Co-Designed Research Agenda to Foster Educational Innovation Efforts Within Undergraduate Engineering at HSIs

Gemma Henderson; Meagan R. Kendall; Ines Basalo; Alexandra Coso Strong

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Conference: 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Tampa, Florida
Publication Date: June 15, 2019
Start Date: June 15, 2019
End Date: June 19, 2019
Conference Session: ERM Technical Session 11: Leadership and Collaborations in Engineering
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 18
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--32512
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/32512
Download Count: 506

Paper Authors

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Gemma Henderson University of Miami orcid.org/0000-0002-1782-1273

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Gemma Henderson is a Senior Instructional Designer for the LIFE (Learning, Innovation and Faculty Engagement) team in Academic Technologies at the University of Miami, Coral Gables. Gemma partners with faculty members, academic units, and other university stakeholders to create and assess innovative, effective, and meaningful learning experiences, through learner-centered pedagogies, differentiated teaching, and emerging educational technologies. She has facilitated faculty development initiatives, communities and events in online course design, formative assessment, narrative techniques and 3-D technologies in undergraduate education. Since Fall 2016, in partnership with the College of Engineering and the LIFE team, Gemma designed and supported faculty development workshops in active learning pedagogies, provided regular consultations and also joined the UM team at Olin College's 2017 Collaboratory Summer Institute. Gemma is a recent graduate from the MSc Digital Education program at the University of Edinburgh.

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Meagan R. Kendall University of Texas, El Paso

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An Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at El Paso, Dr. Meagan R. Kendall is helping develop a new Engineering Leadership Program to enable students to bridge the gap between traditional engineering education and what they will really experience in industry. With a background in both engineering education and design thinking, her research focuses on how Latina/Latino students develop an identity as an engineer, methods for enhancing student motivation, and methods for involving students in curriculum development and teaching through Peer Designed Instruction.

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Ines Basalo University of Miami

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Dr. Basalo is an Assistant Professor in Practice in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Miami. Prior to joining the University of Miami in 2014, she worked as an adjunct professor at Columbia University and the Cooper Union in New York City. She received her PhD from Columbia University in 2006, where her research focused on the mechanical and frictional properties of articular cartilage.
Dr. Basalo ‘s teaching experience includes Thermodynamics, Computer Graphics, Materials Science and laboratory courses. Since 2015 she has been actively involved in the University of Miami College of Engineering’s “Redefining Engineering Education” strategic plan on educational innovation. As part of this plan, Dr. Basalo worked with 2 other faculty members to organize inaugural Senior Design Expo in May 2017, an exposition where over 200 senior students showcased their Capstone projects to the University of Miami community, alumni and industry leaders. Starting in 2016 and through her work with the University of Miami’s Engaged Faculty Fellowship program, Dr. Basalo incorporated an academic service component into the final project for a sophomore-level Measurements Lab course.

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Alexandra Coso Strong Florida International University orcid.org/0000-0003-4988-361X

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As an assistant professor of engineering education at Florida International University, Dr. Alexandra Coso Strong works and teaches at the intersection of engineering education, faculty development, and complex systems design. Alexandra completed her doctorate in aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech in spring 2014. Prior to attending Georgia Tech, Alexandra received a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from MIT (2007) and a master’s degree in systems engineering from the University of Virginia (2010). Alexandra comes to FIU after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Georgia Tech’s Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) and three years as a faculty member at Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts. Alexandra’s research aims to improve the design of educational experiences for students by critically examining the work and learning environments of practitioners. Specifically, she focuses on (1) how to design and change educational and work systems through studies of practicing engineers and educators and (2) how to help students transition into, through and out of educational and work systems.

