SBIR Phase I: An E-Learning Program for High School Equivalency (GED) and Remedial Education for Prisoners

SBIR第一阶段项目解决了为被监禁的青少年和成年人提供持续、系统和安全的个人教育和培训机会的迫切需要，使囚犯获得他们重新进入社会所需的技能。它还将降低累犯率，并增强他们的信心和为当地社区做出贡献的潜力。每年，超过70万名州和联邦囚犯被释放回他们的社区，他们通常没有比他们进入社区时更好的技能。大多数囚犯没有基本的高中学历。该项目的目标是提供最有效、最安全和最灵活的线下电子学习应用程序，以便在监狱环境的限制内获得最需要的高中同等学历；涵盖讲师指导和自我指导的学习课程。第一阶段完成后，惩教机构将有机会为普通教育发展(GED)或任何其他数字形式的教育和培训利用安全、易于管理的离线电子学习解决方案。该平台将整合大量高质量的教学课程，最终将获得高中文凭，并为解决技术和职业技能问题提供额外支持。第一阶段项目创新的核心是提供一个单一、高度灵活、安全的学习管理平台，其中多个应用程序可以存储在一台服务器上。它将提供普通教育发展(GED)内容，并将可扩展以纳入更多的电子学习应用程序，包括那些能够解决累犯问题的应用程序。适应性学习管理平台将自动在私人服务器上提供和安装这些GED和非GED教育应用程序，无论是在惩教设施现场还是在场外私人服务器网络上。不同的内容集将自动为每个监狱定制，不需要外部互联网连接。另一项关键创新将是让e-Learning系统在囚犯被转移时跟踪他们的能力。他们将始终可以访问他们的具体内容和进展状态，因为他们的数据将集中托管在完全安全的监狱服务器上。他们的个人记录可以得到确认和审查，以进行假释评估。通过提供统一的学生分析和对不同内容和教育应用程序供应商的学习结果的持续监控，该系统将把离线学习的能力提升为数据驱动的努力，并将提供可与民用生活中的系统相媲美的个性化体验。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This SBIR Phase I project addresses the pressing need for providing incarcerated youth and adults with continual systematic and secure personal education and training opportunities, giving inmates the skills they need to productively re-enter society. It will also reduce recidivism rates, and increase their confidence and the potential for contributing to local communities. Every year, more than 700,000 state and federal prisoners are released back into their communities, often with no greater skills than when they went in. The majority of prisoners lack basic high school degrees. The goal of the project is to provide the most effective, secure and flexible offline e-Learning applications for acquiring high school equivalency, the area of greatest need, within the constraints of the prison environment; covering both instructor-led and self-directed learning sessions. At the completion of Phase I, correctional facilities will have an opportunity to utilize a secure, easy-to-administer, offline e-Learning solution for the General Education Development (GED) or for any other education and training in a digital format. A wealth of high-quality instructional programs will be incorporated into the platform that will ultimately lead to a high school equivalency diploma, and additional support to address technical and vocational skills.The Phase I project innovation is centered around the delivery of a single, highly-flexible, secure learning management platform, where multiple applications can be stored on a single server. It will provide the General Education Development (GED) content and will be expandable to incorporate additional e-Learning applications including those that can address recidivism. The adaptable learning management platform will automate the provisioning and installation of these GED and non-GED educational applications on private servers, either on-site at the correctional facility or on off-site private server networks. Different sets of content would be automatically customized for each prison, with no outside Internet connectivity required. Another key innovation will be the ability to have the e-Learning system follow the inmate as they are moved. They will always have access to their specific content and progress status as their data will be centrally-hosted on the fully secured prison servers. Their individual records can be confirmed and reviewed for parole evaluations. By providing uniform student analytics and continuous monitoring of learning outcomes with different content and educational application vendors, the system will advance the capability of offline learning to be a data-driven endeavor and will deliver a personalized experience comparable to systems in civilian life.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.