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1. Board 418: Understanding Context: Propagation and Effectiveness of the Concept Warehouse in Mechanical Engineering at Five Diverse Institutions and Beyond – Results from Year 4

   Self, B. P. ; Koretsky, M. ; Nolen, S. B. ; Dal Bello, D. J. ; Widmann, J. M. ; Prince, M. J. ; Papadopoulos, C. ( June 2023 , 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Several consensus reports cite a critical need to dramatically increase the number and diversity of STEM graduates over the next decade. They conclude that a change to evidence-based instructional practices, such as concept-based active learning, is needed. Concept-based active learning involves the use of activity-based pedagogies whose primary objectives are to make students value deep conceptual understanding (instead of only factual knowledge) and then to facilitate their development of that understanding. Concept-based active learning has been shown to increase academic engagement and student achievement, to significantly improve student retention in academic programs, and to reduce the performance gap of underrepresented students. Fostering students' mastery of fundamental concepts is central to real world problem solving, including several elements of engineering practice. Unfortunately, simply proving that these instructional practices are more effective than traditional methods for promoting student learning, for increasing retention in academic programs, and for improving ability in professional practice is not enough to ensure widespread pedagogical change. In fact, the biggest challenge to improving STEM education is not the need to develop more effective instructional practices, but to find ways to get faculty to adopt the evidence-based pedagogies that already exist. In this project we seek to propagate the Concept Warehouse, a technological innovation designed to foster concept-based active learning, into Mechanical Engineering (ME) and to study student learning with this tool in five diverse institutional settings. The Concept Warehouse (CW) is a web-based instructional tool that we developed for Chemical Engineering (ChE) faculty. It houses over 3,500 ConcepTests, which are short questions that can rapidly be deployed to engage students in concept-oriented thinking and/or to assess students’ conceptual knowledge, along with more extensive concept-based active learning tools. The CW has grown rapidly during this project and now has over 1,600 faculty accounts and over 37,000 student users. New ConcepTests were created during the current reporting period; the current numbers of questions for Statics, Dynamics, and Mechanics of Materials are 342, 410, and 41, respectively. A detailed review process is in progress, and will continue through the no-cost extension year, to refine question clarity and to identify types of new questions to fill gaps in content coverage. There have been 497 new faculty accounts created after June 30, 2018, and 3,035 unique students have answered these mechanics questions in the CW. We continue to analyze instructor interviews, focusing on 11 cases, all of whom participated in the CW Community of Practice (CoP). For six participants, we were able to compare use of the CW both before and after participating in professional development activities (workshops and/or a community or practice). Interview results have been coded and are currently being analyzed. To examine student learning, we recruited faculty to participate in deploying four common questions in both statics and dynamics. In statics, each instructor agreed to deploy the same four questions (one each for Rigid Body Equilibrium, Trusses, Frames, and Friction) among their overall deployments of the CW. In addition to answering the question, students were also asked to provide a written explanation to explain their reasoning, to rate the confidence of their answers, and to rate the degree to which the questions were clear and promoted deep thinking. The analysis to date has resulted in a Work-In-Progress paper presented at ASEE 2022, reporting a cross-case comparison of two instructors and a Work-In-Progress paper to be presented at ASEE 2023 analyzing students’ metacognitive reflections of concept questions. 

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2. WIP: Instances of Dynamic Pedagogical Decision Making in the Uptake of a Technology Tool

   Harpreet Auby ; John Galisky ; Susan Nolen ; Milo Koretsky ( June 2022 , ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   In this work-in-progress paper, we continue investigation into the propagation of the Concept Warehouse within mechanical engineering (Friedrichsen et al., 2017; Koretsky et al., 2019a). Even before the pandemic forced most instruction online, educational technology was a growing element in classroom culture (Koretsky & Magana, 2019b). However, adoption of technology tools for widespread use is often conceived from a turn-key lens, with professional development focused on procedural competencies and fidelity of implementation as the goal (Mills & Ragan, 2000; O’Donnell, 2008). Educators are given the tool with initial operating instructions, then left on their own to implement it in particular instructional contexts. There is little emphasis on the inevitable instructional decisions around incorporating the tool (Hodge, 2019) or on sustainable incorporation of technologies into existing instructional practice (Forkosh-Baruch et al., 2021). We consider the take-up of a technology tool as an emergent, rather than a prescribed process (Henderson et al., 2011). In this WIP paper, we examine how two instructors who we call Al and Joe reason through their adoption of a technology tool, focusing on interactions among instructors, tool, and students within and across contexts. The Concept Warehouse (CW) is a widely-available, web-based, open educational technology tool used to facilitate concept-based active learning in different contexts (Friedrichsen et al., 2017; Koretsky et al., 2014). Development of the CW is ongoing and collaboration-driven, where user-instructors from different institutions and disciplines can develop conceptual questions (called ConcepTests) and other learning and assessment tools that can be shared with other users. Currently there are around 3,500 ConcepTests, 1,500 faculty users, and 36,000 student users. About 700 ConcepTests have been developed for mechanics (statics and dynamics). The tool’s spectrum of affordances allows different entry points for instructor engagement, but also allows their use to grow and change as they become familiar with the tool and take up ideas from the contexts around them. Part of a larger study of propagation and use across five diverse institutions (Nolen & Koretsky, 2020), instructors were introduced to the tool, offered an introductory workshop and opportunity to participate in a community of practice (CoP), then interviewed early and later in their adoption. For this paper, we explore a bounded case study of the two instructors, Al and Joe, who took up the CW to teach Introductory Statics. Al and Joe were experienced instructors, committed to active learning, who presented examples from their ongoing adaptation of the tool for discussion in the community of practice. However, their decisions about how to integrate the tool fundamentally differed, including the aspects of the tool they took up and the ways they made sense of their use. In analyzing these two cases, we begin to uncover how these instructors navigated the dynamic nature of pedagogical decision making in and across contexts. 