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Abstract

The responsibility to educate and empower underrepresented groups in undergraduate education often relies on the commitment of educators and the curricula they design. Without financial or institutional support, there are limited opportunities for educators from different Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) to engage in conversations about their curricula developments and share their vision for the future of engineering education. This multi-institutional research project adopted a participatory research design to recognize the existing efforts of educators and foster their curricula and scholarship ideas. A series of three workshops were conducted in 2018 by visiting educators engaged in engineering education at both two and four-year HSIs. Before, during, and after the workshop series, attendees were asked to reflect on three guiding educational philosophies: intrinsic motivation, students as empowered agents, and design thinking. Thirty-six engineering educators from thirteen HSIs from across the Southern United States participated in one of two, two-day workshops where attendees prototyped examples of how they would implement these philosophies at their home institution. Using these prototypes, participants identified the assets they already had and resources they would still need to obtain. Following a thematic analysis of these prototypes from the initial workshops, five themes were identified and prepared for dissemination at the third workshop. Ten participants from the initial workshops attended the final workshop conducted at the 2018 ASEE Annual Conference, and an additional five participants joined as general ASEE Annual Conference attendees. In the final workshop, participants engaged with the preliminary results, further reflected on their progress since the first workshop, and brainstormed research questions they believed the engineering education research community would benefit from answering. The results of this research paper are based on the perspectives of forty-one engineering educators, with a focus on qualitative analysis of questions proposed from fifteen participants at the final workshop. Five research areas emerged: Engineering curricula enhancement, Understanding our students, Faculty development relevant to HSIs, Perceptions of instructional faculty, Long-term impactful approaches. This paper therefore aims to support broader engagement in research and collaboration with and within HSIs, with a goal of increasing the representation of Latinx students in engineering. The results have the potential to target and foster further collaborative scholarly research between educators and promote their curricular efforts in undergraduate engineering education at HSIs.

Citation
Format

Henderson, G., & Kendall, M. R., & Basalo, I., & Strong, A. C. (2019, June), Co-Designed Research Agenda to Foster Educational Innovation Efforts Within Undergraduate Engineering at HSIs Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32512

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The responsibility to educate and empower underrepresented groups in undergraduate education often relies on the commitment of educators and the curricula they design. Without financial or institutional support, there are limited opportunities for educators from different Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) to engage in conversations about their curricula developments and share their vision for the future of engineering education. This multi-institutional research project adopted a participatory research design to recognize the existing efforts of educators and foster their curricula and scholarship ideas. A series of three workshops were conducted in 2018 by visiting educators engaged in engineering education at both two and four-year HSIs. Before, during, and after the workshop series, attendees were asked to reflect on three guiding educational philosophies: intrinsic motivation, students as empowered agents, and design thinking. Thirty-six engineering educators from thirteen HSIs from across the Southern United States participated in one of two, two-day workshops where attendees prototyped examples of how they would implement these philosophies at their home institution. Using these prototypes, participants identified the assets they already had and resources they would still need to obtain. Following a thematic analysis of these prototypes from the initial workshops, five themes were identified and prepared for dissemination at the third workshop. Ten participants from the initial workshops attended the final workshop conducted at the 2018 ASEE Annual Conference, and an additional five participants joined as general ASEE Annual Conference attendees. In the final workshop, participants engaged with the preliminary results, further reflected on their progress since the first workshop, and brainstormed research questions they believed the engineering education research community would benefit from answering. The results of this research paper are based on the perspectives of forty-one engineering educators, with a focus on qualitative analysis of questions proposed from fifteen participants at the final workshop. Five research areas emerged: Engineering curricula enhancement, Understanding our students, Faculty development relevant to HSIs, Perceptions of instructional faculty, Long-term impactful approaches. This paper therefore aims to support broader engagement in research and collaboration with and within HSIs, with a goal of increasing the representation of Latinx students in engineering. The results have the potential to target and foster further collaborative scholarly research between educators and promote their curricular efforts in undergraduate engineering education at HSIs. 
AU  - Gemma Henderson
AU  - Meagan R. Kendall
AU  - Ines  Basalo
AU  - Alexandra Coso Strong
CY  - Tampa, Florida
DA  - 2019/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Co-Designed Research Agenda to Foster Educational Innovation Efforts Within Undergraduate Engineering at HSIs 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/32512
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--32512
ER  -