Florida Information Technology Graduation Attainment Pathways

该项目将通过支持佛罗里达国际大学(FIU)、中佛罗里达大学(UCF)和南佛罗里达大学(USF)证明有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留学和毕业，来促进国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。在为期5年的时间里，该项目将为150名正在攻读计算机科学、信息技术、计算机工程和网络安全学位的学生提供奖学金。本科生将获得最多两年的奖学金支持，研究生将获得最多两年的奖学金支持。该项目的重点是(1)创建一个跨越三个机构的混合(物理-虚拟)学习社区，以及(2)为每个学者提供职业途径经验(研究、实习、创业)，反映出学者毕业后继续攻读研究生、为行业/政府工作或为小公司/自己创业的兴趣。该项目将为提高低收入学生在计算机领域的坚持性和毕业率的努力提供信息，解决国家优先事项，并为每一位学者提供职业道路机会，为他们提供全面的教育经验，帮助他们确定(或验证)他们毕业后可以追求的理想职业道路。该项目有三个研究目标。首先是调查影响低收入和代表性不足的学生对包括研究生院在内的未来发展道路的价值和成本的看法的因素。第二，研究飞跃-缺口混合学习社区和计划规划对学生归属感、坚持性和路径的影响。第三是确定混合式学习社区的制定性质，以促进形成性改进并转化为其他背景。知识生成部分将并行涉及三个定性和定量部分，用于混合方法收敛和整体三角测量设计，主要和补充方法强调上下文的概括性和真实性。首先，一项主要是定性的访谈研究调查了Fit-Gap学生的体验式学习经历和对未来道路的看法。其次，一项主要是定量的纵向队列研究调查了配对的飞跃间隔和非飞跃间隔的学生，以寻找在坚持、毕业和未来路径感知方面的显著差异。第三，一项主要是人种学的研究观察了混合虚拟/面对面跨机构学习社区中许多计划的互动，并审查了支持短暂差距结果的微妙背景。这一奖项反映了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 project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Florida International University (FIU), University of Central Florida (UCF) and the University of South Florida (USF). Over its 5-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to 150 students who are pursuing degrees in Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, and Cybersecurity. Undergraduate students will receive up to two-years of scholarship support and graduate students will receive up to two-years of scholarship support. The project’s focus is on (1) creating a hybrid (physical-virtual) learning community that spans the three institutions, and (2) offering professional pathway experiences (research, internship, entrepreneurship) to each of its scholars, reflecting the scholar’s interest to pursue graduate studies, work for industry/government, or work for a small company/start own business, upon graduation. The project will inform efforts to increase persistence and graduation of low-income students in the computing fields, addressing a national priority, and offering professional pathway opportunities to each scholar that will provide them with comprehensive educational experiences that will help them to identify (or verify) the desired professional pathway that they can pursue upon graduation. The project has three research goals. First is to investigate the factors that impact low-income and underrepresented students’ perception of the value and cost of future pathways including graduate school. Second is to study the impact of the Flit-GAP hybrid learning community and planned programming on students’ belonging, persistence, and pathways. Third is to determine the enacted nature of the hybrid learning community for formative improvement and translating to other contexts. The knowledge generation component will involve three qualitative and quantitative components in parallel for a mixed methods convergent and holistic triangulation design, with primary and complementary methods to emphasize both generalizability and authenticity of context. First, a primarily qualitative interview study investigates Flit-GAP students' experiential learning experiences and perceptions of future pathways. Second, a primarily quantitative longitudinal cohort study investigates paired Flit-GAP and non-Flit-GAP students to look for significant differences in persistence, graduation, and future pathway perceptions. Third, a primarily ethnographic study observes the many planned interactions in the hybrid virtual/in-person cross institutional learning community and examines the nuanced context that supports the Flit-GAP outcomes.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.