This Small Grants for Institutions New to the ATE Program is a faculty-initiated project in response to challenges associated with the open lab format used at the college. Since students use the lab on an open-entry/open-exit basis, the staff member on hand at any one time might not have the expertise needed to help the student. To address this challenge, the staff is implementing a strategy of cross training, support and enhancement that provides all faculty members with enough knowledge to deal with basic content issues and questions in the shared concentrations (Electrical Engineering Technology, Electronics/Biomedical Technology, Electro-Mechanical Technology, and Automation Engineering Technology.). After this strategy is shown to be successful, the PI anticipates applying for a larger ATE grant that would include a comprehensive evaluation of staff competencies, mastery level training, and summer externships at local industries for faculty to better contextualize the learned labs.
The goals of the eLABorate Success Project are to 1. Enhance the quality of students' learning experience in the Manufacturing Technology Center by improving the instructor's ability to assist all students in select courses. 2. Improve the quality of the labs. 3. Increase the percentage of students successfully completing courses on his/her first attempt.
was designed to enhance the open lab learning experience for students leading to improved retention and success by 1) improved professional development for faculty; 2) clarifying and enhancing lab exercises; and 3) soliciting student input. The eLABorate Success Project provided training for instructors and students alike in a real-world contextualized environment. The courses covered in 2010-11 were AC 1, Automation 3, Fluids 2 and one lab each from Fluids 3 and Fluids 4. In year two, the courses covered in 2011-12 were Electronics 1 and 2, Automation 4 and 5, select labs from DC3 and AC 2, and one lab from Power Electricity 2. This project focused on establishing and piloting a process to cross-train faculty in an academically diverse open lab setting to ensure they have the skills needed to provide immediate learning assistance to all lab students. This project has the potential to lead to a comprehensive venture that provides a frame-work for professional development that can be applied to open lab settings in different disciplines. The goals of the eLABorate Success Project were to improve instructors' ability to assist all students in the Manufacturing Technology Center lab, to improve the quality of the lab experiences, and to increase the percentage of students who successfully complete their course(s) on their first attempt. Goal One: The instructor pre and post self-assessments in both year one and year two indicated that the instructors feel more competent to help students with their labs in courses after the cross training sessions. An unanticipated outcome of the project has been the opportunity to hold a short "shop meeting" with all the instructors prior to the start of each cross training session. Lab policy and procedure changes are reviewed while full time and adjunct instructors are assembling for the training. Having the group all together at one time is something we had not otherwise been able to do. Goal Two: Regarding quality of lab experiences for students, student feedback was low in year one (only 9 out of 65 responses); however, in year two students’ assessments were changed to better reflect what we were attempting to achieve. There were 90 responses in year 2, and the results indicate that 82.2% of the students asked for assistance with their labs, and, of those, 74% felt the instructor knew the lab well enough to answer questions. Goal Three: Data regarding student completion on their first attempt will continue to be monitored; however, in year two, successful completion of AC 1 was 81.2% (an increase of 9.7% over the baseline), Automation 3 was 90.7% (an increase of 12.7% over baseline) and Fluids 2 was 69.3% (an increase of 10.3% over baseline).
