Inherited stereotypes and long-established opinions and prejudices provoked a lot of research, restricted mostly by large gender disproportion within the field. In (Venkatesh, Morris, and Ackerman, 2000) is reported that this imbalance do not exist only in schools and universities, but continue even to the ranks of university teachers. Amount of female computer science lecturers decreases over the years at all educational levels. At the same time, while “... determining the link between technical knowledge of Lithuanian youth and their independence in performing jobs connected with engineering...” researchers found out that “level of theoretical knowledge of independent girls is higher than that of independent boys” (Kovieriene, 2010). There are two reasons that are often reported in literature for a decreasing number of women in computer science – negative stereotypes and low confidence regarding the field (in (Acker and Oatley 1993) for example). Evidence can be found also that women often do not receive the same level of support as men while trying to work in the field of computer science (Cohoon, 2002), and that "parents, friends and classmates seldom encourage women to choose and continue in the field of information technology". Even for women successful in studying, graduating, and continuing to work in the field of mathematics and computer science, there is evidence on perceived difference. In (Chronaki and Pechtelidis, 2012) it is claimed “Our study reveals how dominant discourses concerning ‘mathematics’ and ‘gender’ relate closely to subjectivity fabrication.” Even after applying into universities and start studying computer science, the difference is there! In (Radziemski and Mitchell, 2000) for example, authors conclude that “... in imitation of a national trend, the female students were perceived to be dropping out of the software engineering program in greater numbers and for different reasons than the male students ...”. Let us also mention results of a study dealing with gender differences for computer science students (Beyer et al., 2003), which conducted a survey similar to ours, with the following results: • •
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•
•
Theoretical predictions that females more incline to teamwork, are confirmed; Female participants also reported stronger interpersonal attachment with other team members, than males did; Female participants had considerably lower level of professional confidence. Yet, both gender participants said that they have not noticed any gender discrimination; There was no major discrepancy between genders considering aspects: (i) beliefs on the compatibility of family life and career in computer science, (ii) personal self-esteem and comfort level, and (iii) satisfaction with the choice and quality of studies; Men had radically higher educational aspirations than did women;
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•
Decrease of female students is evident at this institution, also.
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On the other hand, there are some articles bringing somewhat different conclusions. For example, in (Imhof, Vollmeyer, and Beierlein, 2007) authors present that “... results show that the gender gap is closing as far as computer access and self-efficacy are concerned. Also, female and male students report comparable amounts of computer usage for their studies.” Yet, within the same article, they also recognize that some differences still exist, and conclude that “... user behaviour appears to be genderspecific as males spend more time at the computer for personal purposes. There is also some evidence that male students outperform female students at a computer task.” Finally, since some of the results of our survey guide towards the same conclusion, here is an extract from the research performed in (Remmele and Holthaus, 2013), where authors consider the influence of the use of eLearning at universities and its’ influence gender-wise, concluding that “With the routinization of its usage eLearning is becoming a gender-neutral tool with no outstanding technological appeal.” Even more, authors claim the evidence that “... the results show that eLearning supports the attitude we call study as consumption, that is, the expectation that the main eLearning features are usual services to be provided by the educational institution. This attitude is to be found among male and female students alike.” Methodology
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General data questions, providing the data on: average grade, grades for some characteristic computer science and math courses, for quality of studies on various criteria, for acquired skills on certain aspects of studies, and similar; Questions looking into the "motivation for enrolment" issues, covering for example inquiries about role models, influence of some enumerated factors on their enrolment into studies, their opinion on the coverage of certain areas within studies, and similar; Final group consists of questions about the "ambitions regarding future career", with queries such as: job position they see themselves in after the completion of their studies, and ten years later, or opinion about the most promising fields of computer science.
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The questionnaire submitted to our students consisted of questions offering more than one hundred options for them to choose. Answers offered were either nominal scale questions (yes/no), or ordinal scale questions (1 to 5, Lickert scale). The questionnaire is divided into three main sections:
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Considering the interpretation of gathered data the following can be noted: •
The data was processed using software package "Statistica", suitable for statistical computing and graphical presentation of results (Statistica, 2014). During the analysis, our aim was to conclude whether there exists a statistically
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significant difference between the answers either of the members of two genders, or between the members of different countries. As it is done commonly, the threshold for the level of significance is 0.05; Since the observed variables are not normally distributed, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test, and its’ extension, Kruskal-Wallis test were used; When needed and/or interesting, other types of statistical analysis (Chi-square test, for example) were applied, and on occasion some basic descriptive statistics is given, in order to provide the reader with more insight into the gathered data.
