Full day workshop
Evidence Based Teaching: Teaching as Scholarship
The workshop provides participants with new teaching approaches and techniques to enhance their teaching practice and improve student course evaluations. Interested participants have the option to carry out individual educational innovation projects under the personal mentorship of Professors Heywood and Pears with the aim of presenting their results at FIE 2019. The full day workshop consists of a series of four professional development sessions dealing with key aspects of sustainable innovation and evaluation in academic teaching.
Workshop participants:
- Acquire a portfolio of best practices in STEM education
- Read and discuss selected articles from the STEM higher education research literature
- Review models for systematic investigation of teaching practices
- Reflect on application of STEM education theories to their own teaching
Organizers:
- Arnold Pears, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
- John Heywood, Trinity College
Afternoon Workshops 1 – 4 PM
1A: Engineering Education Funding at the National Science Foundation
Attendance is complimentary thanks to support from the National Science Foundation
The goal of this session is to increase the participants’ knowledge of current funding opportunities at the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support projects with potential significant impacts on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. In particular, the discussion will focus on new and current funding opportunities in the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) in the Directorate of Education and Human Resources (EHR) and the Division of Engineering Education & Centers (EEC) in the Directorate of Engineering. During the session, we will provide examples of project activities that support STEM education research opportunities. The session will use a highly interactive format (i.e., team-based activities and discussion) to engage the participants, to clarify misconceptions, and to potentially initiate and share new ideas pertinent to engineering education research and innovations in classroom implementations. This session facilitates idea sharing and interaction amongst peers.
- Elliot Douglas, National Science Foundation
- Abby Ilumoka, National Science Foundation
- Heather Watson, National Science Foundation
1B: Ready, Set, Change! Using Buy In Strategies to Prepare Faculty for Change
Many early faculty adopters of innovations in engineering education are in the process of expanding these innovations across their campuses. As with any significant change project, however, advocates of engineering education innovations may face faculty resistance that takes various and sometimes surprising forms. Faculty may equate change in engineering education with values antithetical to their campus culture and traditions, or they may reject any change that challenges their identity as a classroom expert, to name only two possible objections. The purpose of this workshop is to equip faculty who are change leaders with strategies that can help them as they navigate through the campus landscapes as they work to expand engineering education innovations in classrooms and labs. Based on the research literature of change and employing a hands-on approach to learning, this workshop is based on the Making Academic Change Happen (MACH) Workshop, a three day development workshop designed for faculty, administrators, staff, and graduate students that has been offered at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology since 2012. Participants in this "mini-MACH" will learn two strategies that have been proven useful in confronting resistance and increasing buy in from faculty, and they will have the opportunity to practice these strategies under the guidance of experienced MACH facilitators.
- Eva Andrijcic, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
- Ella Ingram, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
- Matthew Lovell, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
- Julia Williams, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
1C: Remote Laboratory Exercises and Tutorials for Spectrum-agile Radio Frequency Systems
In this workshop, communications systems and wireless communications educators will:
- Experience and provide feedback on remote laboratory exercises and tutorials that employ an Internet-accessible, software-defined radio (SDR)-based testbed.
- Gain familiarity with software-defined radio, spectrum sharing, cognitive radio, and related concepts.
- Learn to use an experiment management framework to define and run experiments on the radio testbed.
- Learn to use a web interface to operate radios remotely and to display their performance metrics as well as three-dimensional and two-dimensional waterfall plots.
- Be given paper and / or soft copies of three or more tutorials, including hands-on exercises that they can use with their students in coordination with the testbed administrators.
Organizers
- Carl B. Dietrich, Virginia Tech
- Richard Goff, Virginia Tech
- Xavier Gomez, Virginia Tech
- Joshua Garcia-Sheridan, Virginia Tech
1D: Project-Enhanced Active Learning throughout STEM Curricula
Project-enhanced active learning (PEAL) integrates STEM concepts and deductive mathematical analysis with concrete and meaningful design experiences. Developed originally for gateway engineering courses, PEAL uses one or two major projects carefully crafted to motivate and scaffold student learning in STEM. A project is structured and mapped to the traditional topic sequence, based on systems, objects, or activities familiar to students, and is not as open-ended as a typical ‘capstone’ project. Enhancing the deductive exposition that is indispensable for science and engineering fundamentals, it allows students to also inductively learn from design activity.
Faculty early adopters reported improved content learning outcomes, student engagement, and efficiency. PEAL also appeared to enhance socialization and self-efficacy, improve motivation, enhance team skills, inculcate professionalism and management skills, and discourage plagiarism. Fundamental misconceptions revealed through an online project discussion board enabled early correction.
The intended audience includes college teachers of STEM fundamentals who can become champions of active learning strategies among their peers. Workshop outcomes are familiarity with PEAL methodology and implementation and creation of course project components. Participants will actively work in small groups to generate project ideas and materials, align challenging course topics with project tasks, plan assessment, and estimate workload.
