Columbia State Community College has been selected as a pilot institution for the Social and Interactive Learning at Community Colleges project.

“We are thrilled to partner with the Technology for Effective and Efficient Learning Lab at Carnegie Mellon University and NISOD to create an engaging and inclusive curriculum for two entry-level courses: Introduction to Computing and Practical Programming with Python,” said Deepa Janakiraman, Columbia State director of CITC partnerships and associate professor of computer information systems. “We will be implementing novel tools, research and methods that will increase student engagement in information technology and computer science.”

The SAIL-CC grant project, a collaboration between the Technology for Effective and Efficient Learning Lab at Carnegie Mellon University and the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, plans to provide more inclusive and engaging curriculum for information technology and computer science courses in community colleges.

The project is being led by TEEL Lab educational researchers along with NISOD and instructors from five community colleges across the country. It is being funded through the National Science Foundation's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative as a Level III Engaged Student Learning Project.

Through developing these new methods, SAIL-CC hopes to improve teaching and learning in entry-level information technology and computer science courses. They plan to make the tools easily transferrable to various academic contexts, as well as increase research-based teaching and student engagement.

SAIL-CC will also incorporate culturally responsive teaching methods for faculty to better connect to the intersectionality of their students, colleagues and institutions.

As part of the collaboration, faculty who are teaching SAIL-CC courses at pilot partner community colleges will receive a stipend in the form of an honorarium for participating in professional development and research-related surveys, interviews and evaluations. Pilot partner community colleges will start offering SAIL-CC courses in Fall 2023.