STEM Academy: Participatory Online Curriculum Design

Dramatic advances in information technology are disrupting and revolutionizing education. Online education improves the cost and accessibility of learning. Yet the transition from traditional models of education to digital tools is nuanced and often fraught with technical and practical issues. So, how can online courses be best designed to enhance the quality of the learning that results? People answer this question by drawing on their experience as coordinators of the STEM Academy, a two-year project to create online high school and dual-enrollment Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) courses for rural school districts in southwestern Pennsylvania. The STEM Academy was designed to reach the underserved students in three rural counties through a partnership between Intermediate Unit 1 (IU1), Carnegie Mellon University, and Penn State Fayette's Eberly Campus. The goal was to build on the IU1 Cyber Solutions Initiative, an established online learning effort.