Progress 02/15/24 to 02/14/25
Outputs
Target Audience:Across all aspects of this proposal, a total of 112 participants were served in the current project period. We completed efforts in all three areas of curricular development and deployment. The most successful of these efforts were the workshops, which served 90 participants, and the digital badges, which served 22 participants. These resources are posted on a website hosted by the Center for Predictive Analytics at SIUE, and are also available through websites with our partnering organizations. Changes/Problems:The previous changes that pivoted to hosting workshops within larger events was extremely successful this year. The area where this project lagged a bit this year was in the use of standalone course materials that could be incorporated into existing classes. Although the project team has created these resources and shared them freely, they have not been widely adopted. In service to the goal of reaching community college students as part of this project, a member of our project team will be guest lecturing at partnering community colleges during the remaining project year. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A total of 112 participants were served by the training and workforce development activities that are part of this project. 22 participants are currently enrolled in data science digital badging programs with an FAI focus. A total of 90 participants were engaged in one of four different workshop activities during the project period. Activities in workshops and digital badging programs range from topics such as data pre-processing and data management; geospatial analysis; remote sensing; statistical analysis; and machine learning. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All resources are open to the communities. All curriculum that have been created for the community college partners are freely available for use. Additionally, the team has leveraged multiple institutional resources to create a long-term, sustainable pricing structure for the digital badging programs so that these training opportunities can be offered at low cost, thereby ensuring continued access to these programs by the target communities of interest. All workshops were also designed to be hosted in areas so that we could capture the communities of interest, specifically the emerging workforce (e.g., community college students). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?As we enter the final reporting period, our intention is to continue to iteratively improve our resources and reach our target communities. We are meeting or exceeding our goals in two of the resource areas, namely our workshops offerings and our digital badging programs. We will continue to recruit for the digital badging programs, will add modules and courses (especially in GIS and remote sensing) as time allows, and will also support our participants through to completion. In regards to our workshops, we will continue to host workshops in partnerships with existing collaborators and as part of larger events. Lastly, we will work with our community college partners and advisory board to better understand what resources may be of best service to them, and how we can modify the existing resources that we have created or that we have access to in the remaining time of the grant. We also have community college visits planned this summer where a member of our team will guest lecture.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The major activities undertaken this year were focused around deployment of the proposed curriculum in a variety of settings. To meet Goals 1 and 2 of this project, we have created and are iteratively improving curriculum that incorporates both foundational knowledge as well as the applications, limitations, and pitfalls outlined in Goal 2. One participant in the Digital Badging program provided feedback that excellently highlights this strategy. The participant reported that the baseline foundational knowledge provided through DataCamp resources we provided the Digital Bading participants access to were great for introducing the concepts, whereas the videos and examples that we created and paired with these resources were great for introducing the applications, pitfalls, and real-world considerations when using each of these tools. In December 2023 (toward the end of the previous project period), the team received permission to launch the Data Science Alternative Digital Credentials, or the Data Science Badging program. This program consists of 11 badges spanning topics from working in spreadsheet software and basic equations to complex machine learning. The digital badges are arranged into two "constellations" of badges that lead to certification in Foundations of Data Science (https://www.credly.com/org/southern-illinois-university-edwardsville/badge/foundations-of-data-science) and Data Science and Its Applications (https://www.credly.com/org/southern-illinois-university-edwardsville/badge/data-science-and-its-applications).In service to this grant, each course is taught from the framing perspective of the FAI, although the skills are transferrable across disciplines. Since their inception and official launch in early 2024, the digital badging program has enrolled a total of 22unique participants. Of these 22 participants, 12 participants (54.5%) have opted to complete courses in both of the possible constellations. Participants come from a variety of backgrounds and include individuals who are currently employed by the seed industry (72.7%), individuals who are employed by the ethanol industry (4.5%), individuals who are employed in family and consumer sciences positions within rural communities (4.5%), individuals