Information pertaining to the grant, including goals, objectives, updates, etc. will be included on this page.

Make sure to add the following statement to any work done under and supported by the current grant.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1205077 and 1700530. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Current grant number for 2017-2022 renewal: 1700530.

Two-page spread on the National CTC from the 2020-21 “ATE Impacts” book
ctc_-_ate_impacts_20-21.pdf

One-page PDF prepared for the 2020 ATE Principal Investigators' conference. ate_connects_handout_ctc_rev.pdf

GOAL 1: Program Improvement to meet workforce needs by incorporating the Internet of Things, cloud architecture, Software Defined Networks, edge computing and other emerging technologies into curriculum to equip faculty to train students in emerging convergence technologies supporting end-to-end communications via secure mobile networks so that graduates are readily employable upon completion.

Objective A: Effectively engage Business and Industry to guide all curriculum efforts.
1. Build on CTC BILT Team “best-in-class” model to create consistent regional/local BILTs connected/mentored by national BILT members to 1)validate emerging trends so that courses/programs can be updated aligning to workforce needs, 2) create projects/case studies to teach business relevance, 3) evaluate capstone courses, 4) provide internships/externships, some virtual, and 5) provide speakers for classes/training events on emerging topics.
2. Elevate KSA levels for IT workers (due to emerging IT technologies) with KSA analysis validated by BILT teams for r-hubs and CCN colleges.
3. Explore 1-2 of most impactful cross-cutting technologies to integrate with IT through a combined BILT; conduct jobs skills analysis.

Objective B: Invigorate classroom curriculum based on job task analysis.
1. Update curriculum per annual job skills analysis, ensuring coverage of new technologies and BILT-determined other technologies, as well as Portfolios. Builds on the 36 new online courses recently created.
2. Make curriculum available through online dissemination, webinars and remote (virtual) labs.

Objective C: Invigorate faculty to teach emerging technologies courses through professional development.
1. Offer regular workshops and professional development (PD) on emerging convergence technology and pedagogy topics, including winter and summer WC, regional workshops, and online webinars with recordings.
2. Track true impact of how faculty attending workshops improve student learning through use of information acquired via 6-, 18-, and 30-month follow up surveys.

GOAL 2: Increase the number of degree/certificate completers ready to meet workforce needs.
Objective A: Develop and implement recruitment and retention strategies for underserved students.
1. Diversity Summit – leverage best practices established by national leaders in recruitment/retention/completion for underrepresented populations leading to institutionalization of strategies.
2. Implementation plans for institutionalization of strategies developed from the Diversity Summit published and disseminated.
3. Continuous evaluation of interventions and adjustment of plans to maximize student impact.

Objective B: Develop student portfolio methodology to determine effect on hiring period post completion.
1. Gather research data to develop student portfolio models scalable for implementation by community colleges through surveys and interviews.
2. Create annual webinars to teach the development of student portfolios, how to gather data, and to report on data gathered.
3. Implement student portfolios at partner colleges and CCN colleges and track impact through surveys and interviews.
4. Track impact of portfolio implementation following student completion by gathering research data on hiring period postcompletion and challenges

Objective C: Increase number of students who complete certificates and degrees through innovative programs.
1. Offer Bachelor of Arts in IT (BA-IT) courses online to reach students across the country, using innovative low-cost model. Faculty coach liaisons at CCN colleges to mentor and tutor students as needed.
2. Expand participation and share model/ mentor development of BA-IT-type degrees with at least 5 universities annually through conferences, webinars and individual university meetings.
3. Establish stackable certificates to enable incumbent workers and others to grow skills in new technologies.

GOAL 3: Capitalizing on the success of the Business and Industry Leadership Team, Convergence College Network, and Working Connections models, invigorate and create new regional-hubs that adopt and adapt convergence programs to increase prepared faculty and employable IT graduates.
Objective A: Partners establish regional BILTs and disseminate new curriculum.
1. Establish r-hubs at specific geographical locations, building a network of high schools, community colleges and universities with BILT leadership to strengthen programs and articulation paths.
2. Invigorate/establish regional Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) groups with mentoring by National BILT members. Regional BILTs work integrally with institutions in region.
3. Work with regional hub community colleges to apply for project grants and potentially regional center grants.

Objective B: Establish a CCN model including high schools, community colleges and universities in regional hub areas.
1. R-hub leads establish high school and college/university networks within the geographic region; CTC provides best practice models and support for implementation of processes and curriculum.
2. CTC and r-hub leads conduct webinars and training sessions to teach BILT process and crosswalk mapping. Implement survey to determine effectiveness.
3. R-hub leads promote career pathways with high schools, community colleges, 4-yr. colleges / universities in hub. Develop articulation agreements for regional institutions. Track effectiveness.

Objective C: Support faculty professional development events, modeled after Working Connections, in regions supported by partners.
1. Conduct educator-to-educator PD events within r-hubs, modeled after the Working Connections processes. Conduct pre-event surveys to determine topics.
2. Longitudinal surveys conducted 6, 18 and 30 months after event to track impact of training on student learning.

