Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade for Teaching I

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jessica Yellin, University of Washington; Yi-Min Huang, University of Washington; Jennifer Turns, University of Washington; Charity Tsuruda, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

coursedesigns, and promoting reflective practice. Because the process of creating a personal teachingportfolio can be challenging, many institutions provide guidance to graduate students and facultywho are developing teaching portfolios.IntroductionThe use of teaching portfolios in academia has increased in popularity in recent years. Ascolleges and universities continue to improve their commitment to teaching, the need forstrategies to document teaching as a scholarly activity parallel to other scholarly activities suchas research and service have in turn become increasingly important. Highly influential authorssuch as Selden1 have proposed that faculty develop teaching portfolios as one way to achieve thegoal of documenting teaching as a scholarly

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade for Teaching II

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Zhiwei Guan, University of Washington; Steve Lappenbusch, University of Washington; Jennifer Turns, University of Washington; Jessica Yellin, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

created over time, toshow the changes and advancement of their writing skills. These two types of portfolios areconsidered to be the basis of the portfolios used in engineering discipline.Besides these two commonly used portfolio models, there are several other types of portfoliomodels being suggested and used in the practice. Cress and McCullouogh-Cress1 designed astudent portfolio as a collection of student goals for learning, works in progress, peer andinstructor feedback, and reflections on the work and processes. Gottlieb2 pointed out thatportfolio designs, contents, and purposes could take on many forms, all of which areeducationally defensible. In order to clarify the variety of portfolios, he proposed adevelopmental scheme, which includes

Conference Session

Women & New Faculty Development

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Miertschin, University of Houston; Carole Goodson, University of Houston; Luces Faulkenberry, University of Houston; Barbara Stewart, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

withdifferent assessment techniques is to try them with respect to student achievement in one’s ownclasses. Use methods other than tests, or use tests to assess the effectiveness of different teachingtechniques. A faculty member might compare student performance on tests from year to year –after normalizing or statistically controlling for differences in the initial academic backgroundsof the classes being compared. Student backgrounds at the beginning of class might be measuredusing a student self-assessment technique.Use the results. Too often results of assessment are set aside with little thought or reflection untilan accreditation team or university review team requests the data. Instead, carefully consider theresults in a timely manner. If

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade for Teaching II

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yi-Min Huang, University of Washington; Matt Eliot, University of Washington; Jennifer Turns, University of Washington; Emma Rose, University of Washington; Jessica Yellin, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

this material is essential for the students’ future success in their coursework and careers as engineers. She’s afraid that the students will not be prepared and that this may reflect poorly on her. Thinking about the class lectures, she wonders what she can do differently to better engage her students both this quarter and next time she teaches the class.Each of these scenarios highlight some common challenges that engineering educators face.Engineering education is a complex design activity where educators create a range of teachingartifacts including course curricula, classroom policies, lecture notes, exams, and timelines forstudent group projects. In order to design such artifacts, engineering faculty must make a

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade for Teaching I

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kenneth McDonald, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

the basics of a particular subject. In an ideal world, college shouldbe a place for the initial stages of development for a profession and should encourage learningthat reflects the way professionals learn and work. [10]To make classroom discussion a successful experience the teacher must prepare and follow somefundamental considerations. First, the discussion should fit some objective or purpose. Failureto provide an overarching purpose tends to have students wondering “why”. [7, 11] That is not tosay that the discussion cannot be free to follow various meanders. When good discussion isoccurring, student input can take the discussion into equally relevant subject areas that may ormay not be applicable to the objective but valuable

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade for Teaching I

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Loendorf, Eastern Washington University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

the foundation that wasrelied upon throughout the entire transition process.The process of transitioning from an engineering manager to engineering professor is nowcomplete. It was an interesting and rewarding journey spanning three years with many peaks andvalleys. Along the way many interesting discoveries were made and lessons learned. This paperdescribes the evolution and progress occurring during the third year and reflects briefly on theentire transition process. It offers both hope and encouragement for those in the engineeringprofession considering a similar career change into education.IntroductionThe third year as a full-time engineering professor began with a great deal of optimism,anticipation, and expectation. As a seasoned

