Large Empirical Emerging Topics: CareerWise II: Enhanced Resilience Training for STEM Women in an Interactive, Multimodal Web-Based Environment

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

CareerWise-II is a continuation of CareerWise-I [supported by DRL 0634519]. This is a research project testing the efficacy of resiliency training over the Internet for the benefit of female doctoral students in engineering and the physical sciences, in order to reduce their attrition from their doctoral programs. The central research question is whether deliberate resilience training delivered via the Internet can strengthen women students' persistence and success in STEM doctoral programs. CareerWise-II identifies five research questions: 1. What is the relationship between interpersonal communication skills and student perception of supports / barriers to degree completion / STEM careers? 2. What is the most effective approach for delivering online instruction in interpersonal skills for STEM doctoral students?3. Do instructional design principles that guide the development of non-interactive multimodal learning environments generalize to interactive, web-based environments? 4. Do principles of instructional design derived from more structured domains (math, science) generalize to training soft skills (interpersonal communication)? 5. Does systematic resilience training over the Internet strengthen women students' persistence?The focus of CW-II will be on usability testing, large scale testing (including recruiting students), and improved Internet interfaces, including simulations. The research design is comprised of three phases, each testing the effectiveness of different materials or combinations of materials. Each phase has randomized trials.