who are students who wish to pursue careers at the intersection of the FAI and data science (13.6%), and individuals who are currently employed within other fields but wish to enter the ag tech industry (4.5%). This program is of special importance because of its service to the seed industry, an industry that has been a longstanding employer within the State of Illinois. As communicated by our partners in the seed industry, cuts over the recent years have made it difficult for them to invest in continuing education. These affordable programs ensure that our current workforce has continued access to training in digital technologies as applied to the FAI. Toward the end of the previous program period, our project team recognizedthat we should be offering workshops through partnerships with larger existing events.The firstworkshop was held as part of the 2024 National Professional Agriculture Students Conference in March 2024 in Central Illinois. Pivoting to this modality was successful, with the maximum allotted 20 students participating in the workshop (maximum enrollments were set by the venue). Students were introduced to GIS mapping approaches and were shown how to map corn yields by county in Illinois. This simple exercise gained highly favorable feedback, with students indicating that they did not realize such careers in GIS existed, let alone that these careers are often high-paying and are in high-demand. This avenue of partnering with existing events and community partnerships was continued with three additional events in Southern Illinois between April and July 2024. During these workshops, the project team partnered with the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Food, Agriculture, Nutrition Innovation Center (JJK FAN), the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center (NCERC), the Danforth Plant Science Center, and the Waterloo Agricultural Extension Office to host these events. All events were focused on introducing remote sensing and/or geospatial technologies to community partners. The first of these events was held at the JJK FAN Innovation Center in East St. Louis, IL. The event was a Show, Touch, and Tell program where participants were exposed to newer versions of drones and camera systems, and they were able to handle and explore the various components of different drone types. They were also provided with a presentation that demonstrated how the drones and cameras they were viewing could be used to solve agricultural problems in their communities and elsewhere. Approximately 25 participants were involved in this event. The second of these events was hosted at the NCERC facility. At this event, project team members showed participants how researchers go through flight planning, data collection, data preprocessing, and final product/map generation. Participants were also allowed to fly a very small DGI drone, with all proper flight clearances through the FAA, with guidance from workshop facilitators. Approximately 25 participants were involved in this event. The third of these events was hosted at the Waterloo Agricultural Extension Office. During this event, participants took participants through a tour of agricultural data types and patterns from around the world using Google Earth and other imagery downloaded from various remote sensing websites. The team demonstrated how different types of geospatial data could be integrated into an analysis that made use of weather, topographical, and soils information, as well as other types of data. Initially, the team had also planned for the participants to be able to tour nearby fields that were experiencing stress so that students could see this stress using remote sensing technology; however, on the day of the workshop, there was a weather event that made this portion of the workshop unsafe to complete. Approximately 20 students participated in this event. Across all four workshop-type events in this project period, a total of 90 participants were served. The area where this project lagged a bit this year was in the use of standalone course materials that could be incorporated into existing classes. Although the project team has created these resources and has shared them freely (e.g., https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19AJ6Xxy4BKaI-ERwxC0ERuFbwh-i62xq?usp=drive_link and https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ca5cOIfW99knLm4XhbkKC7GE-wMaf3Y0?usp=drive_link), these resources have not been of the greatest utility for our stakeholders. Part of the reason for this, based on our feedback from our advisory board and one-off conversations with individual members of that board, is driven in large part by the ever-changing nature of the industry. By the time that our team has created resources that our partners have communicated would be useful to them in their courses, the industry has moved to another software platform or need. This extremely quick pace is not a bad thing, it is just something that we had not anticipated moving into this project. While we will most certainly still uphold our commitment to create, improve, and deploy these resources for the duration of the grant, this is not likely the strategy that we would propose moving forward. Instead, our work indicates that in the future, given the extreme pace at which the industry is moving forward, the best support we could offer our community college instructors and high school instructors is to offer continuing professional development courses that are "train the trainer" type offerings in format. In lieu of this avenue at this time, we have brought on an undergraduate intern to help us present at our partnering community colleges and provide a guest lecture during this last program period of the grant.
