PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS: American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)
PROJECT DESCRIPTION The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) is hosting and providing logistical support for the delivery of the activities related to a TUES Central Resource Project Workshop. This project, "I-Corps for Learning (I-Corps-L): A Pilot Initiative to Propagate & Scale Educational Innovations", includes: an introductory 3-day training session, five online sessions, and a closing 2-day training session. In concert with the proposed workshop, ASEE is identifying and securing suitable meeting space for the 40-50 expected meeting participants (ten teams of 3-4 persons, the 5-person teaching team, and up to 3 I-Corps-L consultants).
This pilot initiative is employing an agile, action-based curriculum to improve the teaching and success rates of students in key engineering and computer science courses. The project is helping to accelerate the process of bringing effective educational innovations to scale. Particular emphasis is placed on "gateway" courses that are typically taught in the first two years of STEM degree programs and form core pre-requisites to subsequent coursework. These gateway courses are typically taught as a foundation for STEM degree programs and include: calculus, physics, and introductory engineering and computer science offerings.
ASEE team members are collaborating with the Instructional Team (led by Dr. Karl Smith) to provide textbooks to the workshop participants and develop the resources that are needed for the face-to-face workshops. The goal of the workshop is to leverage I-Corps expertise of traversing the chasm between research/development and commercial implementation of new products. Corollary to the I-Corps initiative, this project is designed to fill the gap between educational innovations of proven effectiveness in enhancing student learning and widespread use of such practices.
This project has the potential for achieving the elusive goal of educational transformation through propagation and scale of educational innovations. Workshop participants leave the program with an expanded set of skills and knowledge that provide them with the tools necessary to evaluate and translate their research into applications that can benefit society. This effort has a strong potential for having a transformative impact on STEM education.
BROADER SIGNIFICANCE The principal objective of the project is to foster an entrepreneurial mindset within the education community, so the community has the potential to impact the way education innovations are designed and implemented. The project is encouraging other educational enthusiasts to leverage the outcomes of this pilot to create a broad scale impact. The results of the project can be implemented at many institutions, having the potential to significantly improve the retention and graduation of STEM students nationwide.
ASEE is conducting an evaluation to assess individual sessions within the face-to-face meetings (e.g., topic appropriateness, quality of topic coverage, knowledge of presenters, engagement level), overall elements of the workshop (e.g., workshop design, planning and execution), and handling of meeting logistics (e.g., travel, hotel accommodations, meeting rooms, meals). In addition, the participants are answering formative questions throughout the effort to provide adequate time for informal interactions, ensure success in meeting workshop objectives, and properly accommodate all aspects associated with the virtual sessions. Ultimately, this pilot project is developing a model for conducting training workshops that result in widespread use of educational innovations that improve STEM learning.
