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

水运营商是第一线的环境卫生和安全工作人员，他们为确保国家公民获得安全的水源提供了必要的服务。据估计，全国30-50%的水务运营商将在五年内退休，只有5%的运营商年龄在25岁以下。该项目将通过扩大该领域现有培训的质量和能力，解决对持牌水技术人员的关键基础设施需求。与先进技术教育（ATE）计划的使命一致，该项目将通过创建高质量、高成本效益、基于技术的水操作技术在线资源，推进技术人员教育的交付。这些新的虚拟资源将补充由中央卡罗莱纳技术学院（CCTC）南卡罗莱纳环境培训中心提供的现有高质量培训，并与克莱姆森大学合作开发虚拟现实（VR）模块，作为丰富课程组件的工具，这些课程组件被认为是水操作员执照的最大障碍。该项目还使农村地区的作业人员受益，因为他们获得专业发展和培训的机会较少。虚拟实验室的可用性将进一步使妇女、退伍军人、在该领域代表性不足的群体和残疾人获得认证。与沉浸式VR不同，这些系统不需要额外的设备，因为它们被设计为在使用键盘和鼠标的标准笔记本电脑上运行模拟。项目成果包括增加：1)为从学习过渡到劳动力做好准备的水运营商数量；2)招聘和指导材料，以吸引代表性不足群体的人了解水处理技术；3)评估不同教育环境下不同学生群体对这些技术的使用情况。这项工作将有助于NSF的大构想，包括“人类技术前沿工作的未来”和“日益增长的融合研究”，通过开展基础研究，调查将虚拟实验室整合到水处理教育环境中的好处和风险。该项目的目标是：1)设计、整合和开发用于水处理培训的VR课程资源，以解决劳动力准备问题，并根据当前和未来的工作场所需求缩小技能差距。2)将已开发的资源用于在线和混合方法，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，包括女性、退伍军人和在先进技术领域历来代表性不足的群体。4)创建专业发展资源，并为水技术教育者举办研讨会。该项目将通过技术资源为受地域限制和能力限制的水处理方案提供替代方案。虚拟实验室将允许学生在高度吸引人的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、两年合作机构和行业的关键利益相关者将指导内容的发展，以确保其相关性。评估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型，对CCTC现有课程中虚拟资源的实施情况进行形成性和总结性评估。前后调查都将使用以下有效的结构：感知学习成果，参与，可用性，满意度和感知。水处理技术教育工作者社区，以及更广泛的技术教育社区，将收到所创建模块的实施信息。传播会议包括CCTC主办的年度研讨会、水处理会议、技术教育会议、NSF ATE首席研究员会议和其他专业协会会议。研究结果还将以期刊论文、网络研讨会和专业发展研讨会的形式传播。所有开发的材料将通过ATE Central、CCTC的学习管理系统和由克莱姆森大学托管的EducateWorkforce门户网站分发。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。

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.