Publications
|
Progress 02/15/23 to 02/14/24
Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting period, we completed efforts in all three areas of curricular development and deployment. We continued the development of robust curriculum based on the feedback of our advisory board, community college partners, and stakeholders. These resources will be posted on a website hosted by the Center for Predictive Analytics at SIUE to ensure greater ease of access in the next reporting period, following the advice of the advisory board. Curricular resources were revised for workshops, with a workshop scheduledfor community college students across the State of Illinois shortly after the close of this reporting period. This workshop will introduce the concepts of data science tools and geospatial mapping. Following the workshop,focus groups areplanned for both students and instructors. Two classes in computer programming fundamentals were available, but their access was minimal. We believe this is due to low visibility and accessibility, and so our goal for the coming year is to make these more accessible and visible through better website design. A total of 11 digital badging programs in data science, or two clusters of data science digital badges, were approved during this reporting period. Additional badges in GIS, Remote Sensing, and Geospatial Analysis that will target individuals in the current workforce are in development, based on communicated industry needs. Through this work, we have focused on the target audiences of community college students and the current and emerging workforce. Changes/Problems:One of the most significant challenges that we encountered during this project was the creation of resources that met the needs of instructors, students, and industry partners. This is a wonderful challenge to be presented with, but it has caused some delays because we were commited to following the voices of our partners and creating a breadth of resources that could be released as a large repository of resources, instead of smaller sets of resources periodically. This drastically changed our timeline for curriculum delivery and participant recruitment, but for positive reasons. Our intention is that since we shifted curriculum development efforts to the beginning of the grant, including many of theefforts that we had initally planned for later stages of the project, we will be spending more time serving participants in the later stages of the project. This comes with the change that we intend to have larger cohorts of participants in the remaining years of the project. As previously noted, we also received continuing feedback regarding the best modality for offering curriculum and workshops. One of the changes that we made during this award period was to incorporate workshops into existing events so as to make attendance more appealing for participants. Although the first workshop offered in this modality was not offered until a few days after the close of this project period, this strategy is much more successful for participation. Lastly, one significant problem that we encountered during this award was the unexpected death of a staff member that was working closely with the project team to deploy the digital badging curriculum. This position was filled during the current reporting period. Until the position was filled, the digital badges created could not be approved, and they could not be offered. Now that we have cleared this final hurdle, the project team is actively recruiting participants for the digital badging program and will bring on larger cohorts to ensure that the target metrics are reached. Although much progress has been made and the challenges that we encountered have largely been overcome, working through these challenges did result in delays for the project team. We will likely need to request a no-cost extension in the future. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?20 students were enrolled in the workshop activity that was to be held directly after the close of this project period. All students participated. Digital badging participants are currently being enrolled, following approval of the first 11 digital badges. Community college curriculum will be deployed in Fall 2024, following the guidance of the advisory board to develop a greater repository of resources prior to deployment so that instructors could pick which resources are best for them and their individual classes. It is anticipated that a no-cost extension will be needed, and we plan to expand offerings to a greater number of students in the final years of the project to ensure that the final totals are aligned to the numbers of participants that were originallyproposed. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Workshops were set to begin directly after the end of this project period. Curricular resources are available to community college and high school instructors for use. However, we will also be redesigning how these are made available to ensure they have greater visibility and accessibility. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, our activities will be focused on deployment. We will begin offering curriculum in community college classrooms across Illinois, with community college partners already identified. We will continue to offer workshops through existing event platforms so as to attract a greater number of participants. We are recruiting participants for the data science badging program and will be placing these participants through the program and pairing them with industry partners. We will also continue to offer all resources open-source through YouTube and Google Drive sites specifically created for this project, as these sites are accessible at all institutions that we have partnered with to provide feedback. We will also continue to iteratively improve curriculum as it is deployed at a larger scale. This will lead to increased program evaluation activities, including increased formative and summative assessment activities.