An official website of the United States government
In 2018, California State University Los Angeles (Cal State LA) received a $1 M, 3-year National Science Foundation grant designed to use Big Data and geographic information system (GIS) science to promote active learning and curricular enhancements for community engagement and civic learning. We developed strategic partnerships with the City of Los Angeles Chief Data Officer, and with Community Partners’ Senior Program Director and Programs and Operations Manager. Each of these organizations offered the integrity and vitality necessary for engaging Cal State LA students and faculty, serving local nonprofits and communities, and promoting the City of Los Angeles’ data initiatives through the LA GeoHub and Open Data Portal (ArcNews 2016). This project closely aligns with the universities’ mission (Gomez et al. 2019) to transform local communities by providing underserved residents access to data and technology (Willner 2019).
more »
« less
Perceptions and Applications of Honors Contracts in Developing an Undergraduate Engineering Research Experience
A travel course takes a significant amount of effort in its planning and execution. The logistics are even more challenging when a travel course is introduced for the first time. In the Engineering and Technology department at Western Carolina University (WCU), a faculty-led travel course has never been taught. The Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) offered an inaugural grant opportunity, especially for a travel course in STEM. In response to that, a proposal was submitted after discussions among colleagues and administrators. Although the grant proposal was not funded, the CIEE offered a large discount for the program and the CIEE program manager worked tirelessly to accommodate the requests to revise the program. When the initial abstract of this paper was submitted in January 2016, nine student applications had been received, for travel in May 2016. Unfortunately, the class was cancelled after two students withdrew reducing the numbers below the required enrollment and budget limits. However, throughout the development of this course, many successful partnerships were fostered. The collaborating parties included: students, departmental colleagues, administration (the Department Head, Dean, and Associate Dean), the International Service Office, colleagues in other departments, the CIEE Program Manager, WCU’s Development Officer, and a private donor. It is no small feat for a travel course to be jump-started from scratch, and partnerships are the key for successful implementation. Although our travel course was unsuccessful at meeting the final objective, we gained valuable knowledge from the process. The current paper addresses several factors in establishing a new travel course, such as assessing a fair number of credit hours for a relatively short duration, developing an appropriate budget, and incorporating project-based learning into a short time table. Furthermore, the current paper shares some guidelines that may be helpful in establishing a new travel course, such as using survey tools to understand student needs, making infographics to advertise the course, and encouraging the students to talk to their friends and classmates about the course. These tools have been effective but need to be used carefully to avoid misleading the intended audience. The many lessons that have been learned during the development of this course will also be shared in this paper.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1355872
- PAR ID:
- 10067330
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- American Society for Engineering Education
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
WIP: The Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department at Seattle University was awarded a 2017 NSF RED (Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments) grant. This award provided the opportunity to create a program where students and faculty are immersed in a culture of doing engineering with practicing engineers that in turn fosters an identity of being an engineer. Of the many strategies implemented to support this goal, one significant curricular change was the creation of a new multi-year design course sequence. This set of three courses, the integrated design project (IDP) sequence, creates an annual curricular-driven opportunity for students to interact with each other and professional engineers in the context of an open-ended design project. These three courses are offered to all departmental first-, second-, and third-year students simultaneously during the spring quarter each year. Each course consists of design-focused classroom instruction tailored to that class year, and a term design project that is completed by teams of students drawn from all three class years. This structure provides students with regular design education, while also creating a curricular space for students across the department to interact with and learn from one of another in a meaningful way. This structure not only prepares students for their senior design experience, but also builds a sense of community and belonging in the department. Furthermore, to support the "engineering with engineers" vision, volunteer engineers from industry participate as consultants in the design project activities, giving students the opportunity to learn from professionals regularly throughout their entire four years in the program. This course sequence was offered for the first time in 2020, and while the global pandemic impacted the experience, the initial offering was by all accounts a success. This paper provides an overview of the motivation for the three IDP courses, their format, objectives, and specific implementation details, and a discussion of some of the lessons learned. These particulars provide other engineering departments with a roadmap for how to implement this type of a curricular experience in their own programs.more » « less
-
The Technology Ambassador’s Program (TAP) was established in 2012 as an extra-curricular program and has been offered as a service learning course since spring 2016. To investigate the impact on program participants, we launched a longitudinal study in fall 2022 and surveyed the students who completed the course from spring 2016 to spring 2021. Analysis of the survey results discovered that students strongly agree that this program has provided them opportunities to conduct research, to network with other professionals in the field, and apply technical skills. Further analysis also revealed a strong correlation of these opportunities with improving soft skills and career readiness among participants. Overall, this program increased the confidence of the students and prepared them to learn new skills on their own. This paper describes the overall structure of the service learning program and presents the details of this study including the process and survey results.more » « less
