HSI Pilot Project: The MAESTRO Program - Minority Advancement in Engineering, Science, and Technology by Refactoring the Online Program

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With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1: PPP aims to address the lack of means and support for Hispanic/Latinx, low-income, first generation students to effectively participate in postsecondary education. Modern students work while going to school. For Hispanic/Latinx students who work twenty to forty hours a week, this workload may affect attendance and GPA, ultimately resulting in poor workforce placement. Addressing the issue that work comes first for many low-income underrepresented students, two approaches will be utilized: 1) supplant non-career-relevant work experience with industry internships, and 2) develop new formats for online learning. The overarching theme is to help students maintain both their income and academics. Busy students often turn to online programs that can be as effective as face-to-face instruction when combined with online videos and peer instruction. However, this model dichotomizes at-risk students due to poor regulation and social interaction. Preliminary results show that this classroom model does not improve outcomes or attitudes of California State University- Bakersfield (CSUB) students. A system that scaffolds and regulates the class with small groups convened at times around student work will be pioneered. Significant, meaningful experiences will be offered for students in data science and wireless communication. Participants of this program will have career-relevant internship/work experience, better retention rates, shorter timelines to graduation, reduced stress, and better motivation. It will contribute to the size and diversity of the U.S. science and technology workforce. This project will utilize Real-Time Teaching where students proceed at their own pace. The instructor monitors, scaffolds, and self-regulates the class by convening small groups at times convenient to the students for semi-synchronous learning. This approach will be paired with industry internships relevant to careers in Computer Engineering (CE), Computer Science (CS), and Electrical Engineering (EE). The impact of these strategies and how they improve the retention and success of the Hispanic/Latinx, low-income, and/or non-traditional students in CE, CS, and EE will be assessed. Findings will be disseminated broadly through various presentations at conferences, publications, workshops and a project website. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.