NATIONAL STEM CONSORTIUM
Accelerated certificates embedding industry credentials retrain for
STEM Careers
Kim Law
Cyber Technology Coordinator
National STEM Consortium
Janet M. Paulovich
Director English Language Learning and Adult Education
STEM Bridge Team Lead, National STEM Consortium
The TAACCCT Grant Program
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U.S. Department of Labor
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U.S. Department of Education
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Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and
Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program
NSC awarded $19.7 Million on October 1, 2011
What is the National STEM Consortium?
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Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland
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College of Lake County in Illinois
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Clover Park Technical College in Washington State
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Cuyahoga Community College in Ohio
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Florida State College at Jacksonville
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Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana
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Macomb Community College in Michigan
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Northwest Arkansas Community College
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Roane State Community College in Tennessee
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South Seattle Community College in Washington State
What is the Role of the NSC?
Design and deliver Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics (STEM) programs that are:
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Nationally portable
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High-quality certificate-level
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Responsive to labor market needs
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Embed contextualized remediation – “STEM Bridge”
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Build a national model for multi-college cooperation
NSC Industries
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Composite Materials
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Cyber Technology
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Electric Vehicle Development and Repair
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Environmental Technology
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Mechatronics
Who are the Participants?
Other workers in need of updated skills:
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Workers Eligible for Trade
Adjustment Assistance (TAA)
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Dislocated workers
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Other unemployed workers
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Under-employed workers
Strategies
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Accelerated cohort models of instruction
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Embedded industry credentials
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“Stackable” certificates that lead to degrees in
career pathways
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Partnerships with industry advisors to ensure
that students master skills that are relevant to
industry in their area.
Industry-Recognized Credentials
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Composites: considering
• Certified Production Technician (Manufacturing Skills
Standards Council)
• Certified Composites Technician (American Composites
Manufacturers Assn.)
Cyber: A+, Network+, and Security+ from CompTIA and
CCNA from Cisco
Electric Vehicle: SAE International’s Vehicle Electrification
Fundamentals and Safety Certificate of Competency
Environmental: OSHA – including HAZWOPER
Mechatronics: SIEMENS Certification, Solidworks
Associate
What is the STEM Bridge?
Anne Arundel Community College National STEM
Consortium Technical Proposal
“Each of the STEM pathways will include a STEM
Bridge. The STEM Bridge will be programmatically
consistent across the five fields and transferable to
other colleges, and will integrate basic skills,
workforce skills, computer skills, and job readiness
training, contextualized within the pathway.”
Co-Development Partners
National STEM Consortium – STEM Bridge Team
• Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative (OLI)
• CAST – addresses learner variability through Universal
Design for Learning and accessibility.
• Industry partners
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Offered assistance in developing realistic scenarios and
provided company name and images – ARINC
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Industry experts offered experience in developing realistic
scenarios but company names are fictitious.
Two Part Strategy
STEM Bridge is a two-part strategy to provide support to
learners in the STEM certificate programs
Part 1: “STEM Readiness” Course
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Embedded contextualized online course built in OLI’s Platform+
system that quickly refreshes key skills for learners entering the
credit certificates directly.
Part 2: “STEM Foundations” Course
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Modularized set of curriculum “bundles” that can be adapted and
inserted by colleges wherever needed to provide support for lower
level learners who need to build foundational skills in Math and
Workplace Communication before entering the credit certificates.
Learning Outcomes-Based Curriculum
The STEM Bridge Team surveyed all five technical teams
to determine what key skills were needed in each of
the five pathways.
The team developed a master set of learning outcomes
that were common to most of the technical pathways:
ESSENTIAL SKILLS
Math
Critical Thinking and Workplace Communication
Professional Skills (Customer Service, Teamwork etc.)
ARINC Scenario: Technician in Training
ARINC Flow Chart With Decision Points
Learn By Doing Activities
Learner Analytics
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Students - instant feedback from the Learn By Doing
and Did I Get This? activities and end of module
quizzes.
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Instructors - view student mastery of learning
outcomes in the instructor dashboard and tailor face
to face instruction to help students who are having
challenges with specific parts of the course.
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Colleges/Administrators – track usage and other data
STEM Readiness Course
Unit 2 - Critical Thinking and Workplace Communications
http://youtu.be/nFMRaG4p8mM
Present introductory story
http://youtu.be/S0OOlThhU90
Present contextualized challenges
Assessment: End of Module Quizzes
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Summary provided for
all modules
Extra Practice
Problems available
Assessment questions
tied to objectives
Assessments feed
gradebook and
Instructor’s
Dashboard
Flexible Delivery
• Hybrid format with face to face instruction
to
support.
• Online only in class or in attached lab.
• Delivered up front in first term or spread across
multiple terms as needed by each team.
• Inserted into key points in the technical curriculum.
• Delivered as credit or (0 credit) credit equivalent
modules.
Adaptable for Other Programs
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Modularized units can be inserted as needed to support
credit, non-credit or technical curriculum.
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Embed modules into the credit courses where they are
needed: Teamwork module might help students learn how
to collaborate more effectively in labs.
Adapt and contextualize for other career pathways
using the same learning outcomes:
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Analyze information from multiple sources and determine appropriate
actions for a given situation.
Listen to a conversation and compose an effective summary of the
information.
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ARINC Air Operations Center
Hospital Emergency Room
Police Emergency Dispatch
STEM Foundations: Lower Level Learners
Twenty-two short modules focusing on the
development of key skills that are lacking in lower
level learners will be built in the Platform+ system.
Examples:
Identify main idea and supporting ideas and summarize
• Build a paragraph and write a short essay
• Prepare and deliver an effective presentation
• Apply Order of Operations in math
• Explain concept of a variable
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STEM Foundations
NSC Technical Courses
Sticking Points
Additional short, modular lessons, focused on areas of
known student challenge and difficulty. These lessons are
being created in the Platform+ system.
Sustainability and Scaling
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January 2014: Over 3,700 users across the nation
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Over 2,600 on OLI site
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All 10 NSC Community colleges
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At least one High school
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At least one Middle School
Industry - professional development
Beyond the Grant
Impact
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Higher education
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New nationally-portable programs
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Contextualized remediation
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Accelerated program completion
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Open education resources
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Changing the culture of higher education
To Learn More
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NSC Website: www.NationalSTEM.org
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Open Learning Initiative (OLI) website:
http://oli.cmu.edu
• Sign Up on main OLI course page and log in
• STEM Readiness – Course Key: ALL-STEM3
• STEM Foundations
– Course Key: STEMBASIC
For More Information
Kim Law
Cyber Technology Coordinator, National STEM Consortium
kplaw@aacc.edu
410-777-2387
Janet M. Paulovich
STEM Bridge Team Lead
Director, English Language Learning and Adult Education
410-777-1192
jmpaulovich@aacc.edu
Disclaimer
This workforce solution was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S.
Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. The solution
was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official
position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no
guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with
respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and
including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness,
timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership.