Collaborative Research: Identifying and Investigating Pathways and Critical Junctures in Two-Year Information Technology Programs

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This research and development project aims to design and test a method for understanding the pathways students take through college and into careers in information technology. Specifically, the project will gather data about former students, including institutional data (such as grades) and information from surveys and interviews. The data will include information about students who completed the program, who did not complete the program, and who changed programs or transferred to other institutions. These data will be analyzed to identify potential pathways and critical junctions that may lead to student success or other outcomes. The research team from Tallahassee Community College and Florida State University expect that this approach will reveal opportunities and hindrances students face as they pursue credentials in information technology. This project aims to test the potential of integrating institutional data with phenomenological data to model student progression through post-secondary STEM programs, specifically information technology. Framed by Tinto’s model of student attrition and persistence, it will use a mixed methods sequential exploratory design with multiple layers of data collection and analyses that merge and examine institutional data and alumni phenomenological experiential data. It expects that this analysis will identify and verify influencers that support or hinder student success. Quantitative data analyses will consist of descriptive and comparative methods, which will be verified and informed by open coding and thematic analysis of the qualitative data. The systematic investigation of institutional and phenomenological data has the potential to: (1) generate practical knowledge about academic/career pathways in information technology for use by stakeholders; (2) identify and examine relationships among these pathways, students experiences, and psychosocial factors; and (3) add to the analytical methods available to institutional research professionals to document, investigate, and visualize student pathway information using data dashboards. Four Florida community colleges that collectively serve rural and urban student populations (Pensacola State College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Chipola College, and Gulf Coast State College) will pilot test the efficacy and usefulness of the method for modeling and visualizing their students’ college and career pathways. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.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.