Creating a Second Pathway to the Computing Major

In 2021, the Computer Science and Engineering department at UC Riverside added a second pathway to the major with a new CS1 and CS2 course sequence. Our goal was to address disparities in course outcomes between different populations, particularly between those with and without prior coding experience and majors versus non-majors. The hope was that students new to computing would have a viable path to discover whether they had interest and aptitude in computing without the added stress of being in a classroom with students who have prior coding experience. In this paper, we report the data analysis that led to our decision to add a second pathway, design choices, and challenges (particularly in university politics) in launching and adding a second pathway. We present the results over the last three years, which illustrate that the new series has leveled the playing field. Most importantly, the course outcome data and changes to computing major enrollment illustrate that we achieved our goal of attracting students new to computing and thus are broadening participation in computing.