Performing Department
Ag & Resource Economics
Non Technical Summary
This project improves underrepresented students' access to careers in agribusiness and data analytics with focus on US-Mexico border region in Arizona-California. Majority of borderlands students from underrepresented backgrounds work part- or full-time and face barriers for training in a traditional on-campus setting. We address this challenge by creating a culturally inclusive undergraduate online minor titled "Agribusiness Analytics," in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics (AREC), University of Arizona. The online minor will provide proof of concept for a future online bachelor's degree in agribusiness and data analytics. In addition, this project will recruit and graduate two M.S. students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The overall objective of this project is to launch the Agribusiness Analytics minor at the UA, Yuma/Arizona Western College (UAY/AWC). The minor will include four upper-division courses in agribusiness and data analysis and enables students in southern Arizona to acquire the analytical business skills sought by employers in the region. We plan to achieve our objective with these specific aims (i) Develop the Agribusiness Analytics minor by designing and creating four online upper-division agribusiness and data analysis courses, (ii) Attract and support outstanding underrepresented students (B.S. and M.S.) and impart business, data analysis, organizational and leadership skills to serve the region, (iii) Expand selected faculty members' competence in utilizing innovative technologies and new methods of instruction delivery for online and distance courses.
Project Methods
This project uses innovative online classes, pedagogy, and innovative delivery technologies for developing online minor consisting of four upper division classes in Agricultural and Resource Economics and Analytics. We will be using a novel approach called design-based implementation research. This project uses a comprehensive evaluation plan including formative and summative evaluation components. Formative evaluation will monitor the implementation of project activities to ensure fidelity, dosage of project activities received by students, and provide feedback for refinements to improve the activities, which occurs iteratively. As part of the formative evaluation, we will track: (i) Recruitment of two underrepresented students to the M.S. program as teaching assistants, (ii) TA collaborative development of online classes and mentoring activities, (iii) Faculty completion of training for online course development and mentoring of Tas, (iv) Undergraduate enrollments in the four new online courses and declaration of minor, and (v) Systematic expert evaluation of ongoing course design with vetted rubrics by personnel at UA Office of Instructional Assessment. The summative evaluation will use quantitative and qualitative measurements to evaluate the impact of the project on (i) underrepresented undergraduate students from the Yuma-Imperial-Mexicali area, (ii) the two underrepresented M.S. students, and (iii) UA faculty. The PIs and key personnel will receive evaluation updates each semester and a formal evaluation report summarizing the entire year at the end of each summer.