title: "Older Adults Learning Computer Programming: Motivations, Frustrations, and Design Opportunities"
authors: Philip J. Guo
venue: ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI)
year: 2017
footer: "<font color=\"#AA0000\">Honorable Mention Paper</font>"
links:
- <a href="older-adults-learning-programming-paper.htm">Blog post</a>
- <a href="http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/geeking_out_in_the_golden_years">Press release</a>
- <a href="https://talkpython.fm/episodes/show/112/geeking-out-in-the-golden-years">Podcast</a>

tweet: Many people over age 60 want to learn to code but get frustrated by cognitive and social factors

abstract: >
  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.

bibtex: >
  @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},
  }