Board # 15 : Catalyzing a Research Agenda for Enhancing Engineering Education through Institutional Collaborations

Abstract

To augment the extensive engineering education research that has been done over the past decades, greater opportunities are needed for institutional leaders and education practitioners to directly share the pedagogical practices that have worked best (and perhaps not so well) at their institutions as well as to explicitly consider bi-directional scalability and adaptability between institutions. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded workshop described here brought together a small group of thought leaders from various institutions to share their ideas and experiences and to develop a research agenda for creating productive collaborations among a wide range of institutions of different types, characteristics, and missions. The workshop sought to develop a framework for how diverse institutions can effectively impact engineering education in addressing questions such as: How to scale, adapt, and transfer best practices? What are the roles of differing types of institutions in engineering education research and innovation? How can engineering education research at all institutions be enhanced? Preliminary results presented in this paper include quantitative measures of the characteristics of the participating institutions, the results of a pre-workshop survey completed by each institution about educational constraints and opportunities, and highlights of the workshop itself. The workshop brought to light the significant changes that have already occurred in engineering education in recent years, the need to focus on cultural change rather than content change, and the recognition that institutions of higher learning, the NSF, and engineering professional societies have not yet succeeded in creating the right culture, climate, and educational infrastructure for fully implementing change in engineering education based on the most effective approaches to engaging students. Based on the outcomes of the workshop, engineering education must clearly change in ways that allow it to focus on defining problems differently and to facilitate a shift in both the mindsets of faculty and the mindsets they cultivate in students.