The Arkansas Department of Education Division of Elementary and Secondary Education has provided the Arkansas Public School Resource Center (APSRC) with a grant to enroll up to 250 high school students in UPSKILL at A-State’s Swift Coding program for the 2020 fall semester at no cost to the student or the school.

“We are proud to partner with Arkansas State University, the Arkansas Department of Education and the Governor Asa Hutchinson’s office to provide this groundbreaking opportunity for students to earn K-12 credits and 9 hours of concurrent college credit, while at the same time working toward industry certification,” APSRC Executive Director Scott Smith said. “Through this grant, we are able to provide Arkansas schools with a valuable resource to enhance their curriculum and improve career-readiness for participating students.”

UPSKILL at A-State’s Swift Coding program is a nine-month program consisting of three online courses taught in an eight-week format. Students will take two courses consecutively in the fall semester, and one course in the spring. The courses included are:

• Fall Course I: Introduction to Coding with Swift
  Learn coding using Swift language and practice its application to build an app.
• Fall Course II: Intermediate to Coding with Swift
  Explore Swift language and xCode further, while working closely with UX/UI principles.
• Spring Course I: Advanced Studio in Swift Coding
  Use all of the concepts covered in Swift coding to prototype an application to be used in iOS.

Each course is a prerequisite to the next until the student completes all three courses. Students will have modules to work through each week, and at the conclusion of the program, students will complete a final project, such as creating an application.

What Does It Take to Enroll?

Public schools interested in enrolling students for this one-of-a-kind program are asked to contact the APSRC office to complete a three-way Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between A-State, APSRC and the school. This allows APSRC to be billed by A-State for each student and remit the tuition due.

Once the MOU is completed, a representative from the school – either a school counselor or other designee – will need to help the student complete A-State’s application for admission and the parental consent form. Once the student’s admission has been accepted, the school’s designee will receive the necessary CRN to register students in the course.

Even if you do not have students currently interested in participating, we encourage you to go ahead and complete an MOU as soon as possible in order to ensure any students wishing to participate in the fall are able to complete the admissions process by the first day of class.

Students must have a minimum ACT composite score of 19, an ACT reading score of 19, a 2.75 high school grade point average. An ASPIRE reading score of 428 (10^th grade benchmark) may be used as an equivalent for admission. Home-schooled students and/or private-school students who meet the criteria are also eligible to participate by enrolling through their local school district.

Students must also have access to an Apple desktop, Apple laptop or iPad, and will have to have the Xcode app available through Apple’s app store free of charge. The digital textbooks Intro to App Development with Swift and App Development with Swift will also be required, and are available free of charge through the Apple book store.

To request an MOU, call Joie Ketcham, APSRC administrative assistant, at (501) 492-4300 or email jketcham@apsrc.net. For more information about UPSKILL at A-State, visit www.astate.edu/a/global-initiatives/outreach/upskill/index.dot.