Conference Session

Faculty Development Toolkit

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Jordan, Baylor University; Bill Elmore, Mississippi State University; Walter Bradley, Baylor University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

technologies will become our masters ratherthan our tools. The first two authors presented a paper in 2005 that dealt with that issue4.The authors of this paper are certainly not the only ones who have reflected on the issue ofmentoring. The next section describes some recent work done by others.Previous work done by othersPeer mentoring is the first kind of mentoring we would like to discuss. Peer mentoring occurswhen tenure track professors provide advise and support for each other. There are two ways thiscan be done. Younger faculty can write papers and make presentations describing theirexperiences to try to help other young faculty who may be facing the same situations. Thisenables the faculty member to benefit by presenting/publishing his work

Conference Session

Faculty Development: Tenure & Promotion

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Garrick Louis, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

create NSF’s most prestigious award for young faculty, as reflected by the size and duration of the CAREER award, and the selection of nominees for the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) award from the ranks of CAREER awardees.The CAREER program is supported by all the directorates at NSF. Indeed 7.5% of allproposal actions at NSF are CAREER. More than 3700 CAREER awards have beenmade from 1995 – 2004, from which 160 PECASE awardees have been chosen. Theduration of the CAREER award is 5 years with a minimum amount of $400,000($500,000 for the biological sciences) over that period. However the CAREER programhas become increasingly competitive, and given its potential value to the career

Conference Session

Effective & Efficient Teaching Skills

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Scott Hamilton, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

allowing no time for reflection on the review orcorrective measures. One of the positive results the author did note after the initial assignmentswas that the students would not sign off on incorrect work; they would note the problems with it Page 11.319.6or they would indicate work that was not complete at time of the review. During the firstassignment, several students whose work was correct were penalized for signing off on others'work that was not correct. Apparently this word got out and seemed to fix the problem on futuresubmissions, and the bad habit of the previous semester was broken. This in itself was success,yet at an admittedly low

Conference Session

Effective & Efficient Teaching Skills

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alexis Powe, Mississippi State University; Jane Moorhead, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

point values changing to reflect the focus of each lab. Topicsdiscussed include an overview of analytic versus holistic grading and the rationale behind theauthors’ grading approach, previous ECE-TCP collaborations, the combined rubric-set penaltiesgrading system for ECE 3714 with sample grading materials provided, quantitative andqualitative assessments of the newly implemented grading approach, and potential pitfalls of theauthors’ grading approach.Keywords: analytic grading, collaboration, ECE, holistic grading, inter-rater reliability, technicalwritingI. IntroductionEngineering educators are under increasing pressure from administrations, Writing across theCurriculum (WAC) programs, writing educators, and industry to incorporate more

Conference Session

Faculty Development: Tenure & Promotion

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Timothy Hodges, Virginia Military Institute; Jon-Michael Hardin, Virginia Military Institute

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

members within a department or between thedepartment and the Tenure and Promotions Committees of both LRUs and STCs can alsostrongly influence tenure or promotion decisions. As the department head of one STCnoted, he felt that the requirements for tenure and promotion at his institution seemed tobe shifting towards more emphasis on research than teaching. He added that he harboredconcerns about the effects of that shift on teaching effectiveness and wasn’t sure if thewritten requirements had been modified to reflect this shift. Such ambiguity clearlyeffects tenure and promotion decisions. Page 11.1244.5The lack of specific written targets or goals might

Conference Session

Effective & Efficient Teaching Skills

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

June Marshall, St. Joseph's College; John Marshall, University of Southern Maine

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

in the course and which reflect the amount and nature of theinformation that must be learned will go a long way to promoting academic success.Question #7 - Learning Strategies: What types of learning strategies do my studentsneed? Will they need to collaborate with others in small or large groups? Will studentsneed to listen, maintain their attention for long periods of time, or take extensive notes?Application of the Theory:Students often need to be shown how to learn in class, how to work effectively in a group,how to engage in a discussion or debate, how to take notes, or even how to ask questions.Do not simply assume students know how to learn in your class.Doyle concludes that after asking these seven questions, you will find yourself

Conference Session

Faculty Development Toolkit

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jerry Samples, University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

assessment of learningIdentify student learning styles Identify and address student’s conceptual difficultiesGood organization and planningTable 1. Responses to “What is good teaching?”How is it accomplished?The simple answer is through a combination of the two dimensions of Lowman’s model:intellectual excitement and interpersonal rapport. The responses in Table 2 are cumulative overthe workshop series but reflect a good understanding of the need for engineering faculty toutilize both dimensions. Most of the workshops focused on intellectual excitement, yet allincluded elements of interpersonal rapport. It is refreshing that the faculty who participated inthe process identified these

