Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Mohammadi, A. (2018). STEM education for workforce development through online contextualized training. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Highlights
- The study’s objective was to examine the impact of contextualized teaching and learning (CTL) on education outcomes.
- Using institutional data, the author conducted a nonexperimental design to compare education outcomes of CTL participants to non-CTL participants.
- The study found no statistically significant relationships between participation in the contextualized teaching and learning training and credit hours completed, length of program enrollment, or credentials attained.
- The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is low because the author did not ensure that the groups being compared were similar before the intervention and did not include sufficient controls. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to CTL; other factors are likely to have contributed.
Intervention Examined
The Contextualized Teaching and Learning (CTL) Training
Features of the Intervention
The U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program provided $1.9 billion in grants to community colleges to improve skills and support employment in high-demand industries, notably manufacturing, health care, information technology, energy, and transportation. Through four rounds of funding, DOL awarded 256 TAACCCT grants to approximately 800 educational institutions across the United States and its territories.
In 2012, a Nebraska educational consortium (five community colleges and one university) received a TAACCCT grant to address a lack of semi-skilled and skilled workers in manufacturing and construction through increased education and career training. The Innovations Moving People to Achieve Certified Training (IMPACT) project was established as a training program for recession displaced and underemployed workers as well as underrepresented groups. A new Diversified Manufacturing Technology (DMT) certificate was developed through the program to provide 12 credit hours of training in basic safety, quality control, production, and maintenance that could be applied toward other certificates, diplomas, or associate degrees. The Tooling U™ curriculum was the selected contextualized teaching and learning (CTL) training intervention to deliver basic remediation skills and foundational manufacturing content via interactive web-based modules at three competency levels. Tooling U™ tracked performance and learning outcomes.
Features of the Study
The nonexperimental study was conducted at Metro Community College in Omaha, Nebraska, and compared the outcomes of students who participated in the CTL training to students who did not participate. The sample consisted of 342 students who enrolled between 2012 and 2016, with 75 students in the treatment group and 267 students in the comparison group. Using institutional data, the author conducted statistical analyses to examine differences in education outcomes between the treatment and comparison groups. Education outcomes included credit hours completed, length of program enrollment, and credential attainment (certificates, diplomas, and associate’s degrees).
Findings
Education and skills gain
- The study did not find significant relationships between participation in CTL and the number of credit hours completed, length of program enrollment, or credentials attained.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The author did not account for preexisting differences between the groups before program participation or include sufficient control variables. The composition of the treatment and comparison groups significantly varied by gender, race/ethnicity, and age. These preexisting differences between the groups—and not CTL—could explain the observed differences in outcomes. Therefore, the study is not eligible for a moderate causal evidence rating, the highest rating available for nonexperimental designs.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is low because the author did not ensure that the groups being compared were similar before the intervention and did not include sufficient controls. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to CTL; other factors are likely to have contributed.