Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The goal of this Agri-analytics Fellowship program is to create a self-sustainable interdisciplinary certificate program in Agricultural Analytics at the host institution, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). Upon graduation, undergraduate students successfully completing the certificate program will be ready to enter the agricultural workforce with exceptional data analytical skills. Additionally, other competencies students will develop to prepare them for the workforce include critical thinking, complex problem-solving, collaboration, communication, self-directed learning, and academic mindset, which are well aligned with the leadership skills required by the AFRI EWD programs. The most important impact of this certificate program is that it will benefit nearly 70,000 farming operations in Tennessee (WIOA Tennessee 2020-2023) in the long run with a workforce with exceptional data analytical skills that will transform the agricultural industry in the next decade.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
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Goals / Objectives
The overarching goal of this Agri-analytics Fellowship program is to create a self-sustainable interdisciplinary certificate program in Agricultural Analytics at the host institute, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). Upon graduation, students successfully completing the certificate program will be ready to enter the agricultural workforce with exceptional data analytical skills. The certificate program consists of threecomponents: (1) a data analytics course designed to teach students basic programming techniques and fundamentals of applied statistics using Python and R, (2) an applied agri-analytics course designed to promote collaborative group work through 2 project-based learning lesson units to solve real-world problems, and (3) a research practicum course OR an internship to provide students with experiential and immersive hands-on learning experiences. The certificate program is designed based on the concept of "deeper learning" which focuses on developing deeper learning competencies that are well aligned with the leadership skills required by the AFRI EWD programs, such as critical thinking, complex problem-solving, collaboration, communication, teamwork, etc. The proposed Agri-analytics Fellowship aims to (1) recruit 40 undergraduate students, (2) form a professional community of Agri-analysts to build the reputation and the sustainability of the certificate program in Tennessee and the surrounding states, and (3) make an impact on the local economy.
Project Methods
Student Recruitment. Students will be recruited from 6 community colleges with a large proportion of economically disadvantaged students (Dyersburg State, Walters State, Volunteer State, Columbia State, Motlow State, Southwest Tennessee), a minority-serving institution (Tennessee State University), an ethnically diverse institution (MTSU), a land-grant institution (University of Tennessee at Knoxville), and other four-year institutions (Austin Peay State University, University of Tennessee at Martin, Tennessee Technological University). The project team will use the following approaches to recruiting students: The Division of Marketing and Communications at MTSU will create video promotions for the fellowship as well as the certificate program and post them on social media and local education channels to reach a broader audience.Program flyers and emails will be sent to the undergraduate student advisors at the universities and colleges for them to distribute the information to their students.Program flyers will also be distributed at conferences that will generally reach a large group of undergraduate students, including the Tennessee FFA Convention's Collegiate Connection, Tennessee STEM Posters at the Capitol event, the Tennessee Academy of Science Conference, and the Southeastern STEM Education Research Conference.The project team will collaborate with Greater Nashville Technology Council through their Tech Talent Programs and annual Analytics Summit for student recruitment.The project team will work with AgCareers.com to showcase this fellowship opportunity on their Education Partners Page, which is designed to showcase and share information about educational advancement opportunities in agriculture for their users across the country. To encourage students from underrepresented and economically disadvantaged groups to apply, the project team will work with organizations and communities to promote this opportunity among these groups, including Cultivating Change Foundation Collegiate Chapters and MTSU's LGBT+College Conference which attracts hundreds of LGBT college students in Tennessee annually, Business and Economics Research Center at MTSU whose director has access to rural families participating the USDA Rural Development Works in Tennessee, and Minorities in Agriculture Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) collegiate chapters. In addition, emails sent to student advisors will include attentive information regarding the recruitment of students from those groups, and we will send targeted emails to students participating in the federal work-study program with a major in agricultural or data science.Evaluation: The project team will collaborate with Tennessee STEM Education Center (TSEC) to conduct both formative and summative assessments for project evaluation. Specifically, the formative assessment will be based on student survey data collected by the end of each course. The purpose of formative assessment is to use students' feedback to inform the project team regarding the effectiveness of the mentoring plans and the quality of the instructional materials. Formative assessment will be performed iteratively throughout the program, and the student survey data will be shared at the faculty mentor meetings by the end of each course for discussions of revisions and improvements for the next year's implementation.Summative assessment will be based on data collected on students' post-graduation activities and their deeper learning competencies developed during the fellowship program. The purpose of the summative assessment is to evaluate to what extent the project team has achieved the goals of this fellowship program, which are (a) to create a self-sustainable interdisciplinary certificate program in Agricultural Analytics, (b) to prepare students for the agricultural workforce with exceptional data analytical skills, and (c) to develop deeper learning competencies. Outcome measures of these goals and their associated data sources (labeled with the same letters) are summarized in the table below.Formative assessments: outcome measures data sources- mentoring plans (a)- pre- and post-student survey with both quantitative and qualitative evaluation data (a)- instructional materials (a)Summative assessments: outcome measures data sources- certificate program proposal (a)- approved in-person and hybrid certificate programs (a)- graduation rate (b)- students' post-graduation survey (b)- employment in data analytics (b)- grades of each course (cognitive competencies) (c)- graduate school admissions (b)- evaluation from peers (interpersonal competencies) (c)- presentations/publications (b)- evaluation from mentors (cognitive competencies) (c)- overall experience (b)- student portfolios (interpersonal and intrapersonal- deeper learning competencies (c) competencies) (c)The in-person and hybrid certificate programs will be approved by the end of year 1. Students' post-graduation surveys will be sent out every 3 months after students complete the program until all data have been collected from each student fellow. Evaluation data for deeper learning competencies (e.g., evaluations from peers) will be collected by the end of each course except for the student portfolios. At the beginning of each year, students will start to create a portfolio with MTEngage, which is an on-campus student service that helps students create a personal webpage to showcase their experiential learning experience. Instructions on how to create student portfolios will be provided at the new student orientations. When building their portfolios throughout the program, students will reflect on their learning experiences, peer communications, and student-mentor interactions, which are essential to evaluate students' interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies by the end of the program. The student portfolios will be published on the student profile page of the website created for this REEU project. Prospective student fellows may gain more details regarding this fellowship program from these student portfolios, and they may also contact previous student fellows if they have questions.