GOAL 4: Capacity Building/Dissemination
Objective A: Grow the capacity of the CCN to better support 2+2+2 articulation.
1. Deepen the work of the CCN to enhance existing IT programs to show increased completions and successful placements. Broaden training for CCN members using materials developed in the Leadership Academy on the prior grant, including the BILT process, recruitment/retention skills and others
2. Add more universities and a new high school level of CCN participants within the CCN regions to bolster creation of 2+2+2 pathways with online meetings, training and webinars to help enhance programs.

Objective B: Disseminate all Materials and processes through ATE Central and other means
1. Function as a national distribution center to disseminate all CTCvalidated processes and curriculum through ATE Central, webinars, social media, CTC web site, and by presenting at conferences.
2. Create and publish articles and white papers authored by collaborative team of business and faculty representatives.

GOAL 1: Program improvement to meet workforce needs:

Objective A: Build on CTC Business & Industry Leadership Team “best-in-class” model (BILT) to create consistent regional BILTs connected to a national BILT team to a) identify emerging trends so that courses and programs can be updated prior to the actual workforce need, b) provide internships and externships, and c) provide speakers for classes and workshops

Objective B: Hold annual Cloud and Emerging Convergence summit, bringing together leaders in business and education to help forecast trends in Cloud computing and other emerging convergence technology and how curriculum needs to evolve to address trends.

Objective C: Update classroom and online curriculum per annual job task analysis, ensuring coverage of Cloud computing and BILT-determined other needed technologies.

Objective D: Offer regular workshops on emerging convergence technology topics for high school and community college faculty, including winter and some summer Working Connections IT Faculty Development Institutes, day-long workshops for faculty and counselors, and professional development through NCICT. Workshops will be distributed to locations nationally through web-conferencing and video streaming.

Objective E: Identify and develop national bureau of traveling instructors to train other faculty to train peers. Trained faculty to conduct workshops to train peers.

GOAL 2: Provide access for technology-enabled instructional support systems to assist colleges in launching convergence programs:

Objective A: Support and provide access to virtual laboratories to support inexpensive and pervasive online national delivery of non-vendor-specific and vendor-specific “hands-on” laboratories to address emerging convergence topics; colleges need only Internet access rather than full equipment labs.

Objective B: Develop and broadly implement virtual internship/externship model for capstone.

GOAL 3: Increase the number of degree/certificate completers ready to meet workforce needs:

Objective A: Refine stackable certificates for convergence technology, building on the work of the DOL grant.

Objective B: Using BAIT program at University of North Texas as a model, mentor university partners and 2-year colleges with convergence programs in creating similar programs.

GOAL 4: Capacity Building/Dissemination:

Objective A: Expand the Convergence College Network Program with Partner Centers at more mature mentored colleges across the nation to increase the number of colleges that can be reached through mentoring..

Objective B: Mentor at least 10 more colleges per year in developing their Convergence Technology programs using processes and curriculum from the CTC.

Objective C: Function as a national distribution center to disseminate all processes, curriculum and the mentoring processes through webinars, through the CTC website, NCICT partnership and by presenting at conferences.

The following is a summary of the CTC's grant goals and accomplishments under the current NSF grant that started Fall 2012.

1. Program improvement to meet workforce needs:

• Established the National Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT), a group of IT industry thought leaders, who forecast market needs and provide industry trends on a national level to assist mentored colleges. BILT meeting attendance in 2013 more than doubled the attendance of comparable meetings in 2012, thanks in part to the addition of a separate BILT from the National Information, Security, and Geospatial Technologies Consortium (NISGTC). Continued to co-sponsor the regional “Cloud and Emerging Convergence Summit” conference that exposes a diverse audience of educators to the work of the National CTC. One of the conference’s concurrent tracks is programmed by the National CTC, allowing representatives from its mentored colleges to offer best-practices presentations.
• Updated curriculum by asking the BILT to analyze current knowledge, skills, and abilities lists for convergence classes, insuring the content remained relevant and up-to-date.
• Hosted professional training events called “Working Connections IT Faculty Development Institute.” These annual events (three days in December, five days in July) allow IT educators from around the country to learn in-depth a specific topic they can then teach at their home school. Working Connections has reached over 470 educators since 2004. In the last four years, Working Connections training has directly led to the creation of over 150 new degrees, certificates, specializations, or courses and impacted over 37,600 students and faculty members.
• Assisted the expansion of the five-day summer Working Connections event to other regions: South (Florida) and North (alternating Michigan and Wisconsin). The National CTC provided best practice documents regarding event implementation and an “instructor bureau” list of Working Connections trainer candidates.

2. Provide access for technology-enabled instructional support systems to assist colleges in launching convergence programs;

• Provided more and more virtual labs that allow students to complete labs anytime, anyplace 24-7 so long as they have internet access.
• Implemented a pilot virtual internship/externship that gave students the opportunity to present capstone project solutions to a “jury” of industry executives and simulate a real-world business environment.

