SLN Selected as an NGLC Wave 1 Grantee
We are excited to announce 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.
We look forward to hearing from you.