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）表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为全国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做出贡献。该项目为期5年，将为150名攻读计算机科学、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)创建一个跨越三所大学的混合（物理-虚拟）学习社区，以及(2)为每位学者提供专业途径体验（研究、实习、创业），反映出学者毕业后攻读研究生、为行业/政府工作或为小公司工作/创业的兴趣。该项目将有助于提高低收入家庭学生在计算机领域的坚持度和毕业率，解决国家优先事项，并为每位学者提供专业途径机会，为他们提供全面的教育经验，帮助他们确定（或验证）毕业后可以追求的理想专业途径。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未来途径（包括研究生院）的价值和成本的看法的因素。二是研究Flit-GAP混合学习社区和计划性规划对学生归属感、持久性和路径的影响。第三，确定混合学习社区的制定性质，以促进形成性改进并将其转化为其他环境。知识生成组件将涉及三个并行的定性和定量组件，用于混合方法收敛和整体三角测量设计，并使用主要和互补的方法来强调上下文的概括性和真实性。首先，一项主要的定性访谈研究调查了Flit-GAP学生的体验式学习经历和对未来路径的看法。其次，一项主要的定量纵向队列研究调查了成对的Flit-GAP和非Flit-GAP学生，以寻找在坚持、毕业和未来路径感知方面的显著差异。第三，一项主要的民族志研究观察了虚拟/面对面混合跨机构学习社区中许多有计划的互动，并检查了支持Flit-GAP结果的微妙背景。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.