HSI Implementation & Evaluation Project: The North Star Program: A study of mentoring online, non-traditonal, underrepresented STEM students

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划）的支持下，该轨道2项目旨在开发一个在线近同行指导计划，以提供学术和社会支持，以提高学生的坚持和完成。根据以往的文献和职业心理学（TCSPP）的机构研究数据的芝加哥学校，它被认为是在线的，非传统的，代表性不足的少数民族，和第一代大学生进入他们的程序与低水平的自我效能感，缺乏归属感的学术环境。从历史上看，这些学生的大学持久性和完成水平低于他们的校园，传统的同龄人。我们试图研究是否与具有相似人口统计特征和生活经历的近同辈研究生建立联系，会打破他们的孤立感，增加他们的归属感和自我效能感。尽管自COVID-19疫情以来，对在线教育的需求和追求沿着而来的是学生坚持和完成学业的挑战，但缺乏专门针对在线学生和虚拟辅导的研究。北星星项目将为学生提供直接的一对一的支持，从他们的近同行谁分享交叉身份与他们，并已完成类似的学术课程。具体来说，该项目将聘请心理学硕士学位的学生作为导师，提供社会支持，以提高心理学学士学位学生的坚持和完成。预期成果包括增加学生的归属感和自我效能感，在他们的学位课程，从而提高坚持率，完成率，并进入研究生学习。通过分析前/后自我效能感和归属感的测量，导师和学员的反馈，学习成绩和持久性数据，该项目将推进如何指导非传统年龄，代表性不足的在线学生影响他们的坚持，完成和追求心理学研究生学习。这项研究将提供新的见解，建立归属感和自我效能感的方法，在这个代表性不足，非传统年龄的学生和这种干预的有效性对校园与完全在线的学生的差异不断增长的人口。本研究探讨的问题为：同侪辅导是否能提升学生的归属感与自我效能感？近同伴指导是否增加了在线学生的跌倒持续性？一个接近同伴的指导计划是否会增加学位的完成和对研究生学习的追求？以前在这方面的工作集中在传统年龄的学生在物理科学的住宅校园。该项目有可能使心理学研究多样化，从代表性不足和非传统群体的角度提供共享的生活经验，以推动该领域的发展。他们的持续性，完成和进入研究生学习的增加将增加心理科学研究和其他STEM领域的多样化观点。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，并建立HSI的能力。HIS计划支持的项目也将产生实现这些目标的新知识。该奖项反映了NSF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。

With the support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2 project aims to develop an online near-peer mentoring program to provide academic and social support to increase student persistence and completion. Based on previous literature and The Chicago School of Professional Psychology (TCSPP) institutional research data, it is posited that undergraduates who are online, non-traditional, underrepresented minorities, and first-generation college students enter their program with low levels of self-efficacy, lacking a sense of belonging in an academic setting. Historically, these students have lower college persistence and completion levels than their on-campus, traditional-aged peers. We seek to study whether a connection to near-peer graduate students with similar demographic traits and lived experiences will break their isolation and increase their sense of belonging and self-efficacy. While the demand for and pursuit of online education, along with subsequent challenges to student persistence and completion, has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a dearth of research specifically focused on online students and virtual mentoring. The North Star Project will provide students with directed one-on-one support from their near peers who share intersectional identities with them and have completed similar academic programs. Specifically, the project will engage students enrolled in the Master of Psychology degree as mentors to provide social support to increase Bachelor of Psychology student persistence and completion. Expected outcomes include increased student sense of belonging and self-efficacy in their degree program, resulting in increased rates of persistence, completion, and entry to graduate study.Through analysis of pre/post-self-efficacy and sense of belonging measurements, mentor and mentee feedback, academic performance, and persistence data, the project will advance knowledge of how mentoring of non-traditional-aged, underrepresented online students affects their persistence, completion, and pursuit of graduate study in psychology. This research will provide new insights into methods of building a sense of belonging and self-efficacy in this growing population of underrepresented, non-traditional-aged students and the differences in the effectiveness of this intervention on campus-based versus fully online students. The research questions to be explored are: does near-peer mentoring enhance an online student’s sense of belonging and self-efficacy in a degree program? Does near-peer mentoring increase online student fall-to-fall persistence? And does a near-peer mentoring program increase degree completion and pursuit of graduate study? Previous work in this area has focused on traditional-aged students in physical sciences on residential campuses. This project has the potential to diversify psychological research, providing a shared, lived experience perspective from underrepresented and non-traditional groups to advance the field. Their increased persistence, completion, and entry into graduate study will increase diverse perspectives in psychological scientific research and other STEM fields. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HIS Program will also generate new knowledge on achieving 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.