ACCESS: Advancing Community College Engineering Student's Success

San Antonio College, San Antonio TX

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of the proposed Project ACCESS is to increase the number of associate's and Bachelor's degrees in Engineering granted to residents of South Central Texas. The following activities will be implemented in order to achieve the project's goal and outcomes: 1) Establishing dual credit engineering courses in at least five area high schools; 2) Training faculty at community college in distance education and/or infusion of state-of-the-art technology into engineering curricula; 3) Supplementing community college curriculum with state-of-the-art engineering education materials and software; 4) Converting at least 75% of San Antonio College Engineering Courses and Engineering Math will be converted into Internet format; 5) developing a new engineering course, "Engineering Mathematics," for San Antonio College Engineering and Dual Credit students; 6) SAC will obtain new articulation agreements for 2 + 2 transfers with at least two additional 4-year Engineering programs in the South and Central Texas area; and 7) other Alamo Community College District and area engineering faculty will be made aware of the availability of new curricula. San Antonio College will work closely with the University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas A & M, South West Texas University and other schools to articulate seamless engineering courses of study for "2 + 2 + 2" (high school/community college/university) students. The expected outcomes of this project are the following: 1) at least 40 high school students, half minority, will be enrolled in dual credit Engineering or pre-Engineering courses with San Antonio College each year; 2) at least 30 students each semester will be enrolled in one or more Web-based Engineering course; 3) the number of minority Engineering majors at San Antonio College who transfer to Engineering programs at four-year institutions will be increased by at least 200%; and 4) the numbers of minority students graduating from San Antonio College with an Associate's Degree in Engineering will be increased by at least 200%.