Collaborative Research: Georgia STEM Accessibility Alliance (GSAA)

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The University of Georgia and Georgia Institute of Technology are collaborating partners with University of in a proposal to create the Georgia STEM Accessibility Alliance (GSAA). GSAA aims to establish an alliance between Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Georgia, Georgia Perimeter College and three public secondary school districts. All project activities support the goal of increasing the postsecondary STEM degree and career attainment of individuals with disabilities. The GSAA?s goals relate to increasing the number of secondary students with disabilities (SWD) enrolling in STEM postsecondary classes and majors, increasing the retention and graduation rates of individuals with disabilities in postsecondary STEM majors, and increasing successful entry rates of GSAA students into STEM graduate programs. A distinctive feature of GSAA is the use of a virtual world as the primary service-delivery model. The use of virtual mentoring and teaching, social networking, academic support, transition assistance, and preparation of instructions will be the primary interventions utilized in GSAA. GSAA goals are:Goal 1: Develop and evaluate GSAA intervention technologies and materials in Year 1 for use in Years 2-5. All modular materials will be made available via the Virtual Learning Reserves, one Reserve for secondary students and faculty and one for post-secondary students and faculty.Goal 2: Increase the number of secondary SwD (40/per year/140 total) participating in the GSAA STEM mentoring and virtual world STEM activities and entering STEM postsecondary programs in two-year colleges, technical colleges or university partner institutions (50% of participants, or 20 per project year, 80 total). Entering is defined as matriculating with a stated major in a STEM-related field. Goal 3: Increase retention in STEM majors by 180 students (baseline of 2,479 SWD, 723 SWD with declared STEM majors) and number of students graduating with STEM degrees (associates, baccalaureate, and graduate degrees) by 10 students from 2007 baseline (baseline of 94 students) in GSAA?s two-year college and university partner institutions through peer and faculty virtual and mentoring activities, evidence-based STEM learning practices, UDL solutions, and professional development initiatives.Goal 4: Increase the entry of GSAA STEM graduates (associates, baccalaureate and graduate) into STEM graduate programs by 10 per year from baseline measures (71 students) in Years 2-5. The project will implement interventions to support SWD as they cross three critical academic junctures: high school to two-year college; two-year to four-year college; and undergraduate education to graduate education or employment. GSAA activities include: 1. Creating a mentoring/training island in the virtual world of Second Life and integrating social networking tools to all participants year-round mentoring experiences; 2. Providing evidence-based STEM learning strategies with application of skills to STEM content via STEM Learning Seminars and Virtual Learning Communities for SWD;3. Enhancing the STEM faculty and staff ability to educate SWD using web-based and Second Life training modules to provide core professional training and development;4. Providing transition preparation and ongoing support to develop self-advocacy and academic skills essential for SWD to succeed in STEM secondary and postsecondary institutions.Work by internal and external/independent evaluators will provide formative and summative evaluation for the project which will provide evidence for the GSAA model. Dr. Tom McKlin of The Findings Group will provide external evaluation services to the project. Virtual world development and maintenance will be provided by Vesuvius, Inc. The project will develop materials for replicating the model nation-wide at secondary and postsecondary institutions. Recruiting processes, participant training methods, evaluation feedback instruments, and outcome measures will be formalized so that they can become easy to use for scale-up. GSAA materials and resources will be easily available via the Web to other institutions that seek to replicate the project model. GSAA will seek to apply scale-up first to other Alliances. Once this has been measured and documented, the project will apply efforts to scale up to other organizations outside of this funding directorate