NSF Award
0811826
Langston's Integrated Network College (LINC) is a five year, HBCU-UP implementation project aimed at creating a 21st century Digital Village. The overall goals of the project are to 1) increase the number of underserved students who enter college, receive undergraduate and advanced degrees in STEM disciplines, and choose STEM careers and 2) expand the diversity of participants in the Langston University STEM program. <br/><br/>The LINC project aims to realize the goals through the implementation of the following activities:<br/>1. Institution of a STEM Digital Village that will support recruitment and retention through the dissemination of information, tracking of Langston's STEM students, and supporting collaboration through dialog;<br/>2. Use of Competency Performance Recordings for Learning (CPR-L) which involves learning by teaching methods where students create recording of themselves doing problems utilizing tablet PCs, forcing students toward solitude and focus, and producing a Competence Performance recording of the students grasp of the subject matter;<br/>3. Implementation of a summer bridge program, aimed at incoming freshmen, with an emphasis on Chemistry, Biology and Calculus;<br/>4. Implementation of developmental internships and master tutors, lab assistants and research internships aimed at undergraduate STEM majors;<br/>5. Implementation of online tutorial program.<br/><br/>A cornerstone of the project, the STEM Digital Village, is an online community designed to support retention by creating a vehicle that encourages on-demand dialog between cohorts, or between cohorts and STEM graduates, among other things. The Village will assist in tracking students post graduation through the use of their expertise as mentors for current Langston students. The Digital Village will also be a conduit for the dissemination of information and findings related to the program.
