Collaborative Research: Identifying and Investigating Pathways and Critical Junctures in Two-Year Information Technology Programs

这项研究和开发项目旨在设计和测试一种方法，以了解学生通过大学和进入信息技术职业的途径。具体来说，该项目将收集以前学生的数据，包括机构数据（如成绩）和调查和访谈的信息。这些数据将包括完成课程的学生、未完成课程的学生、转学或转学到其他机构的学生的信息。这些数据将被分析，以确定可能导致学生成功或其他结果的潜在途径和关键节点。来自塔拉哈西社区学院和佛罗里达州立大学的研究小组预计，这种方法将揭示学生在追求信息技术证书时面临的机会和障碍。该项目旨在测试将机构数据与现象学数据相结合的潜力，以模拟学生通过中学后STEM项目（特别是信息技术）的进步。在Tinto的学生流失和持久性模型的框架下，它将使用混合方法的顺序探索性设计，结合多层数据收集和分析，合并并检查机构数据和校友现象学经验数据。它希望这一分析能够识别和验证支持或阻碍学生成功的影响因素。定量数据分析将包括描述性和比较性方法，这些方法将通过公开编码和对定性数据的专题分析加以核实和了解。对制度和现象学数据的系统调查有可能：(1)产生有关信息技术学术/职业道路的实用知识，供利益相关者使用；(2)识别和检查这些途径、学生经历和社会心理因素之间的关系；(3)增加机构研究专业人员可用的分析方法，使用数据仪表板记录、调查和可视化学生的路径信息。四所为农村和城市学生提供服务的佛罗里达社区学院（彭萨科拉州立学院、杰克逊维尔佛罗里达州立学院、奇波拉学院和墨西哥湾海岸州立学院）将试点测试该方法的有效性和实用性，以模拟和可视化学生的大学和职业道路。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。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 research and development project aims to design and test a method for understanding the pathways students take through college and into careers in information technology. Specifically, the project will gather data about former students, including institutional data (such as grades) and information from surveys and interviews. The data will include information about students who completed the program, who did not complete the program, and who changed programs or transferred to other institutions. These data will be analyzed to identify potential pathways and critical junctions that may lead to student success or other outcomes. The research team from Tallahassee Community College and Florida State University expect that this approach will reveal opportunities and hindrances students face as they pursue credentials in information technology. This project aims to test the potential of integrating institutional data with phenomenological data to model student progression through post-secondary STEM programs, specifically information technology. Framed by Tinto’s model of student attrition and persistence, it will use a mixed methods sequential exploratory design with multiple layers of data collection and analyses that merge and examine institutional data and alumni phenomenological experiential data. It expects that this analysis will identify and verify influencers that support or hinder student success. Quantitative data analyses will consist of descriptive and comparative methods, which will be verified and informed by open coding and thematic analysis of the qualitative data. The systematic investigation of institutional and phenomenological data has the potential to: (1) generate practical knowledge about academic/career pathways in information technology for use by stakeholders; (2) identify and examine relationships among these pathways, students experiences, and psychosocial factors; and (3) add to the analytical methods available to institutional research professionals to document, investigate, and visualize student pathway information using data dashboards. Four Florida community colleges that collectively serve rural and urban student populations (Pensacola State College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Chipola College, and Gulf Coast State College) will pilot test the efficacy and usefulness of the method for modeling and visualizing their students’ college and career pathways. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.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.