Recipient Organization
MARSHALL UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CORPORATION
401 11TH STREET, SUITE 1400
Huntington,WV 25701-2225
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The long-term goal of this grant is sustainable workforce development in agriculture and natural resources (ANR) for the impoverished region around Huntington, WV. This grant will support a faculty position and one graduate and one undergraduate student at Marshall University (MU) in the Department of Natural Resources and Earth Sciences (NRES) to research and develop microcredential opportunities in agriculture and natural resources. This endeavor is essential to workforce development in ANR in the area and supports the university's institutional priorities of offering high quality, affordable, and accessible professional education preparing students to live in an evolving global society. Additionally, the outcome will contribute to the quality of life in our region by providing a skilled workforce to lead economic development in ANR as we transition from a resource extraction economy. Over the two years of the proposed project, the PD will 1) conduct needs assessments of occupational requirements and skillsets in ANR careers to identify necessary skills and knowledge for ANR employees; 2) identify potential industry partners for course and microcredential development and implementation, for student recruitment, and for job placement; 3) develop and implement courses and microcredentials through Marshall Skills Exchange to support workforce development; and 4) recruit students to microcredentials, credit courses, and NRES majors.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of this grant is sustainable workforce development in agriculture and natural resources (ANR) for the impoverished region around Huntington, WV. This grant will support a faculty position and one graduate and one undergraduate student at Marshall University (MU) in the Department of Natural Resources and Earth Sciences (NRES) to research and develop microcredential opportunities in agriculture and natural resources. This endeavor is essential to workforce development in ANR in the area and supports the university's institutional priorities of offering high quality, affordable, and accessible professional education preparing students to live in an evolving global society. Additionally, the outcome will contribute to the quality of life in our region by providing a skilled workforce to lead economic development in ANR as we transition from a resource extraction economy. Over the two years of the proposed project, the PD and students will 1) conduct needs assessments of occupational requirements and skillsets in ANR careers; 2) identify potential partners for course and microcredential development and implementation, for student recruitment, and for job placement; 3) develop and implement a minimum of 2-6 courses and microcredentials to support workforce development; and 4) recruit students to microcredentials, credit courses, and NRES majors.
Project Methods
The PD will hire and train the graduate and undergraduate students in IRB protocols and survey methods. The graduate student and undergraduate student will continue to conduct analysis on the needs assessment results collected from current graduate student Hannah Blake to identify trends and significant relationships. The PD and graduate student will work to develop new targeted survey methods (such as face-to-face or mailed questionnaires and focus groups) to determine necessary workforce skillsets, while the graduate and undergraduate student create an SQL database of stakeholder contact information in Microsoft Access for future contact. New survey methods will require updated IRB approval or exemption, which will be secured by the PD and graduate student. The new needs assessments will be implemented and then analyzed by the PD, graduate student, and undergraduate. The PD and graduate student will identify community partners to enroll in new microdentials, new courses, and job placement opportunities based on feedback received from needs assessments, and at the same time, the PD will identify faculty or partners to teach the new microcredentials and course offerings. Microcredentials from current efforts will be offered by NRES faculty and evaluated throughout this time. At the end of Year 1, the PD will conduct a formative evaluation of the project which will include mentoring feedback from the student reflections. In Year 1, the PD also expects that the current graduate student working on the project will have co-authored two manuscripts for publication that will be in review. As we begin Year 2, the PD and graduate student will develop new courses from the Year 1 results. The PD, graduate student, and undergraduate will continue to implement and analyze the needs assessments, and the graduate and undergraduate students will continue to update the contact list database. Upon development of the courses from Year 1 survey results, the PD will implement them and the PD and graduate student will evaluate them. The PD will then create a summative evaluation of the project with assistance from the graduate and undergraduate student. The PD, graduate student, and undergraduate will co-author manuscripts for peer review. The graduate and undergraduate student will exhibit posters in MU COS research expos on campus during Year 2. As the NIFA PD meeting dates are not announced, it is unknown when these will take place in relationship to the other activities of the proposal.Due to the low response rate for private business from our current needs assessment, special efforts will be made to identify and successfully connect with these individuals and entities for survey. Structured in-person interviews, interviews by phone, focus groups, and surveys through social media (such as Facebook Messenger) following adequate and personalized introduction will be utilized to reach these specific groups and will be optimized to reduce survey fatigue. Sites such as the West Virginia Secretary of State Business Entity Search website and similar sites for neighboring states will be useful for identifying businesses not already identified as potential contacts through online search engines and ChatGPT queries.Markets for the courses will need to be built before the course is offered to ensure adequate enrollment and sustainability of the program. Marketing will take place through professional organizations, current students, alumni, and industry connections, such as government and consulting agencies and the local farm community. Current students may use credited microcredentials as course electives to fulfill major requirements, so they will be reached through university email lists. Promotion through industry will be achieved through correspondence with alumni and other colleagues in associated fields. Needs assessments and notices of course offerings will be provided to regional industries via email after a database of contacts is compiled during the course of the project.