have been made over the past two decades. Of particular interest is the use ofaugmented-reality (AR) headsets to deliver the captions directly into the user’s line-of-sight asopposed to a separate display set to the side (e.g., Jain, 2018). Along these lines, AR headsetsthat project American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters onto the lens have also been exploredwith promising results (e.g., Miller, 2017), including commercialization (SignGlasses,www.signglasses.com). However, these systems are designed for use in controlled environments(e.g., the classroom) with the captioning or interpreting service paid for by an institutionalaccommodations office. However, in post-secondary settings a significant portion of a student’seducational experience
associated data can be transferred to the broader educational community and aid inrecruiting, engaging, and retaining underrepresented minorities in STEM disciplines.Through our mixed-method study, we have identified the key learning community factors thatmost influence student learning, retention, and academic success negating the psychosocial andsocio-economic impediments generally observed in the student population to increaseparticipation, retention, and graduation of minority students in the STEM disciplines (Mertens,1998, Matthews, 2014). The project contributes to the prospect of developing strategic means ofSTEM education enhancement for under-represented minority students through hands-on researchand participation in learning-community
their overall success as aresearcher. We also created multiple opportunities for the students to develop relationships withtheir peers and build community through a myriad of social events. Social activities weredesigned to take place during off hours and on weekends to avoid conflicting with studentresearch.MethodsThe mentors identified research project ideas for the participants prior to them arriving oncampus. Students participated in professional development opportunities that were eitherintegrated into their research immersion or separate activities. The students participated in theseactivities multiple times per week including workshops to inform them about how to besuccessful in the application process and graduate school, ethics, and