-
International collaborations for community colleges are important for students who will be competing for employment yet are often overlooked due to the perception that international means expensive. The International Education Initiative (IEI) provides opportunities for international collaboration among community college faculty and students. The IEI is a multi-tiered program that allows different levels of participation and cost for faculty and students through funding from the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education Program and the French Embassy in the United States. While the main focus is engineering and technology courses, partners have also included business and communications classes, creating a truly interdisciplinary program. Students participating in these programs can expect to have greater cross-cultural maturity and awareness of the wider world, increased confidence in finding future success in the global workforce, and increased ability to deploy 21st Century skills such as technology and teamwork. Faculty participating in the program can expect to have increased confidence and skills in faculty to support students in achieving 21st century skills; increased ability to co-teach and work effectively with and overseas partner, and more motivation and readiness to sustain overseas partnerships and help grow the international program. The Connecticut Collaborative Learning for International Capabilities and Knowledge (CT CLICKs) provides the opportunity for students to receive a global experience as part of a course they are already taking. During the first year of the program, Faculty from Connecticut community colleges partnered with faculty from French Insitituts universitaires de technologie (IUTs), French equivalent of community colleges, to co-teach curriculum modules to their participating classes. The second year added the option of co-facilitating a project between the two classes. All teaching, assignments, and projects were completed through virtual platforms. Several travel opportunities have been provided for student and faculty participants. These have either been through the attendance of international technology bootcamps that were organized by the French Embassy or a partner IUT or through a travel program organized by the IEI. Both travel options include experiences that provide an overview of French engineering and technology education, industry, history, and culture. A faculty recruitment and preparation model has been created to continuously onboard new faculty for the IEI program. The model includes a program overview workshop, partner matching, and curriculum design workshop that all take place virtually. The CT CLICKs program has built steadily and quickly. The number of teachers participating grew from 6 to 29 in the first three years with more than 6 teachers repeating or developing new modules. A total of 334 students have participated in the CT CLICKs program since fall 2017. The number of Connecticut campuses grew from 1 to 8 and overseas partner campuses grew from 2 to 5. Participant survey data shows that the program is continuously improving in helping students gain a better worldview and how to collaborate cross-culturally and helping faculty incorporate international collaboration into their courses.more » « less
-
International collaborations for community colleges are important for students who will be competing for employment yet are often overlooked due to the perception that international means expensive. The International Education Initiative (IEI) provides opportunities for international collaboration among community college faculty and students. The IEI is a multi-tiered program that allows different levels of participation and cost for faculty and students through funding from the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education Program and the French Embassy in the United States. While the main focus is engineering and technology courses, partners have also included business and communications classes, creating a truly interdisciplinary program. Students participating in these programs can expect to have greater cross-cultural maturity and awareness of the wider world, increased confidence in finding future success in the global workforce, and increased ability to deploy 21st Century skills such as technology and teamwork. Faculty participating in the program can expect to have increased confidence and skills in faculty to support students in achieving 21st century skills; increased ability to co-teach and work effectively with and overseas partner, and more motivation and readiness to sustain overseas partnerships and help grow the international program. The Connecticut Collaborative Learning for International Capabilities and Knowledge (CT CLICKs) provides the opportunity for students to receive a global experience as part of a course they are already taking. During the first year of the program, Faculty from Connecticut community colleges partnered with faculty from French Insitituts universitaires de technologie (IUTs), French equivalent of community colleges, to co-teach curriculum modules to their participating classes. The second year added the option of co-facilitating a project between the two classes. All teaching, assignments, and projects were completed through virtual platforms. Several travel opportunities have been provided for student and faculty participants. These have either been through the attendance of international technology bootcamps that were organized by the French Embassy or a partner IUT or through a travel program organized by the IEI. Both travel options include experiences that provide an overview of French engineering and technology education, industry, history, and culture. A faculty recruitment and preparation model has been created to continuously onboard new faculty for the IEI program. The model includes a program overview workshop, partner matching, and curriculum design workshop that all take place virtually. The CT CLICKs program has built steadily and quickly. The number of teachers participating grew from 6 to 29 in the first three years with more than 6 teachers repeating or developing new modules. A total of 334 students have participated in the CT CLICKs program since fall 2017. The number of Connecticut campuses grew from 1 to 8 and overseas partner campuses grew from 2 to 5. Participant survey data shows that the program is continuously improving in helping students gain a better worldview and how to collaborate cross-culturally and helping faculty incorporate international collaboration into their courses.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.18260/p.25882
