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

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