The Main Findings
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The most interesting finding, proven by several results and analysis, was that students from Novi Sad, Serbia, have quite different opinion about a number of questions regarding their studies and their future life in the field of computer science. Going deeper into this analysis, it can be quite often recognized that there exists the difference between genders, in the sense that female students from Novi Sad occasionally do go along with students from other countries, while male Serbian students have in most of the cases exceptionally diverse opinion. Novi Sad males vs. other groups of students
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In this section the most surprising result of the analysis will be presented, i.e., analysis of the answers to the question “Do you think studies positively influence your intellectual development?” While no significant differences considering this question was expected, results are almost shocking considering male students from Novi Sad. Frequencies for answers were entered into a 2x2 table in order to evaluate relationship between two dichotomous variables, and the Chi-square test was applied on the results. The first variable was gender of the participant of a survey, while the second one was opinion about the influence of their studies on their intellectual development. Of course, the null hypothesis was that the variables are independent, i.e., that the opinion about the intellectual development does not depend on the gender of the respondent. Firstly, respondents from Novi Sad were tested. Based on the data given in Table 2, registered p-value was 0.0013 (which is less than the given level of significance of α=0.05), therefore there is a reason to reject the null hypothesis, and to conclude that male respondents have a different opinion than the females. Thus, the conclusion is that male respondents from Novi Sad are “vain”, thinking that their studies did not positively influence their intellectual development. Table 2: Do you think your studies positively influenced your intellectual development (Novi Sad)? What is interesting is that the situation is quite different with the rest of the countries
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and their students. Analogous data containing cumulative answers of students from Skopje, Sarajevo, and Tirana is given in Table 3, and as can be seen, is very different. Here obtained answers are as commonly expected. Table 3: Do you think your studies positively influenced your intellectual development (other countries)?
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Only a minor number of respondents thought that their studies did not positively influence their intellectual development. The registered p-value was 0.4678, which is much larger than the given level of significance of α=0.05. So based on sample information for Skopje, Sarajevo, and Tirana, the null hypothesis was accepted, and the conclusion is made that both genders have the same opinion on this issue.
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With the next group of questions inquiry is made about the satisfaction of students with several important elements of studying. First of all, there was a question asked about their liking of courses grouped into computer science courses, mathematical courses, and courses of general topics. Provoked by the previous findings, the results for Novi Sad group of students are presented first. Since observed variables for both genders in Novi Sad are not normally distributed, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used. The null hypothesis was that there is no significant difference between grades regarding the quality of courses, given by females and males. The results of the test applied to the grades that Novi Sad students gave to mentioned groups of courses, are presented in Table 4. Table 4: How do you rate quality of courses (Novi Sad students)?
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As can be seen from the table 4, for computer science group of courses and for courses of “general” topics, both genders from Novi Sad gave similar grades and have similar opinion. Yet, for the “mathematical” group of courses, registered p-value was 0.004888, or much less than the given level of significance of α=0.05, meaning that different genders have different opinions about the quality of the mathematical courses. Girls gave significantly higher grades to these courses. In the rest of the section, results for students from other countries are presented. Again, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used, with the same null hypothesis that there is no significant difference between grades given by genders. The results of the test applied to the grades students from other countries gave to various groups of courses, can be seen in Table 5. Table 5: How do you rate quality of courses (other countries)? The registered p-values for each group of courses are larger than the given level of significance of α=0.05, so the null hypothesis that genders has the same opinion about
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the quality of all types of courses, can be accepted. All in all, the only difference exists in opinions of male gender about the mathematical group of courses. One more time, males from Novi Sad! In order to further illustrate the above conclusions, some basic descriptive statistics considering the previous analysis for students from Novi Sad are presented in Table 6.
