The objective of this engineering education research project is to develop models for acceleration of cross institutional adoption of best practices resulting from engineering education research efforts. The PIs propose to develop and analyze qualitative evidence on the effectiveness of three innovative organizational change strategies. Strategic opportunities for improvement would be identified at the eight participating institutions, exceptional practices and programs at each institution would be identified for propagation to the other institutions, and the application of Positive Organizational Scholarship to educational systems would be used as the model for research-to-practice transfer. Positive Organizational Scholarship from the organizational behavior research literature has been applied to the for-profit sector, and this research will be one of a few novel applications to the complex organizational structures of educational institutions. The PIs will create a plan for implementation of cross-institutional efforts to improve educational outcomes such as learning and retention.
Increasing the number and diversity of engineering graduates is a national goal. Successful results of the proposed research would accelerate the propagation of advances in engineering education research to other institutions and would improve the quality and productivity of engineering education on a national scale. Technical publications, which effectively disseminate engineering and scientific research results, have been less successful in the timely dissemination of engineering education research innovations. This proposed research would investigate institutional impediments to adoption of proven engineering education research successes and discover new models of propagation of best practices. This would increase the impact of funded research in engineering education on improving the diversity, and quality of the engineering workforce.
