Recipient Organization
NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIV
1601 EAST MARKET STREET
GREENSBORO,NC 27411
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
There is an educational need for establishing a graduate-level curriculum in gerontology to expand students' career opportunities that respond to a social concern, a growing aging population. In the U.S., gerontology graduate-level degree programs have been offered via predominantly White institutions and no 1890 land-grant institutions provide the program. This is a threat that hinders the accessibility of gerontology programs to underrepresented students who seek gerontology knowledge and subsequently, aging service professions upon degree completion. A human science, Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) can be a leading discipline to build a graduate-level program on aging within the food and agricultural sciences. Collaborating with the 1890 FCS distance learning alliance, Virginia Tech, the office of distance learning and aging center at N.C. A&T, the project team proposes a project, whose purpose is to utilize a transdisciplinary approach to develop an FCS online graduate certificate program in gerontology to enhance the credentials of underrepresented students for careers in FCS, which responds to an educational need for a societal concern, the population of older adults. For the project implementation, there are three objectives: (1) establish an FCS Online Graduate Certificate Program in Gerontology; (2) develop new courses through online delivery incorporating aging concepts and program areas within FCS; and (3) recruit and provide financial support to prepare students to provide education, services, and support for older adults. The proposed program will contribute to underrepresented students' workforce development targeted toward a critical societal concern and strengthening community connections.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Led by FCS faculty at N.C. A&T, the purpose of this project will be to utilize a transdisciplinary approach to develop an FCS online graduate certificate program in gerontology to enhance the credentials of underrepresented students for careers in FCS which responds to an educational need for a societal concern, the population of older adults. For the project implementation, there are three objectives: (1) establish an FCS Online Graduate Certificate Program in Gerontology; (2) develop new courses through online delivery incorporating aging concepts and program areas within FCS; and (3) recruit and provide financial support to prepare students to provide education, services, and support for older adults.
Project Methods
We propose a three-year timeline for this project. After the pre-project setup, the following activities will be considered for successful project management.Objective 1. Establish an FCS online graduate certificate program in Gerontology. To implement Objective 1, the team will pursue institutional approval for the certificate curriculum (Year 1 and Q1 in Year 2) and will seek the Program of Merits (POM) designation of Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education designation (AGHE) under the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) (Year 3). First, processes to propose an online FCS graduate certificate program in gerontology at N.C. A&T will be reviewed; concurrently, the AGHE POM Standards will be evaluated (GSA, 2022) to develop or identify courses of the proposed curriculum, that address the basic expectations of the Standards. After the review of the protocols, the project team will develop the curriculum for the certificate program and submit the required documents to obtain institutional approval for the program. In Year 3, the project team will revisit and assess the criteria for the AGHE POM designation and will apply for the designation after having students admitted to the program or recognized as being enrolled (Year 2 activity for Objective 2), which is a prerequisite for the POM application.Objective 2. Develop new courses through online delivery incorporating aging concepts and program areas within family and consumer sciences. Objective 2 activities will be conducted in Year 2 regarding developing new courses for the program. The first task will be to identify and assign faculty for course development based on expertise. Each faculty (PD, co-PDs, and one adjunct faculty) assigned will develop syllabi and learning modules for a new course. The courses for the program will also include an experiential learning component for students (e.g., case study or project assignment based on the aging service or service agency), which will be developed based on a collaboration with service agencies in the community. After the course development, the project team led by the PD will seek institutional approvals for the courses developed, by following the approval chain from the department curriculum committee, college curriculum committee, graduate college curriculum committee, graduate council, faculty senate and its new programs/curriculum committee, and the provost. For the online course delivery, the project team will collaborate with the Extended Campus at N.C. A&T to be trained to ensure high-quality online delivery.Objective 3. Recruit and provide financial support to prepare students to provide education, services, and support for older adults. To implement Objective 3, Year 2 and Year 3 will focus on recruitment and marketing, and course delivery to students. The first task will be to develop a marketing and recruitment plan to promote the certificate program. Examples of activities include the development of brochures, web pages, or Facebook pages. Concurrently, the PDs will develop an admissions process (including minimum expectations, policies, timelines, and selection criteria) for onboarding students as well as the process for awarding scholarships to support student matriculation. To increase the accessibility of the program, the project team will extend courses to other 1890 institutions via an agreement with the 1890 FCS-DIA to serve as a potential program feeder. To implement marketing and recruitment strategies, the PDs will pursue community sources to serve as learning experience sites for potential students (agencies, military families, and nonprofits in related content areas). For example, partnerships with community agencies will be established to serve as sites for student learning experiences connecting to the project/assignments of the certificate courses. Also, as a marketing and recruitment activity, the PDs will participate in Extended Campus and CAES marketing and recruitment events, and will be involved in aging workshops of COAACH, the Center for Gerontology at Virginia Tech, or aging service providers (PTRC-AAA or Community Housing Solutions). Potential students will also be recruited from professional association meetings as well. As a final step for Objective 3, the PDs will assist students with enrollment and registration and teach the certificate courses. In this 1-year curriculum with 2 courses (6 credits) per academic semester, the goal is to recruit 10 students into the program per semester in Year 3, with a goal of 15-20 per year. It is expected that each course may have students who might take the courses for electives in their graduate programs in the department and other programs, which may total 20 students (5 students * 4 courses within 1 year).