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Table 6: Basic descriptive statistics (Novi Sad students)
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While the differences in means and standard deviations between groups of courses are visible from the above table, the natural question arises whether those differences are significant. Kruskal-Wallis test (extension of the previously used non-parametric MannWhitney U test) was applied to check the null-hypothesis that there is no statistically significant difference between grades for groups of courses. For the complete set of students containing both genders, as well as for the female students observed separately, there is no statistically significant difference of grades between different groups of courses. Still, for the male observed separately, pvalue is bellow the given level of significance of α=0.05 by a very narrow margin (p=0.0493). Although the males have different opinion, the difference is not strong enough to influence the results for the complete set of students (i.e. both genders from Novi Sad).
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The basic descriptive statistics for students outside of Novi Sad are given in Table 7. Table 7: Basic descriptive statistics
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Consistent with the analysis resulted from the Mann-Whitney test here it can also be observed that the opinions of both genders are much more similar than in the case of Novi Sad. Here the Kruskal-Wallis test was applied in order to test the differences between grades for various groups of courses. Unlike the case of Novi Sad, this time, for the complete set of students of other countries, same as for the female and male students observed separately, there is statistically significant difference of grades for the groups of courses. Again, mathematical group of courses is the least appreciated group. So, same as with the previous question, students from Novi Sad as a whole, have different opinion than the other groups of students. But, after separating opinions by gender, there is a point where males from Novi Sad fit with students from other countries, while females do not. Novi Sad vs. other students The second group of typical answers contain results where both genders of Novi Sad students answered a given question in a similar fashion, yet quite different than the answers of the students from other countries. This type of behavior is more common
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and it resulted on more than one occasion. Concern for the Future
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The first question generating this type of results is the question “Do you feel worried about your future career in the field of CS?” What to expect here – we were not sure, but such a different results between countries were never expected! Again, the frequencies required to evaluate relationship between two dichotomous variables are given in Table 8. The first variable was gender of the survey participant, while the other variable was opinion about their probable future career in the field. Null hypothesis was that the variables are independent, i.e., that opinion about the future career does not depend on the gender of the respondent, while the alternative hypothesis was that it does. The respondents from Novi Sad were tested first. From the data given in Table 8, the obtained p-value was 0.9394, which is distinctly greater than the given level of significance of α=0.05. Therefore, based on the sample information, the null hypothesis was accepted and the conclusion is that both genders from Novi Sad feel similarly secure about their future career in the field of computer science. In case of Novi Sad, this means that both genders are rather positive about their professional prospects. Table 8: Do you feel worried about your future career in the field of CS (Novi Sad)?
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Situation is very different with the rest of the countries and their students in a twofold manner. Analogously data containing cumulative answers of students from Skopje, Sarajevo and Tirana are given in Table 9. Table 9: Do you feel worried about your future career in the field of CS (other
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It is not only that there is (much) larger percentage of students of both genders who are worried about their future in the field, but there is also a statistically significant difference between genders. Namely, if the null hypothesis is that the variables are independent, i.e. that opinion about their future career does not depend on the gender of the respondent; there are different results than in the case of Novi Sad. The registered p-value was 0.0301, which is smaller than the given level of significance of α=0.05. This time, based on the sample information, the null hypothesis was rejected, and the alternative one was accepted. The conclusion is that genders have different opinion on this issue. In other words, females are more concerned with the future career, that their male counterparts. A look into the differences between Novi Sad on one hand, and the others, was taken, disregarding gender issue, and the following data is gathered: •
Out of 129 respondents from Novi Sad, 40 expressed their concern with the future career, while
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Out of 252 respondents from other cities, 106 expressed their concern.
