Applying the Computer Science Capital Framework: Understanding Computing Engagement Among Student-Athletes

• In Event: Data, Play, and Power: Sports as Culturally Sustaining Learning Sites

Abstract

This research applies the Computer Science Capital (CSC) framework to examine how undergraduates—especially student-athletes—invoke computing capital. Using survey data from two iterations of a sport-focused CS project course, we measured self-reported familiarity with programming, data science, physical computing, and AI/ML, and compared patterns between student-athletes and non-athletes.

Analysis of frequently invoked capital showed emphasis on “behaviors and practices,” with formal coursework leading, followed by major/minor affiliation and employment experiences like internships. These sources signal that academic and professional exposures shape students’ self-concept in computing.

We found statistically significant differences across both broader code groups and specific code invocations. Non-student-athletes reported higher CS-related self-efficacy despite similar course enrollment, suggesting that athletic time demands may constrain student-athletes’ opportunity to cultivate recognized computing capital, thereby affecting confidence. Paradoxically, student-athletes reported greater access to computing devices and software than their peers. We interpret this as stemming from their frequent interaction with sport-specific technologies—wearables, training load systems, and performance tools—that expose them to technical environments outside formal CS instruction. Such exposure may constitute an alternative, under-recognized pathway into computing that the current CSC framing does not fully capture.

This study is the first application of the CSC framework in a U.S. NCAA Division I context, illuminating a population whose dual athletic and academic pressures shape distinct capital dynamics. Findings underscore the need to refine the CSC framework to account for student-athletes’ constrained schedules and the informal technical fluency gained via sports technologies, which contribute to identity development in ways not adequately acknowledged in traditional measures.

Future work should investigate causal mechanisms behind self-efficacy and access differences, ideally through longitudinal tracking of CS identity trajectories among student-athletes. Structural educational adaptations—such as adjusting project time expectations or formally crediting technical competencies earned through sport-related technology use—could bolster their CS self-efficacy. Athletic departments might also integrate interested student-athletes into technology initiatives, creating visible bridges between their sport-engagement and computing identity. Ultimately, this research offers a starting point for more equitable inclusion of student-athletes in computing, and for extending similar inquiry to other groups navigating competing identity demands in STEM.

Authors

• Michael Smith, Northwestern University

• Ashley Serine Quiterio, Northwestern University

• Jacob Puthipiroj, Northwestern University