The ATE Suitability Inventory: A Tool for Analyzing Features of Workforce Education Instructional Materials

Abstract

Through the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, community college technician educators have created many useful course and curriculum materials to prepare the U.S. workforce for the jobs of the future. Despite efforts to foster dissemination of these materials, few community college educators know about these materials or how to find them. To address this problem, SRI International developed and tested a system for summarizing the key components of technician education instructional materials, their logistical requirements, and their learning objectives. The goal of this targeted research project was to provide community college classroom practitioners and online materials librarians with an easy-to-use and valid checklist for tagging instructional materials so other educators can find them better using search engines and digital libraries.