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

在改进的本科生STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构(HSI计划)的支持下，该Track 2项目旨在开发一个在线近同行指导计划，提供学术和社会支持，以提高学生的坚持性和完成性。基于以前的文献和芝加哥职业心理学院(TCSPP)的机构研究数据，我们假设，在线的、非传统的、代表性不足的少数族裔和第一代大学生进入他们的项目时自我效能感水平较低，在学术环境中缺乏归属感。从历史上看，这些学生的大学坚持性和完成率低于在校的传统年龄同龄人。我们试图研究与具有相似人口统计特征和生活经历的近邻研究生建立联系是否会打破他们的孤立，增加他们的归属感和自我效能感。尽管自新冠肺炎大流行以来，对在线教育的需求和追求，以及随之而来的对学生坚持性和完成性的挑战，已经大幅增长，但专门关注在线学生和虚拟辅导的研究还很缺乏。北极星计划将为学生提供定向的一对一支持，他们的近邻与他们有着共同的身份，并完成了类似的学术项目。具体地说，该项目将聘请注册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生的坚持性和完成度。预期结果包括提高学生在学位课程中的归属感和自我效能感，从而提高坚持、完成和进入研究生学习的比率。通过分析前后自我效能感和归属感测量、导师和被辅导者的反馈、学习成绩和坚持数据，该项目将促进对非传统年龄、代表性不足的在线学生的指导如何影响他们在心理学方面的坚持、完成和追求研究生学习的知识。这项研究将为在这一日益增长的未被充分代表的非传统年龄学生群体中建立归属感和自我效能感的方法提供新的见解，以及这种干预对校园学生和完全在线学生的有效性的差异。要探索的研究问题是：近距离同行辅导是否会增强在线学生在学位项目中的归属感和自我效能感？近距离同龄人辅导是否会增加在线学生跌倒的坚持性？近乎同行的导师计划是否会提高学位完成率和研究生学习水平？以前在这方面的工作主要集中在寄宿校园里传统年龄的物理科学学生。该项目有可能使心理学研究多样化，提供来自代表性不足和非传统群体的共享、生活体验视角，以推动该领域的发展。他们的坚持性、完成性和进入研究生学习的能力将增加心理科学研究和其他STEM领域的多元化视角。HSI计划旨在加强本科生STEM教育和HSI的能力建设。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。

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.