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The major activities undertaken this year were focused around (1) iterative curricular improvement, (2) curriculum deployment, and (3) development of additional requested curriculum. During the last reporting period, and a theme that continued into this reporting period, the advisory board and other stakeholders had communicated that breadth of curricular resources was imperative. In service to this communicated need, much of our focus was to update curricular resources based on the feedback received from our partners. For example, this included activities such as creating curriculum for GIS in multiple software platforms (which is also still ongoing), additional machine learning activities in the badging curriculum, and more high-level overview activities for the community college level. Furthmore, we made a substantial change to the way regional workshops were hosted. In this reporting period, we made the decision to partner with existing community college events and regional events that were likely to attract the target audience. By making this change, it was much more realistic to recruit participants. Although the initial feedback collected suggested that webinar based activities may be of greater interest, our experiences suggested that this was not the case. Rather, in-person activities that are incorporated as part of existing, larger events where there is an incentive for participation seems to be more feasible for attracting participants. A highlight for the year was the approval of 11 data science alternative digital credentials (digital badges). After delays due to an unforeseen death of a staff member who was working closely with the project team, our team is happy to report that these first 11 badges are available. Participants are now enable to enroll in the programs and can put together a modular curriculum consisting of all 11 badges or only the badges that are of most importance to their careers. Participant recruitment is in progress. In addition, we have also consistently made strides toward satisfying Goal 2: Cultivate participants' understanding of the applications, limitations, and use of digital technologies and the data they generate. In all resources created, the project team specifically addresses the applications and potential pitfalls or other limitations of various digital technologies. As we continue to iteratively improve our database of curricular resources, we will continue to build resources that incorporate both applications and limitations.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Butts-Wilmsmeyer CJ, CN Breckenridge, MO Bohn, AE Lipka, P Geddes, RS Pearson, NJ Heller, MB Villamil, and JG Pritsolas. Navigating the Data Sea: The Educational Needs of the Agricultural Workforce across Varying Age and Other Educational Demographics. ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting. St. Louis, MO. October 2023.
|
Progress 02/15/22 to 02/14/23
Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting period, all of our efforts have been devoted to the development of robust curriculum based on the feedback of our advisory board, community college partners, and stakeholders. Curriculuar resources have been developed for workshops, high schools, community colleges, and current workforce. Curricular resources include short module recordings, hybrid workshops, two classes in computer programming (R and Python), assessment resources for these courses as well as curricular content, and resources for the GIS/Remote Sensing and Data Science digital badging (alternative credentialing) programs. Due to the feedback received from the advisory board, which is composed of community college, government, and industry partners, this year focused on the development of very extensive and variable curricular resources that can be deployed next year. Changes/Problems:In addition to the previously noted recommendation of the advisory board to create a greater breadth and diversity of resources before deployment, which will likely result in the need to request a no-cost extension but which also will improve the utility of developed curriculum, two significant challenges have been encountered. The first, as previously noted, was the lack of participants at advertised workshops. After discussion with other colleges across the state, we plan to address this by offering a webinar-type resource in collaboration with industry partners. This will enable access to an on-demand recording, allow remote access for those participants who would like to engage with speakers, and increase recruitment efforts to the agricultural and food science target audience. The second significant hurdle encountered was that the individual at SIUE who was responsible for helping ratify digital badging / alternative credentialing programs at SIUE regrettably passed away suddenly. It took approximately one year to replace their position, and the badging program has not yet been able to undergo review. As of the end of this review period, an individual has been hired and trained, and so approval of these programs is anticipated to be completed in the very near future.? What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Based on the recommendations of the advisory board, we have spent this year developing additional resources so that a large repository of resources can be available upon initial release. As such, these resources will be released in the nest project period. It is anticipated that a no-cost extension will be needed. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Curricular resources have been shared with stakeholders for feedback. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we will be releasing the curricular resources created during this reporting period to our community college instructors, high school instructors, and workforce partners. These resources are currently being uploaded to YouTube and Google Drive sites specifically created for this project. All resources will be linked to a website that is being created for this project. We will also be recruiting the first cohort of badging participants, and we will be pairing them with industry mentors. Additionally, we will continue to develop and modify curricular resources, based on the feedback of our advisory board and stakeholders. Next reporting period, we will also begin to evaluate the curriculum as it is deployed in the classroom, and survey instruments for both community college instructors and students will be developed this summer prior to deployment. Interview data will be collected from badging participants on a semester basis. Survey data will also be collected from badging participants. Formative and summative assessment will be used to assess training outcomes, as well as to improve and modify the curricular offerings as needed. Lastly, we will begin offering webinar-type workshops in partnership with industry stakeholders.