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3. Reimagining Community College Math Reform Amid COVID-19

   https://doi.org/10.1177/00915521231182116  

   Wickersham, Kelly ; Zheng, Peiwen ; Wang, Xueli ; Prevost, Amy ( June 2023 , Community College Review)

   Objective: In Spring 2020 when COVID-19 hit, community colleges moved almost all classes online. This disruption impacts recent math reforms, including contextualization, raising concerns about sustained faculty and institutional leadership commitment. This study investigated how community college faculty teaching contextualized math courses adapted their instruction in response to COVID-19-related disruptions and how community college and instructional leadership addressed math contextualization efforts in response to COVID-19. Methods: Using multiple case studies, we conducted interviews with faculty and institutional leaders from two large community colleges in a Midwestern state. We also integrated field notes, observations, lesson plans, project documentation, and other contextual information as complementary data. Results: Three themes revealed how faculty and institutional leaders navigated the process of adapting contextualization efforts throughout the pandemic: reaching out to create community remotely, reimagining contextualization or pushing the pause button, and skilling up to persist through and toward change. Contribution: This study provides insight into the unique challenges and innovations due to sudden yet enduring disruptions that impact instruction, faculty development, and institutional support around instructional reform in the community college. This research informs faculty and institutional leaders navigating sustained efforts around math reform to identify actions to help institutions and their faculty continue advancing high-impact approaches and initiatives to math instruction in any environment.

    

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4. Instructional practice learning through Instructional Incubator engagement

   Woodcock, Cassandra S.E. ; Antoine, Haley ; Tarnowski, Madison ; Huang-Saad, Aileen ( January 2019 , Proceedings of the 8th Research in Engineering Education Symposium, REES 2019 - Making Connections)

   While student-centered learning has been shown to improve learning experiences in the engineering classroom, adoption of these evidence-based strategies has been slow. Research has shown that faculty beliefs about teaching and limited exposure to formal training influence effective implementation of evidenced-based instructional practices. Thus, in an effort to explore ways to implement long-term instructional change in engineering higher education, a graduate-level course, the Instructional Incubator (I2), was developed to expose future educators to instructional design and evidence-based practices. In the I2, student participants developed new biomedical engineering short-courses in an active learning classroom. For the first two iterations of the I2, we examined how this immersive experience influenced participants’ perceived teaching abilities and understanding before and after enrolling in the I2. Both I2 cohorts reported an increase in knowledge of engineering education related terms and showed a shift away from behaviorist and cognitive beliefs about teaching and learning. Introduction 

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5. Engineering Faculty Members’ Perceptions of University Makerspaces: Potential Affordances for Curriculum, Instructional Practices, and Student Learning

   Lenhart, C. st ( October 2020 , IJEE International Journal of Engineering Education)

   null (Ed.)

   We detail an exploratory study of faculty members’ perceptions of activities associated with undergraduate engineering programs in university-based makerspaces. Our study examines the affordances and constraints faculty perceive regarding teaching and learning in these spaces and, specifically, how makerspaces support engineering faculty members in accomplishing the goals and expectations they have for undergraduate students’ learning and development. We found that makerspaces inspired faculty members’ curricular and instructional innovations, including design of new courses and implementation of practices meant to result in more team-based and active learning. Faculty perceived student activities in makerspaces as fostering of student agency and development of engineering skills, knowledge, and affect. Faculty also identified concerns related to the teaching of engineering in these spaces, including the need to change their instructional practices to more fully engage students and to balance the sophisticated tools and resources with the rigor of completing complex engineering tasks. We use structuration theory to illuminate how faculty act, rationalize, and reflect on their teaching practices and goals in relation to structures present in university-based makerspace. Our study is intended to inform faculty and administrators working to engage students through interactions in makerspaces or similar innovations, and to consider how access to and impact of these structures support undergraduate engineering education. 

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