Digital equity and computational thinking privilege: The case of first-year engineering and computing students' attitudes towards artificial intelligence

Attitudes can constitute barriers to engineering, computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) enculturation, contributing to and resulting from digital inequity. Building upon research on computational thinking privilege, we explored first-year students' (a) perceived future impact of AI on their career prospects and (b) backgrounds (e.g., gender, underrepresented minority (URM) status, and First-Generation status) associated with their attitudes toward AI, computational thinking, and course performance. Computational thinking was measured using our newly validated Engineering Computational Thinking Diagnostic (ECTD), while course performance was assessed based on final grades in an introductory computing course at a Southwestern institution—the first coding experience for many students. For the fall 2021 participant cohort of 163 first-year engineering and computing students, 40.9 % expressed positive attitudes toward AI in their career prospects, with 48.9 % of them having prior computer science course experience. Regarding their backgrounds, the number of CS courses taken before college significantly correlated with their attitudes toward AI, ECTD scores, and course grades—irrespective of gender, URM status, residence, First-Generation, or First-Time-in-College status. These findings support the notion that computational thinking privilege, shaped by prior exposure and access to resources, contributes to digital inequity and influences attitudes. Specifically, students' cognitive attitudes toward AI have the potential to shape AI literacy and education, potentially perpetuating inequities in an increasingly AI-driven world.