Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Open Access Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Computer Science (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Computer Science

Advisor 1

Leo Ureel II

Advisor 2

Briana Bettin

Committee Member 1

Laura Brown

Committee Member 2

Michelle Jarvie-Eggart

Abstract

Hidden curriculum (HC) consists of the assumed behaviors, cultural norms, and collective knowledge that students are expected to know, but never taught. Knowledge such as version control tools, interview and resume skills, and self-regulation can fall into the HC. HC exists in a specific institutional and individual context and can change over time, making it hard to address and examine.

My thesis work is situated around uncovering and addressing HC in computing education. In this thesis I will present relevant background about HC and computing related HC, present my previous work on the College of Computing Resource Hub and the analysis of usage data from its first semester of deployment, and the methods, results, and discussion of a new study that seeks to examine the perspectives of faculty, peer mentors, and students on HC in computing at Michigan Technological University.

The study uses survey methods to collect a view of possible HC at Michigan Technological University's Computer Science Department using literature as a basis. The study then uses semi-structured interviews to deeply examine the specifics of observations and experiences of HC. The interviews and surveys include all three perspectives: student, faculty, and mentor. The surveys and interview are examined to generate possible future angles for research and serve as a pilot study for my dissertation work.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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