SBIR-STTR Award

(30 lines) CTS – College Transition Stories This Phase I SBIR project will determine the feasibility of using an Accessible Interactive Fiction (AIF) story to help students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 16 to 21 years old, who are college-bound (CBASD), to improve their ability to succeed in a college environment. Research has shown that practicing college readiness skills leads to improve college enrollment and graduation outcomes for CBASD students. However, due to the severe shortage of counselors to work with these students, these students become unnecessarily at risk for failing at college. We will build an AIF story game, College Transition Stories (CTS), that will enable a CBASD student to practice and improve their college readiness skills. CTS will ameliorate the counselor shortage by enabling: (1) the student to independently practice college readiness skills between sessions with the counselor, (2) the student to learn in a virtual non-threatening, safe environment, as they experience the outcomes of their college readiness skill decisions, and (3) the counselor to review the student’s college readiness skills decisions and adjust instruction to address any areas where additional instruction is needed. This Phase I project will answer the Specific Question: “To what extent do CBASD students find an AIF story game to be a usable and engaging system to practice College Readiness skills?”. This question will be answered through three Specific Aims (SA). In SA-1, we define the requirements for the AIF story game. In SA-2, we create the AIF story game. In SA-3, we assess the AIF story game’s usability and engagement by recruiting 20 CBASD students to use the AIF story game and then measure the student’s rating of the story’s usability and engagement. Improving college readiness skills for CBASD students aligns with the 2021 NIGMS mission: To enhance the diversity of the scientific workforce. And Encouraging Diversity in Biomedical Research, including people with disabilities, is one of the Cross-Cutting NIGMS Themes.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Project Narrative (3 sentences) College bound students with autism spectrum disorder (CBASD) need to master many skills, but these youth may not have the necessary college readiness. Phase I will address the severe shortage of counselors who provide this specialized training by determining the feasibility of a computer-based “choose your own adventure” story game where the CBASD student is situated in a virtual adventure and must make college readiness decisions, which will improve the CBASD student’s ability to succeed in a college environment despite the severe shortage of specialized counselors. Our product will help CBASD students by: (1) enabling them to practice skills between in- person sessions with their counselors, (2) enabling them to learn in a virtual non-threatening, safe environment, as they experience the outcomes of their college readiness skill decisions, and (3) enabling the counselor to assess the student’s college readiness skills and adjust their instruction to focus on any areas where the student needs additional help.

Project Terms:
tool; System; college; collegiate; Services; experience; success; university student; college student; skills; public education; fictional works; fiction; executive function; executive control; Molecular Interaction; Binding; AD/HD; ADHD; Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type Attention-Deficit Disorder; Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type Hyperactivity Disorder; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Address; autism spectrum disorder; Autism; Autistic Disorder; Early Infantile Autism; Infantile Autism; Kanner's Syndrome; autistic spectrum disorder; National Institute of General Medical Sciences; NIGMS; Enrollment; enroll; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; SBIR; Small Business Innovation Research; Monitor; Development; developmental; Instruction; virtual; digital; designing; design; Outcome; innovate; innovative; innovation; 21 years of age; age 21; age 21 years; twenty-one year old; twenty-one years of age; 21 year old; usability; college readiness; College Preparation; school district; recruit; ages; Age; Biomedical Research; Computers; Professional counselor; Counselor; Educational Curriculum; Curriculum; lesson plans; Education; Educational aspects; Special Education; remedial/special education; Employment; Environment; Goals; Disabled Persons; Disabled Population; Handicapped; People with Disabilities; Persons with Disabilities; disabled; disabled individual; disabled people; individuals with disabilities; Independent Living; Learning; Marketing; Mission; Persons; Occupations; Jobs; Professional Positions; Probability; Vocational rehabilitation; Research; Research Personnel; Investigators; Researchers; Risk; Self Determination; Informal Social Control; Self Regulation; Social Interaction; Students; Educational process of instructing; Teaching; Testing; Work; Measures; Businesses; Youth 10-21; Youth; Advocacy; improved; Area; Phase; Training; Trust; Measurement; Funding; Children with Disabilities; Handicapped Childr