Promoting Student Engagement and Success through Assistive Technology

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-¬Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Pilot (Track 1) project aims to engage students at California State University Northridge in project-based learning centered on assistive technologies (ATs). Approximately 25% of adults in the United States live with a disability, and ATs play an important role accommodating people with disabilities in different environments, including in education, employment and independent living.

Research has shown that people with disabilities from minority populations are less likely to have access to AT and are more likely to report unmet AT needs. Additionally, students are often unaware of the many rewarding career opportunities in this field. Through a new undergraduate senior design track this project will support students’ development of a strong professional identity and motivation to pursue a STEM career, particularly in careers at the human-technology frontier.

Students will have multiple opportunities to learn from professionals in AT careers and will build empathy through several experiences designed to help them understand the realities, strengths, and challenges of disabled citizens. Faculty will engage in professional development throughout the project, which will allow them to incorporate project-based learning in their classrooms and enrich the experiences of their students.

Assistive technology is highly interdisciplinary and requires experience working with a team of professionals. The project provides student-centered, project-based, and personalized experiential learning and interdisciplinary-based professional development to improve the success of minority students in STEM. Specifically, this project will: 1) build a support system for underrepresented students in STEM; 2) provide an authentic learning experience through tailored activities; 3) increase institutional capacity to create a culturally-sensitive learning environment and interdisciplinary STEM curriculum; 4) forge connections between students and employers; and 5) advance students who are underrepresented in their participation in STEM toward higher levels of academic achievement.

The project’s impact is broadened by involving service providers and industry representatives in education activities. Project evaluation will draw from surveys and focus groups to explore impacts on students and teachers, including how participation influences students’ sense of belonging, STEM identity, and technical knowledge. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs.

Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.

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.