This project (Lighthouse CC) is focused on providing community college computing faculty with the motivation and knowledge to attract and retain more students, and improve the diversity of computer science majors. It explicitly addresses the large and persistent under-representation of women and minority students majoring in computing. It is building on a set of earlier projects (Lighthouse, Tapestry) that have been engaged in training educators at the high school level to increase diversity in computing, a discipline skill that is critical for the future US economy. The first stage of the Lighthouse CC project is developing and testing new broadening participation content for community college instructors. Subsequently, it will build and test a new open online professional development course designed in accordance with John Keller's ARCS Theory of Motivational Design (as explained in "Motivational Design for Learning and Performance: The ARCS model approach," New York: Springer, 2010). ARCS has four design principles: attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction.
The open online learning environment will provide a platform for educational research into the learning, behavioral, and diversity outcomes of enrolled instructors. This aspect of Lighthouse CC will deepen understanding of the relationship between learner motivation and learning environment. It will provide both research findings and a significant lasting infrastructure in the form of tools, data and content for researchers, practitioners and lifelong learners. The final goal is for this course to become an ongoing professional development course that is both open and online. The intention is make this a go-to professional development course so that the enrollment rises to the level of "massive," thus legitimizing the label MOOC (Massive, Open, Online Course). To maximize impact, Lighthouse CC will widely disseminate and promote adoption of its content by using openly accessible digital resources and an online social network, both of which will be amplified with support from the National Center for Women & IT (NCWIT) and other collaborating groups.