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The major activities undertaken this year were centered around curriculum development. After meeting with the advisory board and community college, industry, and governmental stakeholders at the end of the previous project year and again mid-way through the current project year, it was determined that there was a substantial need for a breadth of curricular resources. As an example, one advisory board member mentioned that having an entire array of resources, from short tutorials that explain different file types that he could incorporate into his college classes, to longer resources that included sample lesson plans and assessments, were of great need to him. Another industry stakeholder mentioned how their company is seeking interns with experience in Python because it is integral to their operations. Thus, following the initial reveal of the first round of curriculum, this curriculum was subsequently revised to include a greater breadth and diversity of resources, as well as an entire set of resources that centered on Python coding as well as the previously proposed resources. Furthermore, additional curriculum is being developed based on the requests of the advisory board. Instead of providing small sets of resources incrementally, it was recommended that a larger database of resources was created initially, with additional resources being added in smaller increments starting next academic year. In addition to the creation of online short resources that could be included as modules in community college, or even high school, coursework, online webinar resources have also been created. This addition came after the first workshop was advertised, hosted, and no participants registered. In speaking with other colleges, following the COVID-19 pandemic, participation in in-person or even hybrid workshops has dwindled greatly. Of greater need, based on the feedback collected, is webinar-type resources. In addition to developing these webinar resources which can be viewed on-demand, we will be partnering with industry, government, and other agricultural organization partners in the future to host sponsored workshops and reach a broader audience. In addition to addressing Goal 1, we have also consistently made strides toward satisfying Goal 2: Cultivate participants' understanding of the applications, limitations, and use of digital technologies and the data they generate. In all resources generated, the project team specifically addresses the applications and potential pitfalls or other limitations of various digital technologies. As we continue to expand our database of curricular resources, we will continue to build resources that incorporate both applications and limitations. ?
Publications
|
Progress 02/15/21 to 02/14/22
Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting period, most of our efforts have been focused on planning. We have begun creating curricular resources, and are also beginning to receive feedback for those curricular resources, that are being designed for working professionals and community college students. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This was a planning year and curriculum development year. Although curriculum has been and continues to be developed, we will not begin training students and other workforce participants until the next reporting period. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we will be deploying the first year of all curriculum and training activities as described in the major goals. The first workshop is planned for mid-summer. The first set of curriculum, including lesson plans and sample assessments as well as examples, is planned to be made available to all community college instructors in July. The first alternative credentialing programs will be made available in August. We will begin recruiting for these programs in the early summer of 2022, following formal approval. We will continue to meet with both the advisory board and the curriculum committee to revise and improve curriculum and training offerings to meet the needs of participants. Participants will be provided with networking opportunities through the badging programs. We will also be collecting survey data from all participants, students, trainees, and instructors. Those surveys will be built in the summer and fall of 2022. Interview data will be collected from badging participants on a semester basis. Formative and summative assessment will be used to assess training out comes, as well as to improve and modify the curricular offerings as needed.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The major activities undertaken this year were of a planning nature. The advisory board and curricular review committee is largely formed and has begun providing feedback. As this process began, we noticed that we had a great representation from the workforce and community college sectors, but weneeded more of an industry presence. Therefore, we are hoping to expand the advisory board in the next few weeks to include these individuals from the industry sector, and we have already begun making contacts. In regards to developing curriculum, we have compiled a set of examples and possible tutorials for the open-source online curriculum, the workshops, and the credentialing (badging) programs. We will be building on these continuously until the programs are deployed, and then will continue to update and revise throughout the duration of the grant period based on the feedback of the advisory board, our community college partners, participants, and other stakeholders. We are currently in the process of finalizing the initial curriculum for the badging programs.Additionally, a draftof workshop topics hasbeen outlined for the first workshop this summer, and plans for collecting survey feedback at the workshop has been developed. Lastly, now that a repository of examples that can be used for the development of curricular resources has been compiled (and can be expanded upon), we will be working with community college instructors to turn these examples into potential lessons for their students. Goals are currently progressing as planned. The first workshop should take place this summer, and both the badging and open-source curricular resources should be ready for initial launch in August.
Publications
|
|