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After testing hypothesis for differences between two proportions, the p-value of 0.0179, was obtained, i.e., less than level of significance of α=0.05. Based on these data, the null hypothesis was rejected, and the alternative one was accepted, concluding that students from Novi Sad are less concerned about their future career, than their colleagues from other Balkan countries. Communication
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The next pair of questions posted to students was about their satisfaction with the general “communication” they had during their studies. The first question inquired about the communication with the “human staff”, i.e. with professors and assistants at their institution. One more time, observed variables for both genders are not normally distributed, so non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used. Our null hypothesis was that there is no significant difference between grades given by females and males. The reader will not be bothered with the whole table, but instead just the final results and conclusions are presented. For Novi Sad students, registered p-value was 0.010070, which is smaller than the given level of significance of α=0.05, so the conclusion is that gender is a significant factor while grading relationship with the staff in Novi Sad. In addition let us note that females from Novi Sad gave higher grades to the communication with their lecturers than males did. The second question dealt with students’ satisfaction with the application of eLearning facilities at our Department, which is considered as a sort of “communication with the electronic staff”. This time, registered p-value was 0.013584, which is again smaller than the given level of significance of α=0.05. Again, the null hypothesis has been rejected and the conclusion is that the grading of application of eLearning in Novi Sad is significantly different, depending on gender. As in the previous test, females graded eLearning facilities higher than male students. The same tests were repeated with the data collected for students outside of Novi Sad. The registered p-value in the first case was 0.149301, which is quite greater than the given level of significance of α=0.05. So, unlike in the case of students from Novi Sad, based on the sample information, the null hypothesis was accepted and the conclusion is that there is no significant difference in the opinion about communication with lecturers, when gender is concerned. When eLearning is in question, the registered p-value was 0.468871, which is again greater than the given level of significance of α=0.05. One more time, students from outside of Novi Sad gave different answers and have different opinion, than students from Novi Sad! In order to investigate further into this difference, the data collected for Novi Sad students was reorganized in order to see if there is the difference in opinion about communication with the regular “live” staff, and “electronic staff”. Collected data is
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presented in Table 10. Table 10: Communication with lecturers and with eLearning facilities (Novi Sad students)
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After applying Pearson Chi-square Non-parametric test of independence, the obtained registered p-value is less than the given level of significance, showing that actually there is a connection between satisfactions of students concerning these two questions – students are usually either satisfied or dissatisfied with both. Preparation for the Future
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The next question was about students’ opinion about “how well their studies prepared them for the future”, and in particular how do they feel about their future career. Students from Novi Sad had different opinion even on this question that we were sure they would answer the same as students from other faculties/countries. Yet, this time, at least gender had no influence, i.e. both females and males from Novi Sad had the same opinion on this issue, quite different than females and males from other countries. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used, and our null hypothesis was that there is no significant difference between grades given by students from other analyzed countries. The results for this question are given in Table 11.
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Table 11: How do you rate your satisfaction with how your studies have prepared you
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For female students, the registered p-value was 0.017005, which is smaller than the given level of significance of α=0.05, so the null hypothesis has been rejected and it can be concluded that females from Novi Sad, have different opinion that females from other countries. Novi Sad females were more negative and have more pessimistic opinion than other females. Their average grade, on the scale 1 to 5, was 3.390244, while for female students out of Novi Sad, this average grade was 3.827586. The male students were considered also. Again our null hypothesis was that there is no significant difference between grades given by males from other analyzed countries. The registered p-value was 0.001696, which even more emphasizes the difference, so again the conclusion was similar, i.e. males from Novi Sad have different opinion than males from other countries. That is, Novi Sad male students were more negative and more pessimistic than males from other countries. Their average grade, on the scale 1 to 5, was 3.180556, while for male students out of Novi Sad, this average grade was 3.726115. As a side effect, a general feeling that females usually are less pessimistic than males within their countries can be recognized. Even though, differences are small, this can be observed from the Table 12 containing basic descriptive statistics. Table 12: Basic descriptive statistics about future career
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Conclusion
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While trying to extend our research about opinions of genders regarding their studies into the research considering differences between countries, some rather interesting results emerged. As presented in this article, on several very important questions, students from Novi Sad had quite different opinions than students from other considered countries. With these questions, differences between genders were relatively trivial. Yet, the story does not end here. There is also a considerable number of questions, where yet another issue appears. Not only that Novi Sad students have different opinion than students from other countries, but also there exists a difference between genders in Novi Sad. While females fit into the opinion of others, male students from Novi Sad have sometimes very unique and distinctive attitudes. The most characteristic differences are: • the male students from Novi Sad, think that their studies did not positively influence their intellectual development; • they are also of the opinion, that mathematical courses presented to them during their studies, are not worthy of their attention, did not help them in their studies, and will not help them in their professional lives; • while students from other countries same as females from Novi Sad rated their communication with teaching personnel and with e-Learning facilities relatively positive, males from Novi Sad again are negative about it; • for both genders in Novi Sad, it stands that they are quite secure about their future careers, compared to students from other countries, being more concerned about their prospect, and • Yet, both genders from Novi Sad are more pessimistic than students from other countries, about “how well their studies prepared them for the career in computer science”.
