Technical Workforce Immersive Teaching and Learning Resources

St. Cloud Technical College, Saint Cloud MN

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving technician education at two-year colleges through expanding immersive technology use in the classroom. Immersive technologies include 360° photography and videography, augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR). By bridging the gap between industrial and societal use and academic integration of immersive technologies, the Technical Workforce Immersive Teaching and Learning Resource project will flatten the immersive technology implementation learning curve. This project will provide two-year college faculty opportunities to bring innovative, evidence-based adult-learning practices into technician education through professional development opportunities where they can develop immersive curricula for their classrooms. Technician students engaged with immersive technologies in the classroom will be better prepared to adapt to a rapidly changing workplace. The goal of this three-year project is to provide professional development opportunities related to immersive technology curricula to two-year college faculty. These technologies provide students with active learning environments where they can be immersed in the content and construct new knowledge. This project will develop and deploy faculty resources including two-week immersive technology summer bootcamps, immersive learning community networks, and content development support. This bold approach represents a necessary first effort to extend evidence-based immersive learning tools. Faculty at two-year colleges will explore immersive technologies specific to their disciplines and construct experiences to use in their classrooms and laboratories. Content developed through this project will contribute to a repository of open educational resources for instruction using immersive technologies. 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.