Addressing Student Skills Gaps in Water Treatment Operator Education Utilizing Virtual Reality Enabled Curriculum Resources

自来水运营商是第一线的环境健康和安全工作者，他们履行着确保国家公民获得安全水源的基本服务。据估计，全国30%-50%的自来水运营商将在五年内退休，只有5%的运营商年龄在25岁以下。该项目将通过扩大这一领域现有培训的质量和能力，满足对有执照的水技术人员的关键基础设施需求。根据高级技术教育(ATE)计划的使命，该项目将通过为水操作员技术创建高质量、高成本效益、基于技术的在线资源来推进技术人员教育的交付。这些新的虚拟资源将用与克莱姆森大学合作开发的虚拟现实(VR)模块来补充中卡罗来纳州技术学院(CCTC)南卡罗来纳州环境培训中心提供的现有高质量培训，作为一种工具，以丰富被确定为水运营商执照最大障碍的课程组成部分。该项目还使农村环境中的经营者受益，他们获得专业发展和培训的机会较少。虚拟实验室的提供将进一步使妇女、退伍军人、外地任职人数不足的群体和残疾人能够获得认证。与身临其境的VR不同，这些系统不需要额外的设备，因为它们的设计是使用键盘和鼠标在标准笔记本电脑上运行模拟。项目成果包括：1)为从学习过渡到劳动力做好准备的自来水操作员人数增加；2)招聘和辅导材料，以吸引来自代表性不足群体的人学习水处理技术；3)在不同的教育环境中评估不同学生群体对这些技术的使用情况。这项工作将有助于国家科学基金会的大想法，包括通过进行基础研究，调查在水处理教育环境中整合虚拟实验室的好处和风险，包括“人类-技术前沿的未来工作”和“日益融合的研究”。该项目的目标是：1)设计、整合和开发支持VR的水处理培训课程资源，以解决劳动力准备和缩小基于当前和未来工作场所需求的技能差距。2)落实为在线和混合方法开发的资源，对这些模块进行严格的循证评估，并向ATE社区提供内容。3)招收和留住学生，包括妇女、退伍军人和在先进技术领域历来代表性不足的群体。4)为水技术教育工作者创建专业发展资源并举办研讨会。该项目将通过技术资源为场所受限和能力受限的水处理计划提供替代方案。虚拟实验室将使学生能够在高度参与性的VR环境中获得真实的实验室体验，这将解决最普遍的教育许可障碍。来自认证委员会协会、社区合作伙伴、NSF ATE中心、两年合作伙伴机构和行业的关键利益相关者将指导内容开发，以确保其相关性。评价和评估将由一名外部评估员领导，他将利用柯克帕特里克的四级模式对CCTC现有课程中虚拟资源的实施情况进行形成性和终结性评估。前后调查都将利用以下有效的结构：感知的学习结果、参与度、可用性以及满意度和知觉。水处理技术教育工作者社区以及更广泛的技术人员教育社区将收到有关创建的模块的实施信息。传播的会议包括由CCTC主办的年度研讨会、水处理会议、技术教育会议、NSF ATE首席调查人员会议和其他专业协会会议。调查结果还将以期刊论文、网络研讨会和在专业发展研讨会上发表的形式进行传播。编写的所有材料将通过CCTC的学习管理系统ATE Central和克莱姆森大学托管的Education Workforce门户网站分发。该项目由高级技术教育计划资助，该计划专注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。

Water operators are frontline environmental health and safety workers who perform the essential service of ensuring the nation's citizens have access to safe water sources. It is estimated that 30-50% of the nation's water operators will retire within five years and only 5% of operators are under age 25. This project will address the critical infrastructure need for licensed water technicians by expanding the quality and capacity of training available for this field. In alignment with the mission of the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, this project will advance the delivery of technician education by creating high-quality, cost-effective, technology-based online resources for water operator technology. These new virtual resources will supplement the existing high-quality training offered by the South Carolina Environmental Training Center at Central Carolina Technical College (CCTC) with virtual reality (VR) modules developed collaboratively with Clemson University as a tool to enrich curriculum components identified as the greatest barriers to water operator licensure. This project also benefits operators in rural environments who have less access to professional development and training. Availability of virtual labs will further enable women, veterans, persons from groups underrepresented in the field, and persons with disabilities to obtain certifications. Unlike immersive VR, these systems require no additional equipment as they are designed to run simulations on a standard laptop using a keyboard and mouse. Project outcomes include increasing: 1) the number of water operators prepared for the transition from learning to workforce, 2) recruitment and mentoring material to attract people from underrepresented groups to water treatment technology; and 3) the assessment of the use of these technologies with diverse groups of students in different educational settings. This work will contribute to the NSF's Big Ideas, including "The Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier" and “Growing Convergent Research” by conducting fundamental research investigating the benefits and risks of integrating virtual labs in educational settings for water treatment education.The goals of this project are to: 1) Design, integrate, and develop VR enabled curriculum resources for water treatment training to address workforce preparedness and close the skills gap based on current and future workplace needs. 2) Implement the developed resources for online and hybrid approach, conduct rigorous evidence-based assessment of these modules, and provide the content to the ATE community. 3) Recruit and retain students including women, veterans, and persons from groups historically underrepresented in advanced-technology fields. 4) Create professional development resources and conduct workshops for water technology educators. The project will provide alternatives for place-bound and capacity-constrained water treatment programs via technology resources. Virtual labs will allow students access to realistic lab experiences in highly engaging VR environments that will address the most prevalent educational barriers to licensure. Key stakeholders from Association of Boards of Certification, community partners, NSF ATE centers, two-year partner institutions, and industry will guide the content development to ensure its relevancy. Evaluation and assessment will be led by an external evaluator who will provide both formative and summative evaluation of the implementation of the virtual resources in CCTC's existing curriculum utilizing Kirkpatrick's four-level model. Both the pre- and post-surveys will utilize the following validated constructs: perceived learning outcomes, engagement, usability, and satisfaction and perception. The community of educators in water treatment technology, along with the broader technician education community, will receive implementation information on the modules created. Conferences for dissemination include an annual symposium hosted by CCTC, water treatment conferences, Technology Education Conferences, the NSF ATE Principal Investigators conference, and other professional association conferences. The findings will also be disseminated as journal papers, webinars, and presentations at professional development workshops. All materials developed will be distributed through ATE Central, CCTC's learning management system, and the EducateWorkforce portal hosted by Clemson University. 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.