EAGER: Reducing the Digital Divide: Researching the Impacts and Opportunities of Rapid Transition to Online and Distance Learning for STEM Programming in a Tribal College Setting

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A goal of the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) is to increase the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) instructional and research capacities of specific institutions of higher education that serve the Nation's indigenous students. Expanding the research capacity at these institutions expands the opportunities for students to pursue challenging, rewarding careers in STEM fields, provides for research studies in areas that may be locally relevant, and encourages a faculty community to look beyond the traditional classroom for intellectual and professional growth. This project aligns directly with that goal, and moreover will build on the existing literature related to the impact of the digital divide and delivery of relevant STEM curricula on American Indian students’ persistence and success in higher education. The timing and on-line instructional requirements brought on by the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 create an urgency to capture data before other influences cloud the outcomes.Northwest Indian College proposes to gather baseline comparative information about the impact on TCU students’ academic success of culturally relevant STEM instruction delivered on-line in an up-to-date modality and with sufficient computing power. The methodology will include assessing the impact of the sudden transition to on-line instruction by documenting data from pre-pandemic years and the initial pandemic year; continuing the transition to culturally relevant, on-line-accessible STEM instruction; and providing academic and IT support to students engaged in the study. The expediency of this work at this time in this place is the ability to compare the impact of the interventions on student achievement and engagement with the recent results on student success *without* these interventions.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.