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade for Teaching II

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Malicky, University of San Diego; Ming Huang, University of San Diego; Susan Lord, University of San Diego

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

learning is often not made in the literature, although it is helpful to distinguish them when trying to determine which pedagogy is most appropriate for a given instructor and course. The most common implementation of project-based learning in engineering is for capstone design courses.• Inquiry-Based Learning: The organizing principle for inquiry-based learning is the scientific method; as such inquiry learning is most commonly used in labs. Students observe a carefully selected phenomenon, develop a hypothesis about that phenomenon, develop an experimental procedure to test their hypothesis, perform their experiment, evaluate their results, and reflect on their learning. Learning is again student-centered, interactive

Conference Session

Effective & Efficient Teaching Skills

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eric Larson, Seattle University; Agnieszka Miguel, Seattle University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

’ achievement of theobjectives (either for a particular question, an assignment, or for the whole course). There are avariety of different ways of measuring student progress. For instance, assessment can be donewith respect to a standard developed by the instructor or it could be done with respect to otherstudents in the course by curving the grades. In either case, great care must be done to make surethe assigned grades reflect the level of understanding of each student.To accurately assess students, it is important to remain fair to all students. Being unfair orinconsistent will often lead to inaccurate evaluations. While almost all educators strive to beunbiased during grading, it is possible to be inconsistent during grading without

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade for Teaching II

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Devine, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

participation and because some questioned are deemed nolonger necessary.SPIE FORM ProcessThe format of conducting the SPIE FORM process is formal and organized. The process isexplained to students in class. Importance of student response is stressed. Students areasked to consider the questions and reflect prior to providing a response. Students are toldthat they are required to complete this evaluation or the Final Exam will not be graded.Then students are each provided with a copy of the form in the final week of classes. Thisis done at the end of class when students are often anxious to leave. Few students will wantto stay and complete the form when they get it. However students will read over some ofthe questions as they pack their backpack and walk

Conference Session

Faculty Development: Tenure & Promotion

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Micah Hale, University of Arkansas; Findlay Edwards, University of Arkansas; Norman Dennis, University of Arkansas

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

institutions realize thatresearch funding and publications are important, but there are many other things thatshould be included in their tenure dossier. These other things include the number ofstudents advised, teacher evaluations, faculty evaluations, and service, to name a few.Tracking down all the additional information can be very time consuming. However, thetime requirement can be reduced if work on the tenure dossier begins early in the facultymember’s career. This paper reflects the lessons learned from three faculty members, afull professor, an associate professor, and an assistant professor. The full professorserves on the department’s promotion and tenure committee. The associate professor hasrecently received tenure, and the assistant

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade in Research

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adrienne Minerick, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

.” Page 11.850.3Secondly, it is important to remain organized and to communicate well in advance the student’sassigned article and presentation date. The author develops a syllabus for each semester outliningobjectives of the Journal Club, the schedule, and expected performance. The schedule ispublished on the lab’s website and updated to reflect any changes made throughout the semester[5]. More recently, this has been organized into a 1-credit hour directed individual study coursewith a full 5 point (A through F) grading scale. The students write a short 3-page report on theirresearch, including a literature review as a final project in the course. An excerpt from thesyllabus on course objectives and grading is included below.“Objectives

Conference Session

Faculty Development Toolkit

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Allen Estes, U.S. Military Academy; Ronald Welch, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

descriptors fell neatly into two statistically independentcategories, which Lowman defined as intellectual excitement and interpersonal rapport.Lowman described intellectual excitement as the clarity of the instructor’s presentations, theinstructor’s disciplinary expertise, and the degree to which the students were stimulatedemotionally by the classroom experience. The most common adjectives that described thisintellectual excitement included enthusiastic, knowledgeable, inspiring, humorous, interesting,clear, organized, exciting, engaging, prepared, and energetic. Interpersonal rapport reflects howmuch an instructor cares about her students and the degree to which they are effectivelymotivated by the teacher. The most common descriptive indicators