- M. Razi Nalim, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
- Peter Orono, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
Evening Workshops 5 – 8 PM
2A: SMART START: Designing Impact-Driven Projects
Attendance is complimentary thanks to support from the National Science Foundation
The FIE conference has throughout its history has emphasized work at the frontiers of education. This pre-conference workshop reflects a policy shift at the National Science Foundation, Department of Education, Department of Defense, and others who have adopted the I-Corps™ model to extend the longevity and the value of initially funded projects. This cutting-edge workshop introduces the core features of the Lean Startup process; namely, (1) Searching for a sustainable and scalable model using the Business Model Canvas, (2) Customer discovery, and (3) Agile engineering (i.e., iterate and increment towards an appropriate product, program or service)—all of which have been identified as essential for maximizing the longevity and impact of research projects and products. The workshop will provide participants (a) A framework to think about how to discover customer requirements, (b) How to sustain and scale STEM education innovations, (c) Exposure to the NSF I-Corps™ program, and (d) An opportunity to connect and engage with peers interested in the increasing the impact of their research.
- Karl A. Smith, University of Minnesota & Purdue University
- Rocio C. Chavela Guerra, American Society for Engineering Education
- Russel Korte, Colorado State University
2B: Increase Your Project’s Success through Coordinated Communication: Research and Practice
Attendance is complimentary thanks to support from to support from Rowan University, Center for Evaluation & Research in STEM Equity (University of Washington), and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Engineering education researchers focus on research, putting research into practice, and creating innovative practice. These foci require meaningful communication that elicits a desired response (e.g. adoption of innovation). We view a focus on communication as a major empowerment tool for advocates and change agents, thereby positively impacting the reach of innovative practices and research into our engineering classrooms. This workshop centers on providing a framework for communication, allies in communication efforts, and best practices in communicating change.
As a result of this workshop, participants will be able to (1) analyze stakeholder interests in change efforts; (2) develop a change lexicon relevant to their institutional context; and (3) articulate at least three common messaging themes.
- Ella L. Ingram, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
- Beena Sukumaran, Rowan University
- Tiago Forin, Purdue University
- Elizabeth Litzler, University of Washington
2C: Using CourseNetworking to Enhance Student Engagement outside the Classroom
Research shows that engagement is a critical factor in students’ academic success and instructors continually strive to enhance student engagement with the course both inside and outside the classroom. CourseNetworking, http://www.thecn.com, provides a new method for engaging students outside the classroom. CN is a social-media based Learning Management System, which has been shown to increase student engagement outside the classroom. Like a traditional LMS, such as Blackboard or Canvas, CN maintains the ability for instructors to post class grades, calendars and other class resources. Unlike a traditional LMS, CN is a student-centered tool, with an interface that is analogous to the Facebook “Wall”.
This workshop will allow instructors at all levels to explore how they can utilize the CN to increase their students’ engagement within their courses. The workshop will cover both our research results and implementation experiences. Participants will have the opportunity to “test drive” the CN platform, and to experience it from the student side.
Facilitators of this workshop currently utilize the CN as part of their own courses and have undertaken multiple research projects investigating the use of the CN and the effect it has on student interaction. The workshop facilitators received no compensation or assistance with presenting this workshop or for participant’s adoption of the CN.
- Andrew Gavrin, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
- Rebecca Lindell, Tiliadal STEM Education
2D: Building Your Team of Change Champions
Attendance is complimentary thanks to support from the National Science Foundation
This interactive workshop uses the metaphor of a baseball team to illustrate the variety of people-roles involved in making educational improvements happen, as well as the academic ecosystem in which these changes occur. When making smaller-scale changes, the members may be more loosely structured like an informal sandlot team, though core roles still need to be fulfilled. Larger-scale changes may require visible change champions with different specialties, such as managing and coaching staff, and a team maintaining the stadium. This workshop looks at the broad scope of individuals necessary to field a team of change champions and helps participants build their own “roster” and “scouting” processes, whether their current (or envisioned) change is big, small, or somewhere in between. Everyone interested in changing engineering education is welcome. You do not need to have a “big idea” or a team to be part of this workshop.1
After participating in this workshop, individuals will:
- Understand the variety of visible, invisible, and supporting roles on the change team;
- Be able to articulate the types of roles central to different levels and sizes of change;
- Describe the qualities and attributes needed in the variety of team members and how to train themselves and others in these skills; and
- Be ready to scout for new team members among all constituencies.
Organizer
- Jennifer Karlin, University of Southern Maine
- Rebecca Bates, Minnesota State University, Mankato
- Cheryl Allendoerfer, University of Washington
- Dan Ewert, North Dakota State University
- Ron Ulseth, Itasca Community College