Reflective Teaching In A Digital Age

Using a contextualized approach for assessment and evaluation of engineering classes is integral for supporting student progress. In this episode Dr. Kerrie Douglas talks to us about the evaluation criteria necessary for providing meaningful feedback to instructors on student engagement, as well as the importance of rethinking ways to design effective learning experiences for in person and online learning.

Bio:

Dr. Kerrie Douglas, Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue, studies how to improve the quality of classroom assessments and evaluation of online learning in a variety of engineering education contexts. She holds a PhD in Educational Psychology and a M.A. in Educational Studies, with focus on school counseling. She received an NSF award to study engineering instructor decisions and student support during COVID-19 and impact the pandemic is having on engineering students. She also recently won the prestigious CAREER award from the U.S. National Science Foundation to study increasing the fairness of engineering assessments. In total, she has been on the leadership of more than $24 million dollars in research awards. Her research on evaluation of online learning (supported by two NSF awards #1544259,1935683) has resulted in more than 20 peer-reviewed conference and journal publications related to engineering learners in online courses. She was a FutureLearn Research Fellow from 2017-2019; a 2018 recipient of the FIE New Faculty Fellow Award and was the 2021 Program Chair for the Educational Research Methods Division of ASEE.

For many instructors making decisions about what content must be emphasized, what needs to be assessed, and how to design activities that maximize learning is a challenging task, regardless of the mode of teaching. In this episode, Drs. Ruth Streveler and Karl Smith who collaborated on writing an opinion piece on their CAP framework share with us a way of thinking about redesigning off and online learning environments using the CAP framework as a guiding model of instructional approach.

Bios:
Dr. Ruth A. Streveler is a Professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Dr. Streveler has been the Principle Investigator or co-Principle Investigator of ten grants funded by the US National Science Foundation. She is an Associated Editor for the Journal of Engineering Education (JEE), has published articles in the JEE and the International Journal of Engineering Education, and contributed two chapters to the Cambridge Handbook of Engineering Education Research. She has presented workshops to over 500 engineering faculty on four continents. Dr. Streveler’s primary research interests are investigating students’ understanding of difficult concepts in engineering science and helping engineering faculty conduct rigorous research in engineering education.

Dr. Karl A. Smith is Cooperative Learning Professor of Engineering Education, School of Engineering Education, at Purdue University. He is also Morse-Alumni Distinguished University Teaching Professor and Emeritus Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research and development interests include building research and innovation capabilities in engineering education; faculty and graduate student professional development; the role of cooperation in learning and design; problem formulation and modeling; and project and knowledge management. Karl adapted the cooperative learning model to engineering education. His work on cooperative learning has helped thousands of faculty build knowledge, skills and confidence for involving their students in interactive and cooperative learning both during class time and outside of class.  The effects of the work are significant in terms of creating a sense of belonging and membership in a community, as well as much more engaged and deep learning. 

Learning how to work together to accomplish shared goals is at the center of the engineering design process. The cooperative learning model, adapted to engineering education by Dr. Karl Smith, offers a powerful interactive educational approach that emphasizes interdependence and accountability. Dr. Smith shares with us the theoretical background of the cooperative learning model, unpacks its core elements, and discusses practical applications of this model in large engineering classrooms.

Bio:
Dr. Karl A. Smith is Cooperative Learning Professor of Engineering Education, School of Engineering Education, at Purdue University. He is also Morse-Alumni Distinguished University Teaching Professor and Emeritus Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research and development interests include building research and innovation capabilities in engineering education; faculty and graduate student professional development; the role of cooperation in learning and design; problem formulation and modeling; and project and knowledge management. Karl adapted the cooperative learning model to engineering education. His work on cooperative learning has helped thousands of faculty build knowledge, skills and confidence for involving their students in interactive and cooperative learning both during class time and outside of class.  The effects of the work are significant in terms of creating a sense of belonging and membership in a community, as well as much more engaged and deep learning. 

Teamwork facilitation in engineering classes, where students must collaboratively develop a solution to complex, open-ended problems, is uniquely challenging. The role of the instructor extends from supporting students in the development of necessary technical knowledge and skills to helping teams figure out their collaborative workflow processes. Dr. Nies talks to us about his extensive teaching experience facilitating teamwork in large engineering classes – in person and online, provides reflections about the value of social bonding and trust building among team members, as well as practical advice on team formation, conflict resolution and student engagement in the learning process.

