COMPUTER SCIENCE AND CODING STUDY PATHS FOR WOMEN, MATURE WORKERS, AND MINORITIES: MOOC OR UNIVERSITY – WHO DOES IT BETTER?

This article is an exploratory analysis and comparison of the demographic distributions of data collected from the 2016 New Coder Survey, with that obtained from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). In comparing the data sets, the findings suggest that overall females were more likely to engage in online self-paced coding education, particularly when they had no background or previous study in an IT discipline. This contrasted strongly with females having an existing IT qualification. When looking at ethnicity, the research identified that those students who identify as an ethnic minority were more likely to undertake formal tertiary education in IT, rather than engage in online coding study. The research also confirmed that the average age was higher, and diversity of age groups was larger for those undertaking online study, when compared with those undertaking formal tertiary study. The practical implications of this analysis to diversity in Information Technology disciplines such as computer science, and more broadly with STEM-related disciplines are discussed.