A Regional Partnership to Improve Access to and Academic Quality of Technician Education for the Incumbent Worker

该项目解决了高等教育中两个长期存在的问题：保持在线技术课程的学术严谨性，以及加强学院学术和劳动力发展单位之间的合作，使在职(目前受雇)的工人能够接受继续的技术教育。研究表明，对失去严谨性的担忧是阻止采用在线学习等无障碍教学模式的一个重要因素。展示在使技术教育更容易获得的同时保持严谨性的有效方法将促进它们的采用，并使学分技术教育成为现有劳动力的可行选择。此外，该项目通过向劳动力发展部门提供优质的学分产品，而不是非学分服务，消除了学院学术部门和劳动力发展部门之间的竞争。麦迪森维尔社区学院(MCC)将向三个州的合作学院提供技术援助，以适应和传播其高级集成技术(AIT)课程和教学模式。每个合作学院都是全州社区和技术学院系统的一部分，该系统为项目传播提供了一个自然的渠道。该项目扩展了之前NSF支持下开发的工作，在此期间开发了基于在线能力的混合大学学分课程，以使雇主和现有工人更容易获得技术教育，以进行技能升级。课程分为基于能力的大学学分模块，允许学生针对四个核心领域的特定技能-机械、电气、流体动力和可编程逻辑控制器(PLC)。将针对特定的雇主和员工培训需求定制模块，并在灵活安排的实验室环境中提供技能演示，使学生能够在不牺牲工作时间的情况下安排应用程序练习。该项目的工作重点是调整MCC课程和交付模式，以符合各种组织文化、政策和程序框架以及雇主和员工的需求。教育现有的劳动力也带来了特殊的学生支持和咨询挑战。MCC将有效地利用职业指导职位，帮助在任工人进行入学和注册程序，并监督每个工人的课程表现和证书进度。MCC正在与伙伴大学合作，确定他们目前的工作、咨询和学术支持需求，并帮助他们相应地适应这一职位。此外，伙伴大学正在进行招生后研究，以确定在职工人面临的挑战和未得到满足的需求，以便创建一套记录在册的战略和当地支助服务的工具包。

This project addresses two persistent issues in higher education: maintaining academic rigor in online technical coursework and improving cooperation between colleges' academic and workforce development units to make continued technical education accessible to incumbent (currently employed) workers. Research shows that concerns about loss of rigor are a significant factor in preventing the adoption of accessible delivery models such as online learning. Demonstrating effective methods of preserving rigor while making technical education more accessible will spur their adoption and make for-credit technical education a viable option for the incumbent workforce. Further, the project eliminates the competition between colleges' academic and workforce development units by offering workforce development a superior, for-credit product to sell to employers in lieu of non-credit offerings.Madisonville Community College (MCC) will provide technical assistance to partner colleges in three states to adapt and disseminate its Advanced Integrated Technology (AIT) curriculum and delivery model. Each partner college is part of a statewide system of community and technical colleges that provides a natural outlet for project dissemination. The project extends work developed with prior NSF support, during which a hybrid online competency based, college credit curriculum was developed to make technical education more accessible to employers and incumbent workers for skills upgrades. Courses are broken into competency-based, college-credit modules that allow students to target specific skills in four core areas - Mechanical, Electrical, Fluid Power, and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). Modules will be customized to target specific employer and employee training needs, and skills demonstrations are being delivered in a flexibly scheduled laboratory setting enabling students to schedule application exercises without sacrificing work time. The work of this project focuses on adapting the MCC curriculum and delivery model to conform to a variety of organizational cultures, policy and procedure frameworks, and employer and employee needs. Educating the incumbent workforce also presents special student support and advising challenges. MCC will make effective use of a career coach position who assists incumbent workers with the admission and registration process and monitors each worker's course performance and credential progress. MCC is working with partner colleges to identify their incumbent work advising and academic support needs and assisting them in adapting the position accordingly. In addition, partner colleges are conducting post-enrollment research to identify incumbent workers' challenges and unmet needs in order to create a documented tool kit of strategies and local support services.