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In order not to bother and bore readers with too many numerical results, out of around 130 questions/options offered to students within a survey, let there be mentioned that there is a vast number of not mentioned opinions that are in accordance with those presented here. The results given are the most characteristic ones, and therefore are presented here. Reasons behind this behaviour of students are not quite clear, and require additional investigation which will be carried out in the future. Acknowledgement Authors are partially supported by Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia, through project no. OI174023: "Intelligent techniques and their integration into wide-spectrum decision support".
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References
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Acker, S., K.Oatley. 1993. Gender Issues in Education for Science and Technology: Current Situation and Prospects for Change. Canadian Journal of Education. Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 255-272. Beyer, S., K.Rynes, J.Perrault, K.Hay, and S.Haller. 2003. Gender Differences in Computer Science Students. SIGCSE Bulletin. pp. 49-53. SE-CSERC. 2014. Software Engineering: Computer Science Education and Research Cooperation. Joint project of 9 countries and 16 universities. http://www2.informatik.huberlin.de/swt/ intkoop/daad/ eLearning. 2014. eLearning support system with application of data-mining and data security. Joint project of Dept. of Mathematics and Informatics (Novi Sad) and Faculty of Electronics, Computing and Informatics (Maribor, Slovenia). http://perun.pmf.uns.ac.rs/ Budimac, Z., Z.Putnik, M.Ivanović, K.Bothe. 2012, A View on a Successful International Educational Project in Software Engineering. e-Informatica Software Engineering Journal, Vol. 6, Issue 1, pp. 47-59, DOI: 10.5277/e-Inf120104. Budimac, Z., Z.Putnik, M.Ivanović, K.Bothe, K.Zdravkova, and B.Jakimovski. 2014. MultiCountry Experience in Delivering a Joint Course on Software Engineering - Numerical Results. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. Vol. 15. No. 1, pp. 84-110. Chronaki, A., Y.Pechtelidis. 2012. ‘Being Good’ at Maths: Fabricating Gender Subjectivity. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education. 1 (3), 246-277. Cohoon, J. M. 2002. Recruiting and Retaining Women in Undergraduate Computing Majors. SIGCSE Bulletin. Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 48-52. Imhof, M., R.Vollmeyer, C.Beierlein. 2007. Computer use and the gender gap: The issue of access, use, motivation, and performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 23, 2823–2837, DOI:10.1016/j.chb.2006.05.007. Ivanović, M., T.Welzer, Z.Putnik, M.Hölbl, Ž.Komlenov, I.Pribela, T.Schweighofer. 2009. Experiences and privacy issues - usage of Moodle in Serbia and Slovenia. Article presented at Interactive Computer Aided Learning Conference, ICL2009, September 23 – 25, in Villach, Austria. Ivanović, M., Z.Putnik, A.Šišarica, Z.Budimac. 2011. The IT Gender Gap: Experience, Motivation and Differences in Undergraduate Studies of Computer Science. The Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education – TOJDE. April 2011, Vol. 12, Nr. 2, Article 12. Ivanović, M., Z.Putnik, Z.Budimac, K.Bothe, K.Zdravkova. 2013. Gender Influences on Studying Computer Science – Balkan Case. Article presented at 6th Balkan Conference in Informatics, September 19-21, in Thessaloniki, Greece. Ivanović, M., Z.Putnik, Ž.Komlenov, T.Welzer, M.Hölbl, T.Schweighofer. 2013. Usability and Privacy Aspects of Moodle - Students' and Teachers' Perspective. Informatica, An International Journal of Computing and Informatics. Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 221-230. Kovieriene, A. 2010. The link between technical knowledge of the youth and their technical abilities: The role of gender. Informatics in Education. 9 (1), 81-90. Radziemski, C., K.Mitchell. 2000. Different Is Good: Barriers To Retention For Women In Software Engineering. Presented at the 30th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, October 18 – 21, in Kansas City, USA. Remmele, B., M.Holthaus. 2013. De-Gendering in the Use of E-Learning. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. Vol. 14. No. 3, pp. 27-42. Statistica (data analysis software system). 2014. StatSoft, Inc., http://www.statsoft.com Venkatesh, V., M.G.Morris, P.A.Ackerman. 2000. A longitudinal field investigation of gender differences in individual technology adoption decision making processes, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Vol. 83, Issue 1, pp. 33–60.
