A Customised App to Attract Female Teenagers to Coding

Bernadette Spieler, Wolfgang Slany
Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
bernadette.spieler@ist.tugraz.at
wolfgang.slany@tugraz.at

Abstract: The number of women in IT-related disciplines is far below the number of men, especially in developed countries. Middle-school girls appear to be engaged in coding courses, but when they choose academic majors relevant to their future careers, only few pursue computer science as a major. In order to show students a new way of learning and to engage them with coding activities, we used the learning app Pocket Code. In the “No One Left Behind” H2020 European project, the app was evaluated in several school subjects. An evaluation of the attractiveness of the app shows that students were motivated by Pocket Code’s ease of use and its appealing design; however, girls rated the app less enthusiastically.

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