3. Increase the number of degree/certificate completers ready to meet workforce needs

• Developed more “stackable certificates,” smaller collections of classes that allow schools to align certificates to degrees, to better quantify “completers,” and to provide students the skills that are most in-demand. These smaller certificates “stack” to a degree.
• Continued transferring students to the BA in Information Technology at the University of North Texas. This program continues to show climbing enrollment, increasing from 42 in its inaugural semester in Fall 2008 to 100 students in Fall 2012, when the school increased transfer credits from 18 to 21. An ABET accreditation evaluation is scheduled for Fall 2013. To further broaden the reach, UNT is pursuing both a transition of the BAIT degree to an online format and a network of “mentored universities” to more seamlessly transfer two-year convergence students to its four-year program.

4. Capacity Building: Function as a Regional Distribution Center.

• Mentored 32 colleges around the country in a “community of practice” (with a goal of adding ten more colleges per year) that evaluates and updates their programs, creates their business teams, modifies/created degree and certificate programs, recruits students. This group meets quarterly, twice on the phone and twice in person to deliver updates on their programs’ progress or presentations detailed recent challenges or successes. This group is divided into three tiers based on each school’s level of participation.
• Recruited nine (included in the 32) community colleges to join the “community of practice” - Calhoun Community College in Alabama, Century College in Minnesota, Ferris State University in Michigan, Metropolitan Community College in Nebraska, Milwaukee Area Technical College in Wisconsin, Ozarks Technical Community College in Missouri, Tallahasee Community College in Florida, Waukesha Technical College in Wisconsin, and Wisconsin Indianhead Community College in Wisconsin.
• Started a new “community of practice” of administrations that will provide a separate, quarterly forum to discuss best practices unique to that group.
• Promoted services and programs, including strategies to develop a successful BILT, through presentations and exhibition booths at the MPICT Mid-Winter Conference, League for Innovation Conference, and HI TEC.
• Developed a robust set of digital platforms to disseminate program information, promote events, and increase the National CTC’s overall outreach. In addition to a traditional website, the National CTC regularly updates a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a YouTube channel, and a LinkedIn group. The National CTC also pushes content out through a weekly blog and a monthly newsletter. Wikispaces is also an important sharing tool for events and best practices documents.

GOAL 1: Program improvement to meet workforce needs

• Established basis for National Business Advisory Council, who forecast market needs and provide industry trends on a national level to assist mentored colleges.
• CTC faculty updated curriculum, introducing “Green IT” concepts into existing curriculum.
• Collin, Dallas and Tarrant created new AAS degrees and certificates in convergence for their districts. Over 1000 students have been served per semester with declared majors topping 323. The mentored colleges have awarded 508 degrees and certificates in the last two years.
• The University of North Texas created a new BA in Information Technology and convergence students at CTC colleges were able to transfer 18 units of convergence workforce courses into this ABET-accredited degree. The program has received 43 transfers from Collin and Dallas and total enrollment has grown from 42 (2008) to 118 (2011) with the first graduates in spring 2011. The BA-IT program received the Silver Award from the National Center for the Study of Transfer Students for “Innovation in Curriculum Development” in 2009.

GOAL 2: Professional Development for Educators: Equip regional faculty to teach convergence technology;

• 20 workshops were conducted for high school faculty, counselors and community college faculty in the first two years of the renewal grant.
• The Working Connections IT Faculty Development Institute reached over 630 educators since 2004; 34 community colleges in Texas and 27 other colleges in 13 states participated; the 60 attendees of summer 2011 who had previously attended the event have created 273 new courses, created or modified 54 degrees and 102 certificates and have taught almost 12,000 students based on Working Connections education.

GOAL 3: Recruit and attract underserved populations into the field of convergence technology;

• Dr. Constanza Eggers-Periolo's Hispanic Recruitment Webinar trained 27 faculty in partner and mentored colleges who developed strategies and implemented improved recruitment and retention plans.
• Women and African-American enrollments at the three main partner colleges varied by semester but have increased from 73 to 163 and from 91 to 126 respectively. Hispanic/Latino enrollments have increased from 25 to 52 at Collin. Hispanic enrollment has remained steady at El Centro, an HSI institution. Mentored colleges have anecdotally seen increases, but most do not track ethnicity and gender by student per courses/program.

GOAL 4: Capacity Building: Function as a Regional Distribution Center.

• Mentored 19 colleges around the country in evaluating and updating their programs, creating their business teams, modifying/creating degree and certificate programs, recruiting students.
• CTC promoted its services and programs through annual presentations on convergence and mentored college programs for STEMtech, AACC, ATE, NISOD, NCPN, HI-TEC, Green IT Summit, MPICT Mid-Winter Conference and League for Innovation Conference.
• Partnered with National Center for Information and Communications Technologies (NCICT) in workshops and dissemination activities, including live streaming of convergence workshops and presentations at national conferences and videotaping of instructional tracks at Working Connections to be made available for educators to view online at anytime.