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Gender/Country Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Serbia FYR Macedonia Total
Female 11 20 42 58 131
Male 13 31 66 114 224
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Table 1: Students participating in a survey presented by country
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Female Male
Yes 48 61
No 1 18
Table 2: Do you think your studies positively influenced your intellectual development
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(Novi Sad)?
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Female Male
Yes 86 155
No 1 4
Table 3: Do you think your studies positively influenced your intellectual development
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(other countries)?
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Group of Courses
Mann-Whitney U Test, By variable Gender Rank Sum Rank Sum U Z Z p-value Valid N Valid N female male adjusted female male 3176.500 5208.500 1951.500 -0.038821 -0.040748 0.967497 49 80
Computer science Mathematics 3684.000 4444.000 1363.000 2.711592 2.814352 0.004888 49 General 3513.000 4743.000 1583.000 1.725547 1.815762 0.069408 49
78 79
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Table 4: How do you rate quality of courses (Novi Sad students)?
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Group of Courses
Mann-Whitney U Test, By variable Gender Rank Rank U Z Sum Sum female Male Computer science 10585.00 20043.00 6580.00 -0.835672 Mathematics 11610.00 18280.00 6034.000 1.566824 General 10533.50 18627.50 6692.50 0.011543
Z adjusted
p-value
Valid N female -0.893769 0.371446 89 1.628425 0.103436 88 0.012357 0.990141 87
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Table 5: How do you rate quality of courses (other countries)?
Valid N male 158 156 154
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Number of participants CS female 49 CS male 80 Mathematics female 49 Mathematics male 78 General female 49 General male 79
Mean 3.714286 3.687500 3.836735 3.269231 3.795918 3.417722
Minimum Maximum Standard Deviation 2 5 0.957427 1 5 0.962509 2 5 0.943110 1 5 1.112772 2 5 0.934960 1 5 1.032890
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Table 6: Basic descriptive statistics (Novi Sad students)
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Variable
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Variable
Number of participants CS female 89 CS male 158 Mathematics female 88 Mathematics male 156 General female 87 General male 154
Mean 3.921348 3.993671 3.454545 3.256412 3.735632 3.727273
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Table 7: Basic descriptive statistics
Minimum Maximum Standard Deviation 2 5 0.786603 1 5 0.817771 1 5 1.081815 1 5 1.052627 2 5 0.841645 1 5 0.802551
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Female Male
Yes 15 25
No 34 55
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Table 8: Do you feel worried about your future career in the field of CS (Novi Sad)?
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Female Male
Yes 46 60
No 44 102
Table 9: Do you feel worried about your future career in the field of CS (other
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countries)?
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NOT Satisfied with use of eLearning
67
21
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35
Satisfied with communication with lecturers NOT Satisfied with communication with lecturers
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Table 10: Communication with lecturers and with eLearning facilities (Novi Sad
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students)
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Career in Mann-Whitney U Test - By variable Location the field Rank Sum Rank Sum U p-value Z Z of CS Novi Sad “others” adjusted
Valid N “others”
Female Male
87 157
2198.00 6875.00
6058.00 19459.50
Valid N Novi Sad 1337.00 -2.27761 -2.38660 0.017005 41 4247.50 -3.01632 -3.13896 0.001696 72
Table 11: How do you rate your satisfaction with how your studies have prepared you
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for the career in CS?
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Number of participants Novi Sad female 41 Novi Sad male 72 Novi Sad all 113 Others female 87 Others male 157 Others all 244
Mean 3.390244 3.180556 3.256637 3.827586 3.726115 3.767795
Minimum Maximum Standard Deviation 1 5 0.918642 1 5 1.214077 1 5 1.116266 2 5 0.942620 1 5 0.971461 1 5 0.960566
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Table 12: Basic descriptive statistics about future career
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Male students think studies did not positively influence their intellectual growth, Mathematics courses presented to them will not help them in professional lives; Both genders are secure about their future careers in Serbia; Booth genders are not in FYRO Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania; Both genders in Serbia are pessimistic how their studies prepared them for career.
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• • • • •