Table of Contents
- Introduction
- TAACCCT and Technology
- Data and Methods
- Four Examples of How Colleges Can Collaborate to Improve Online and Simulated Learning
- Sharing Online Courses: New Mexico SUN PATH
- Offering Hybrid Health Programs: MoHealthWINs
- Building on Statewide Online, Competency-based Education: Learn on Demand
- Collaborating to Provide Simulation: KanTRAIN
- Key Takeaways
- Recommendations
TAACCCT and Technology
Congress created the $2 billion TAACCCT program in 2010 at the height of the deepest recession in more than a generation. The program was the largest targeted investment in community colleges that the federal government has ever made and was meant to increase the schools’ capacity for providing training for in-demand jobs. With unemployment approaching 10 percent at the time, the idea was to build the country’s national capacity to get people retrained and back into employment. With each of four rounds of grants, the Departments of Labor and Education identified promising practices that applicants could implement as part of their grant.
When the Department of Labor issued the first solicitation for grant applications (SGA) for TAACCCT in 2011, integrating technology into the programs of study was a required element of proposals. It continued to be a required element though every round. Yet, the purpose of integrating technology and the way it was described evolved. In the first round, the Department of Labor’s SGA encouraged community colleges to leverage technology-enabled learning to accelerate students’ progress towards a credential. But by the third and fourth rounds, the solicitation described a more expansive role for online and tech-enabled learning. The third round SGA described tech-enabled learning as a way to provide access to trade-displaced workers and others who were struggling to complete their programs while managing the many demands of life: caregiving, work, and study. By the fourth round, the SGA emphasized access and acceleration while adding a focus on simulation as a means of increasing access and completion for more students pursuing a credential.
As community colleges grapple with the simultaneous need for well-targeted workforce training and the need to maintain social distancing, online and simulated learning experiences still offer ways to provide access and accelerated learning opportunities. Much-needed new federal support for community colleges in this time will empower these institutions to build out technology-enabled learning experiences.