Attracting Adults to Computer Programming via Hip Hop

The demand for qualified computing professionals is high, with thousands of positions remaining unfilled each year. To create more qualified professionals, initiatives to attract and engage students in computer science have been proposed, but they tend to concentrate on primary, secondary (K-12), and post-secondary (college) levels. With many adults looking for better career opportunities, it is surprising that few computer science initiatives focus on attracting adult learners to the field. This paper presents the results of an informal computer programming course that teaches the foundational concepts of computer programming to adults as they program hip-hop beats. This course is designed to attract adult learners that otherwise might have never considered computer programming, building their confidence and skills. We conducted this course online, two nights a week, for five weeks, for about 40 participants. Afterward, we conducted a qualitative analysis of written survey data. We found that the adult learners' perception of computer programming changed during the course, with many participants planning their next step in computing education.