Older Adults Learning Computer Programming: Motivations, Frustrations, and Design Opportunitiesresearch paper summary
Older Adults Learning Computer Programming: Motivations, Frustrations, and Design Opportunities. Philip J. Guo. ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2017.
(Honorable Mention Paper Award) Computer programming is a highly in-demand skill, but most learn-to-code initiatives and research target some of the youngest members of society: children and college students. We present the first known study of older adults learning computer programming. Using an online survey with 504 respondents aged 60 to 85 who are from 52 different countries, we discovered that older adults were motivated to learn to keep their brains challenged as they aged, to make up for missed opportunities during youth, to connect with younger family members, and to improve job prospects. They reported frustrations including a perceived decline in cognitive abilities, lack of opportunities to interact with tutors and peers, and trouble dealing with constantly-changing software technologies. Based on these findings, we propose a learner-centered design of techniques and tools for motivating older adults to learn programming and discuss broader societal implications of a future where more older adults have access to computer programming -- not merely computer literacy -- as a skill set.
@inproceedings{GuoCHI2017, author = {Guo, Philip J.}, title = {Older Adults Learning Computer Programming: Motivations, Frustrations, and Design Opportunities}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}, series = {CHI '17}, year = {2017}, isbn = {978-1-4503-4655-9}, location = {Denver, Colorado, USA}, pages = {7070--7083}, numpages = {14}, url = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/3025453.3025945}, doi = {10.1145/3025453.3025945}, acmid = {3025945}, publisher = {ACM}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, keywords = {computational literacy, learning programming, older adults}, } There's now tremendous momentum behind initiatives to teach computer programming to a broad audience, yet many of these efforts (e.g., Code.org, Scratch, ScratchJr, Alice) target the youngest members of society: K-12 and college students. In contrast, I wanted to study the other end of the age spectrum: how older adults aged 60 and over are learning to code. Why study older adults? Because this population is already significant and also quickly growing as we all (hopefully!) continue to live longer in the coming decades. The United Nations estimates that by 2030, 25% of North Americans and Europeans will be over 60 years old, and 16% of the worldwide population will be over 60. To discover older adults' motivations and frustrations when learning to code, I created a short online survey that asked about their employment status, why they're learning, and what's been the most frustrating part of their learning experience thus far. I deployed this survey to my Python Tutor website and collected 504 responses. Respondents were, on average, 66.5 years old and came from 52 countries: MotivationsWhy were our respondents learning programming? The most common age-related motivations were:
Here's a great anecdote about learning to make up for missed opportunities during youth. A 67-year-old retired Chief Information Officer (CIO) wrote:
I did a little programming when I was in school, and when I first
started working. However, I got "kicked upstairs" [into management]
quite quickly, and was never able to program professionally. [...] I
always wanted to be able to create programs but between work and family,
never took the time. Now that I am retired, I am trying to fulfill the
dream and learn.
FrustrationsWhat got our respondents frustrated as they were learning? The three most common age-related frustrations were:
A 71-year-old retired I.T. technician humorously wrote about his own perceived cognitive impairments:
Given that I was a VERY early adopter of
microprocessor/microcontroller technology, I have NO fear of the
equipment or the concepts. But things that were "automatic" a few years
back seem to take a lot more time and effort to digest and store than
they used to. Early onset Alzheimer's? Probably not. ACS? (Advanced
curmudgeon syndrome) - Probably some of that.
Design OpportunitiesInspired by the findings from this study, I applied the Learner-Centered Design framework developed by Mark Guzdial to propose design ideas for improving the learning experience for this older adult population. Three main themes emerged:
Parting ThoughtsThe tech world is notoriously youth-centered: popular conceptions of who learns and does programming are filled with images of young people often under 30 years old. Also, age discrimination is an all-too-common reality in the technology sector. To counteract these prevailing trends as people keep living longer in the coming decades, it's vital for older adults to have equal access to high-quality computing and programming education throughout their lives. We've already made great strides in broadening participation of computing to traditionally underrepresented groups ... but there's still much, much more work to be done. Efforts to spread the power and joy of computing for all should also include people of all ages. Read the full paper for details:
Older Adults Learning Computer Programming: Motivations, Frustrations, and Design Opportunities. Philip J. Guo. ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2017.
(Honorable Mention Paper Award) Computer programming is a highly in-demand skill, but most learn-to-code initiatives and research target some of the youngest members of society: children and college students. We present the first known study of older adults learning computer programming. Using an online survey with 504 respondents aged 60 to 85 who are from 52 different countries, we discovered that older adults were motivated to learn to keep their brains challenged as they aged, to make up for missed opportunities during youth, to connect with younger family members, and to improve job prospects. They reported frustrations including a perceived decline in cognitive abilities, lack of opportunities to interact with tutors and peers, and trouble dealing with constantly-changing software technologies. Based on these findings, we propose a learner-centered design of techniques and tools for motivating older adults to learn programming and discuss broader societal implications of a future where more older adults have access to computer programming -- not merely computer literacy -- as a skill set.
@inproceedings{GuoCHI2017, author = {Guo, Philip J.}, title = {Older Adults Learning Computer Programming: Motivations, Frustrations, and Design Opportunities}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}, series = {CHI '17}, year = {2017}, isbn = {978-1-4503-4655-9}, location = {Denver, Colorado, USA}, pages = {7070--7083}, numpages = {14}, url = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/3025453.3025945}, doi = {10.1145/3025453.3025945}, acmid = {3025945}, publisher = {ACM}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, keywords = {computational literacy, learning programming, older adults}, } (This article was adapted from my CACM blog post.) |