Bio:
Dr. Larry Nies is a professor at Purdue university with appointments in Civil Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering. He has been teaching Sustainable Engineering courses at Purdue since founding them in 2002. He is a licensed Professional Engineer with research interests spanning across macro-scale human systems down to nano-scale molecular processes. More recently, he has been researching how to transform industrial and urban systems toward a sustainable trajectory, primarily through water and carbon footprint assessment.

Dr. Nies has been recognized numerous times for his outstanding achievements in engineering teaching and counseling by various groups including Purdue University, the Society of Environmental and Ecological Engineering (SEEE), and the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. Today our discussion is focused on his long running work to support engineering project teams in undergraduate classrooms.

Opportunities and limitations presented by leveraging multiple modalities of teaching provide a point of reflection for how to build an effective learning environment that addresses diverse needs of learners. In this conversation, Dr. Brent Jesiek shares his insights about approaches to assessment (online and offline), accessibility issues, finding ways to better connect school learning to workplace learning, and building trust with students.

Bio:
Dr. Brent Jesiek  is a professor at Purdue university with appointments in Engineering education and electrical and computer engineering. Prof. Jesiek draws on expertise from engineering, computing, and the social sciences to investigate geographic, disciplinary, and historical variations in engineering education and professional practice. His current research portfolio includes studies focused on global competency and boundary spanning in engineering practice, perceptions of ethics and social responsibility among undergraduate engineering students, and the history of electrical and computer engineering education. He primarily identifies with qualitative research traditions, but has also carried out studies using quantitative and mixed methods approaches.

Use of Online laboratories in science and engineering classes during the pandemic became widespread by necessity. Many STEM instructors had to experiment with and transition to different types of online laboratories, such as remote, augmented reality or virtual. In this conversation, Dr. Dominik May talks to us about the background of online laboratory development, their use in engineering classes during a shift to online teaching, and shares insights about the future of flexible learning where online experimentation can offer opportunities for greater engagement in the learning process.

Reference(s) mentioned in this episode:
May, D., Terkowsky, C., Boehringer, D., & Varney, V. (Eds.). (in preparation). Online Laboratories in Higher Engineering Education: Solutions, Challenges, and Future Directions from a Pedagogical Perspective (Special Issue of the European Journal of Engineering Education): European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI).
May, D., Jahnke, I., & Moore, S. L. (Eds.). (in preparation). Online Labs and Virtual Experimentation in Higher Education (Special Issue of Journal of Computing in Higher Education - JCHE): Springer.
May, D. (2020). Cross Reality Spaces in Engineering Education–Online Laboratories for Supporting International Student Collaboration in Merging Realities. International Journal of Online and Biomedical Engineering (iJOE), 16(03), 4-26.
Li, R., Morelock, J. R., & May, D. (2020). A Comparative Study of An Online Lab Using Labsland and Zoom during COVID-19. Advances in Engineering Education, 8(4), 1-10. Retrieved from https://advances.asee.org/a-comparative-study-of-an-online-lab-using-labsland-and-zoom-during-covid-19/ 
LabsLand, company developing and hosting remote labs: https://labsland.com/en
Labster, company developing and hosting virtual labs: https://www.labster.com
EMONA Tims, company selling remote lab equipment for electrical engineering: https://www.emona-tims.com/emona-product/distance-learning-labs/?doing_wp_cron=1622639477.7552559375762939453125  

Bio:
Dr. May is an Assistant Professor in the Engineering Education Transformations Institute. He researches online and intercultural engineering education. His primary research focus lies on the development, introduction, practical use, and educational value of online laboratories (remote, virtual, and cross-reality) and online experimentation in engineering instruction. In his work, he focuses on developing broader educational strategies for the design and use of online engineering equipment, putting these into practice and provide the evidence base for further development efforts. Moreover, Dr. May is developing instructional concepts to bring students into international study contexts so that they can experience intercultural collaboration and develop respective competences. 

Making sense of engineering faculty’s needs for the transition to the “new normal” of instruction is a challenging endeavor. Teaching online, face-to-face or in hybrid modes present different advantages as well as complexities. Dr. John Morelock talks to us about his experiences supporting engineering faculty during their shift to online teaching and later helping to transition to the hybrid method of instruction.

