Broadening Participation in Experiential Learning Opportunities to Enhance Learner Engagement and Develop In-Demand Professional Skills

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The mismatch between graduates' skills and the needs of STEM employers has economic and societal costs. Students can gain the needed skills by participating in traditional cooperative education (co-op) placements or internships, thus increasing their workplace readiness. However, co-op/internship opportunities are impractical for adult, non-traditional students who are working full- or part-time while in school. This project will serve the national interest by exploring a potential solution to this challenge: integrating employer-provided projects into college curricula. These projects are designed to be flexible, so that they can be used in different kinds of courses and at different institutions. They are also designed to be accessible to students for whom traditional co-op placements and internships are not feasible. The integrated experiential learning opportunities will include both individual and team experiences. The goal of this project is to provide opportunities for non-traditional, adult students to gain professional skills. Many of the targeted students are from low-income or underrepresented minority populations. Students will gain professional skills by working on projects submitted by employers to the Experiential Network. This online platform contains over 500 employer-provided projects designed to provide flexible, accessible experiential learning opportunities that can be implemented in courses. This project will support faculty integrating Experiential Network projects into their courses. It will study the impacts of this integration on students and faculty across multiple institutions, including university bachelor completion programs and five community colleges. The Experiential Network platform will be enhanced to connect students, employers, and faculty, to support project work, team collaboration, feedback from both faculty and employer sponsors, and reflection. The design-based research study will document the benefits and challenges of integrating experiential learning opportunities into undergraduate STEM instruction, from both faculty and student points of view. The research will also contribute to understanding student self-directed learning and skill development. It will encourage the adoption and adaptation of innovative tools and practices for STEM learning. Sustainability of this approach will be supported through enactment of strategies for successful cross-institutional partnerships. Active partnerships will facilitate broad dissemination both statewide and nationally.