We are excited to annouce that our Wave 1 pre-proposal submitted to The Next Generation Learning Challenge grant program in the Blended Learning Challenge Area ( http://nextgenlearning.org/ )has been selected to move to the formal proposal stage.
A total of 600 proposals were submitted for consideration, 50 pre-proposals were selected to advance in the process, and 32 of those 50 will be selected for funding.
The grant is for a modest $250,000, and our pre-proposal has the laudable goal of addressing the issue of poverty in NYS with education.
We know that education can disrupt the cycle of poverty and the intergenerational transmission of poverty. We know that 40%-70% of incoming college students need remedial education. We also know that more than half that try, fail and drop out, and that billions are spent on activity that NEVER leads to a credential for the student. To address this “Bermuda Triangle” of developmental education – where most go in and never come out, the State University of New York’s SUNY Learning Network Catch-up and Complete Enhanced Blended Learning Initiative will help students Catch-up, so that they can then Complete their education and get a job. The SUNY Learning Network will work with SUNY campuses to “blend” and enhance selected degree programs for this project specifically targeting young adult single parents from under served populations with educational options that focus on student success to begin to break the cycle of poverty in the state of New York.
The project if funded, would support the development of blended developmental courses and the courses in blended degree programs with:
- Common course objectives
- Common course content
- Common etextbooks/digital content (from open educational resources and/or publishers) – all course content would be provided digitally for the project.
- Common assessments
- Common course designs
Project partners would agree to:
- Commit to a program focus on student access (blended learning) and success (retention and completion).
- Collaborate inter-institutionally in teams to curate/develop/adapt course content, design the courses, and address the persistence of students in the project.
- Come to a consensus and standardize on a common core list of competencies, learning objectives, and assessments for the project courses and degree programs.
- Participate in faculty and professional development activities in the areas of blended learning course design, and understanding and supporting the needs of risk students.
- Use courses that result from the project and work with SLN to make the resulting courses available for use by other SUNY institutions.
- Use degree program courses that result from the project and work with SLN to make the resulting program available to other SUNY institutions.
- Collect/assist in collecting demographic information from students to measure success and impact.
- Implement and use common tools for student support, learning analytics, student placement diagnostics, and mobile learning strategies.
- Use common approaches to identify and scaffold at-risk students.
- Participate in associated research and surveys to document and learn from the project
- Assist the project to identify and recruit qualified student participants for participation in the initiative.
Developmental courses in ESL, English, Math, Reading, information fluency, and/or college skills are sought.
Blended/online degree and certificate programs targeting state and regional occupational needs in business, criminal justice, information technology, and allied health, will be considered.
We are very pleased with the potential for impact and the opportunities inherent in this proposal for SUNY in this high visibility grant, and we are eager to demonstrate the “power of SUNY” with the SUNY SLN “Catch-up and Complete” Blended Learning initiative.
Please direct any questions to: Alexandra M. Pickett, Associate Director, SLN – proposal principal investigator.
Hey Alexandra – For a class assignment I needed to read several different blogs and contribute to the discussion. It is purely coincidental that I came across your blog, but nevertheless, I do have some questions.
I currently teach in a very poor school district that has many of the same problems as the schools you mention in NYC. Students that graduate from my high school are not prepared for college and many end up in remedial courses. Our school already does many of the things that you are proposing in your grant. We have common assessments and common curriculum. And to be perfectly honest, those things have not helped. The common assessment we create are catered to the students in the lower level classes. This results in the high level students not being challenged the way that they need to be challenged. So the obviously answer to this problem is to make the exams more challenging. Curriculum needs to be taught at a higher level. I agree. But how is this accomplished. I think this is a major problem that needs to be addressed. How can this funding be used to raise student achievement? Now I am not entirely sure what is meant by the blended degree program. And maybe you have already considered these points. I wish you the best of luck with the grant.
Hi Hans: sorry – can’t believe i missed this comment. How did your assignment turn out? this problem is very complex. Part of the purpose of the grant is to is to systematically study the effects of the interventions. we are using a quasi experimental design. There is a control group (that does not get any of the interventions) and an “experimental” group (that does get them). The intention is to see if there is a significant difference. I chose some of the interventions because there is a conventional wisdom rather than actual evidence that the intervention is effective. For example, that blending instruction make things more convenient and flexible for “at-risk” students. On the surface that seems to be a “duh”. However, it is more complex and nuanced than that… perhaps. We don’t know. we don’t really know. Will the opportunity to access blended learning really result in an increase in success, persistence and completion for at-risk students? is it really convenient? does that convenience translate into success? Think about the single mom who now has the “convenience” of studying online from home… with 3 toddlers screaming for her attention. And the costs and likelihood of her getting childcare, so she can focus, concentrate and actually complete her online assignments, interactions, readings, projects… supporting the success of students is VERY complex. We need to better understand these complexities, and not just assume that technology is a panacea.