Reference(s) mentioned in this episode:
NSF EEC-RAPID: Using SenseMaker® to Investigate Complex Dynamics in Social Systems to Inform Agile, Real-Time Policy-Responses in Times of Crisis

Bio:
Dr. Morelock is an Assistant Professor of Practice with an emphasis on engineering education research, and EETI’s Associate Director of Educational Innovation and Impact.  In addition to coordinating EETI’s faculty development programming, Dr. Morelock conducts research on institutional change via faculty development, with an emphasis on innovative ways to cultivate and evaluate supportive teaching and learning networks in engineering departments and colleges.  He received his doctoral degree in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech, where he was a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. His dissertation studied the teaching practices of engineering instructors during game-based learning activities, and how these practices affected student motivation.

Continuing our conversation about the Community of Inquiry Framework and its application to online learning, we focus this episode on the role of Teaching Presence in facilitating the meaningful design of educational experiences. Dr. Vaughan talks to us about the theoretical foundations of Teaching Presence, its implications for practice, and ways to empower learners to become successful problem solvers.

For more information about the CoI Framework, please visit: https://coi.athabascau.ca/


Bio:
An educator and researcher with interests in blended learning, faculty development and K to 12 schooling, Dr. Norm Vaughan is a Professor in the Department of Education, Faculty of Health, Community, Education at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta.

Norm's teaching background includes graduate and undergraduate courses in educational technology, K-12 education in northern Canada, technical training in the petroleum industry, and English as a Second Language in Japan. In addition, he has been involved in several consulting projects with book publishers and higher education institutions to develop online courses and resources. He has co-authored the books Teaching in Blended Learning Environments: Creating and Sustaining Communities of Inquiry (2013) and Blended Learning in Higher Education (2008) and he has published a series of articles on blended learning and faculty development.  

Norm is the Co-founder of the Blended Online Design Network (BOLD), a member of the Community of Inquiry Research Group, the Associate Editor of the International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning and he is on the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Excellence in e-Learning, Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, the International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education,  the Journal on Centers for Teaching & Learning, Journal of Interactive Online Learning, and the Learning Communities Journal. 

Technology in education has gained a tremendous role during the time of the pandemic. From kindergarten through college, technology is being used to connect us, provide access to a variety of resources, and most importantly to empower students by engaging them in active learning experiences. The latter requires rethinking more transactional ways of teaching and recognizing the potential of technology to put students into the center of learning.

Reference(s) mentioned in this episode:
Dorsey, C. (2020). Perspective: Is Remote Learning a Panacea for the Pandemic? The Concord Consortium. https://concord.org/newsletter/2020-fall/remote-learning-panacea-pandemic/

Bio:
Chad Dorsey is President and CEO of the Concord Consortium. Chad’s professional experience ranges across the fields of science, education, and technology. Prior to joining the Concord Consortium, Chad led teacher professional development workshops as a member of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance. There he developed technology-embedded assessments, analyzed Web-based phenomena and representations for an online library, and co-authored an NSTA Press book of science formative assessment probes. Chad has also taught science in classrooms from middle schools through college and has guided educational reform efforts at the district-wide and whole-school levels. While earning his B.A. in physics at St. Olaf College and his M.A. in physics at the University of Oregon, Chad conducted experimental fluid mechanics research, built software models of Antarctic ice streams, and dragged a radar sled by hand across South Cascade Glacier. He first met computers when his family hooked an Apple II to their fancy new color TV set, and he’s been a shameless geek ever since.

The interplay between learning goals, instructional support, and affordances of online technology can create a new learning environment for experimenting with what matters most and rethinking habits we have gotten into. Dr. Robin Adams talks to us about her personal experience of teaching engineering design online for the first time. She thoughtfully reflects on instructional decisions she had to make to help students navigate virtual teamwork workflows and successfully complete design challenges.

Bio:
Dr. Robin S. Adams  is a Professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. The recipient of a 2008 NSF Career Award, a Design Studies best paper award (2003), and the Journal of Engineering Education's Wickenden Award for best paper (2007), Dr. Adams is a national leader in researching interdisciplinary thinking and design learning, in connecting research and practice, and in building research capacity in engineering education. She leads the Institute for Scholarship on Engineering Education as part of the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education and was an invited participant at the 2010 Frontiers of Engineering Education symposium.