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Board # 90 : Toward a Shared Meaning of the “Impact” of Engineering Education Research: Initial Findings of a Mixed Methods Study

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Conference

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Columbus, Ohio

Publication Date

June 24, 2017

Start Date

June 24, 2017

End Date

June 28, 2017

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Tagged Topic

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

6

DOI

10.18260/1-2--27953

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/27953

Download Count

469

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Paper Authors

biography

Jeremi S London Arizona State University, Polytechnic campus

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Dr. Jeremi London is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Arizona State University. She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering and a Ph.D. in Engineering Education, all from Purdue University. Prior to her PhD, she worked in quality assurance and logistics roles at Anheuser-Busch and GE Healthcare, where she was responsible for ensuring consistency across processes and compliance with federal regulations. For four consecutive summers (2011-2014), she worked in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Undergraduate Education on research and evaluation projects related to the use of technology in STEM education. Dr. London masters mixed methods and computational tools to address complex problems, including: science policy issues surrounding STEM learning in cyberlearning environments; evaluation and impact analysis of federal investments in R&D; and applications of simulation & modeling tools to evaluate programs.

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biography

Maura J. Borrego University of Texas, Austin

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Maura Borrego is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin. She previously served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation, on the board of the American Society for Engineering Education, and as an associate dean and director of interdisciplinary graduate programs. Her research awards include U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and two outstanding publication awards from the American Educational Research Association for her journal articles. Dr. Borrego is Deputy Editor for Journal of Engineering Education. All of Dr. Borrego’s degrees are in Materials Science and Engineering. Her M.S. and Ph.D. are from Stanford University, and her B.S. is from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Abstract

In an environment of increased scrutiny and accountability, engineering education researchers are being called upon to describe and defend the tangible impacts of their work on a regular basis. The lack of scholarship within and beyond the field of engineering education on the impact of research contributes to the lack of shared language around what research impact looks like in this context—and a lack of productive conversations on how research can impact practice. Using a convergent parallel mixed methods research design, the aim of this study is to develop a valid framework that characterizes the impact of engineering education research; and describe engineering education researchers’ and practitioners’ perspectives on how research does and should influence practice in our context. Together, the two data forms enable greater insights on the problem than would be obtained by either type of data separately. This project started in Summer 2016 (one year ago). Data collection for the quantitative strand is well underway while data collection for the qualitative strand is complete. One of the key findings thus far is that the field of engineering education is closer to the development of a research impact framework than previously realized. Details on the research design and progress on the framework development will be discussed in this paper.

London, J. S., & Borrego, M. J. (2017, June), Board # 90 : Toward a Shared Meaning of the “Impact” of Engineering Education Research: Initial Findings of a Mixed Methods Study Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--27953

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