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Online Technical Education in Advanced Technical Education Funded Programs: (Abstract Only)

With an expanding need for a diverse STEM workforce, community colleges play an instrumental role in filling the need with qualified technicians. This research project will identify and synthesize the experiences of developing and implementing online course components in technical education programs, including information technology and cybersecurity, with an emphasis on projects supported by the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education program (ATE). This study presents findings from a multiple case study of seventeen community colleges programs. The research questions guiding this study include 1) how online education is being used in technical courses and programs and 2) how challenges and benefits are perceived from implementing online education. Two participants from each project (PI and Faculty) were interviewed and program artifacts were collected. The interviews were thematically coded and data were analyzed to determine how hands-on work occurs in online technical courses including key challenges and benefits. The findings include descriptions of synchronous vs asynchronous models, use of didactic and lab based curriculum, fidelity of experience and teaching strategies. Benefits and challenges experienced by both faculty and students are discussed. Findings from this study contribute knowledge about how colleges are implementing online technical education including broader changes that occur concerning structure and philosophy. This project is important to the CSforALL initiative in that it evaluates online implementations of Cybersecurity and Information Technology programs and it provides an insight into best practices for implementing online, hybrid and flipped classroom models.