STEM
NSF Funds STEM Reskilling Courseware Research
The National Science Foundation has announced five awards to universities to develop and study open source platforms to train and reskill workers in STEM fields.
The National Science Foundation is launching a new initiative to help train and reskill workers in STEM fields through the development of open source learning platforms at five universities. The Production Engineering Education and Research (PEER) award recipients will each receive approximately $2 million to create online courseware to teach "key STEM skills."
The University of Southern California, Purdue University, Northeastern University, the Colorado School of Mines and Oregon State University were selected for the program. PEER is funded by a $10 million gift from The Boeing Company.
The program was founded to create tools to teach "vital STEM skills" through online micro-certificates at the community college, undergraduate, graduate and professional levels. Each of the awardees will also study the effectiveness of online courseware to determine what platforms work best with learners at various skill levels in a number of different environments.
In addition, the NSF initiative will fund three conferences to bring together experts from academia, industry, nonprofits and governments to focus on challenges and opportunities in strengthening lifelong STEM education efforts.
More information on the PEER program can be found on NSF's website.
About the Author
Sara Friedman is a reporter/producer for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe covering education policy and a wide range of other public-sector IT topics.
Friedman is a graduate of Ithaca College, where she studied journalism, politics and international communications.
Friedman can be contacted at sfriedman@1105media.com or follow her on Twitter @SaraEFriedman.
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