  Pair programming has been highlighted as an active learning technique with
several benefits to students, including increasing participation and improving
outcomes, particularly for female computer science students. However, most of
the literature highlights the effects of pair programming in introductory
courses, where students have varied levels of prior programming experience and
thus may experience related group issues. This work analyzes the effect of pair
programming in an upper-level computer science course, where students have a
more consistent background education, particularly in languages learned and
best practices in coding. Secondly, the effect of remote pair programming on
student outcomes is still an open question and one of increasing importance
with the advent of Covid-19. This work utilized split sections with a control
and treatment group in a large, public university. In addition to comparing
pair programming to individual programming, results were analyzed by modality
(remote vs. in person) and by gender, focusing on how pair programming benefits
female computer science students in confidence, persistence in the major, and
outcomes. We found that pair programming groups scored higher on assignments
and exams, that remote pair programming groups performed as well as in person
groups, and that female students increased their confidence in asking questions
in class and scored 12\% higher in the course when utilizing pair programming.
