This project focuses on Learning Through Service (LTS), a pedagogical method that combines academic learning with service. Engaging investigators from five diverse institutions, the project are invoking a 4D Process (Discover, Distill, Design, Disseminate) to evaluate the impacts on faculty currently engaged in LTS efforts and to empower additional faculty to implement LTS. Major activities that are being undertaken include surveying and interviewing engaged faculty; convening a meeting of experts in LTS program/course designs, implementations, and assessments; conducting intensive faculty training workshops on LTS that lead to new LTS efforts at course and program levels; and sustaining faculty engagement via a continued dissemination of efforts. Assessment research methodologies (development and use) are being integrated throughout these activities. The project engages faculty through systemic implementation and support for LTS in engineering education. The projects expands the use of LTS in engineering education and highlight LTS as a viable research endeavor and scholarly activity. The project identifies challenges and facilitators to LTS for different faculty and institution types.
Project Outcomes Summary This three-year effort focuses on Learning Through Service (LTS) – a pedagogical method that combines academic learning with service. EFELTS involves investigators from five, diverse institutions invoking a 4D Process (Discover, Distill, Design, and Disseminate) to realize two project goals: a) evaluate the impacts on faculty currently engaged in LTS efforts; and b) empower additional faculty to implement LTS. Intellectual Merit: Over the project duration, major activities have included: a) developing and implementing survey and interview instruments to measure the engagement of faculty in LTS efforts; b) convening a meeting of "expert" in LTS program/course designs, implementations, and assessments; and c) developing and and implementing two, intensive faculty training workshops on LTS with the purpose to create new or enhance existing LTS efforts at course and program levels. Assessment research methodologies (development and use) were integrated throughout these activities. Broader Impacts: A number of elements of the work provide evidence of its broader impacts. Namely, the project highlighted the viability of LTS as appropriate pedagogy in engineering education AND as an area for engineering education research.. identified challenges and facilitators to LTS for different faculty (e.g., tenured vs. tenure-track) at different institution types (e.g., public vs. private, large vs. small, etc.) signified an importance on pedagogy in the development of future engineering faculty and hence the importance of engineering education as a discipline supported the use of LTS as a mechanism to develop concepts in engineering education that are espoused by various national foundations / associations / academies on the value in creating future engineers Specific Outcomes (summarized from efforts from all five institutions): Survey instrument development and implementation. The survey instrument consisted of Likert-scale as well as open-ended response questions. Primarily administered to faculty who were, or had been, involved in LTS efforts, the survey’s aim was to obtain a measure of the perceptions of these faculty. LTS Experts Meeting in Boulder, CO in 2011. This meeting involved those experienced in LTS development, assessment, implementation, and research, both from engineering and non-engineering disciplines. Approximately 20 invited experts attended. Interviews of LTS practitioners. An interview protocol was developed and interviews were conducted with member of the Expert Group Meeting noted above; participants in two EFELTS workshops; and members of the research team who implement LTS efforts at their institutions. EFELTS LTS Workshops. Findings from the LTS expert meeting, combined with research and experiences of the EFELTS team, served as the basis of the LTS Workshops. Two workshops occurred, one in Houghton, MI in August and one in Boulder, CO in September 2012. Thirty-six workshop participants attended, ranging from those highly experienced in LTS efforts, but not in all aspects, to those who are new to LTS and are planning to design, manage, and assess new LTS efforts at their institutions. The data from the surveys and interviews and workshops continue to be collected and evaluated, so definitive outcomes are, as yet, unavailable. However, from the preliminary analyses of the various efforts, preliminary findings include 1) major barriers to LTS implementation range from issues of increased faculty time/workload, problems with coordinating LTS efforts with community partners and a general lack of policies related to the impact of LTS on promotion and tenure can be stated. Some of the major benefits of LTS include enhanced motivation to learning by engineering students. To date, publications from the work have been conference papers and/or presentation, mostly in ASEE conferences. Additional publications of the work are slated for the International Journal of Service Learning in Engineering as well as other venues in the near future.
