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Assessment of the Rose-Hulman Leadership Academy

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Conference

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Seattle, Washington

Publication Date

June 14, 2015

Start Date

June 14, 2015

End Date

June 17, 2015

ISBN

978-0-692-50180-1

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation Division – Evaluating Student Behaviors and Attitudes

Tagged Division

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

Page Count

20

Page Numbers

26.264.1 - 26.264.20

DOI

10.18260/p.23603

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/23603

Download Count

457

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Paper Authors

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Philip Reid Brown Virginia Tech Department of Engineering Education

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Philip Brown is a PhD candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech, and was part of the Rising Engineering Education Faculty Fellowship program at Rose-Hulman in the Fall of 2014.

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Julia M. Williams Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

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Dr. Julia M. Williams is Executive Director of the Office of Institutional Research, Planning, and Assessment & Professor of English at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Her research areas include technical communication, assessment, accreditation, and the development of change management strategies for faculty and staff. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Engineering Education, International Journal of Engineering Education, IEEE Transaction on Professional Communication, and Technical Communication Quarterly, among others.

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Shannon M. Sipes Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

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Shannon M. Sipes has served as the director of assessment at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology since 2004. She is a unique resource for faculty with her background in social science and education combined with experience applying it to STEM fields. Shannon holds B.S. and M.A. degrees in psychology and is currently finishing her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction with a focus on higher education. In her current professional role, Shannon performs assessment functions at all levels, from small classroom projects through assessment at the institute level. Additionally, she spends a substantial portion of her time collaborating with faculty on educational research projects and grant-funded projects requiring an assessment component. Her own research interests are in inquiry methodology, gifted students, and curriculum design.

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Abstract

Assessment of the Institution X Leadership AcademyGiving students the ability to be entrepreneurial leaders is a potentially valuable outcome for anengineering program. Entrepreneurial leadership consists of communication, teamwork, andproblem solving skills that are important to careers in STEM fields, including engineering. Forengineering, in particular, entrepreneurial leadership skills relate directly to accreditationoutcomes that every undergraduate engineering program must address. In this study, we describethe assessment of a three day leadership academy program at a small, technical school in theMidwestern United States. Activities in the academy consisted of seminars on leadership stylesand communication comingled with problem solving and teamwork activities in which studentswere asked to analyze and apply the ideas they had learned. This academy is part of a grant fromthe Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), and activities were tailored to addressspecific outcomes from that grant. Multiple forms of data were collected to assess the studentexperience at this leadership academy. To assess the application of ideas from seminars duringactivities, program facilitators, consisting of faculty and attendees of previous iterations of theacademy, were asked to fill out open-ended assessment forms. These forms were designed tohighlight ideas that students were implementing well, and areas that were in need ofimprovement. Additionally, pre and post surveys were administered to all program participants,measuring leadership self-efficacy, entrepreneurial mindset, and student perceptions of programoutcomes. Finally, voluntary semi-structured interviews were conducted after the leadershipacademy concluded. These interviews addressed outcomes that were not covered by surveys andfacilitator comments, and provided further insight into how students perceived the academy. Ouranalysis of results shows that academy activities positively influence student skills in leadership,teamwork, communication and problem solving.

Brown, P. R., & Williams, J. M., & Sipes, S. M. (2015, June), Assessment of the Rose-Hulman Leadership Academy Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.23603

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