INNOVATIVE TEACHING METHODS AND ENGINEERING EDUCATION RESEARCH

Author(s):  
Angela Van Barneveld

In 2011, I conducted a research study that focused on the experiences of engineering educators who were implementing innovative pedagogies such as problem-based learning (or its variations) in undergraduate engineering education on a consistent and committed basis. The intent of the study was to identify not only the tensions encountered but also the management of tensions that arose when implementing these pedagogies. I specifically sought out this group of educators on the assumption that their belief in the benefits and outcomes of PBL outweighed the challenges that they faced at a classroom and system level when they, in essence, turned away from what may be considered a ‘traditional’ approach to engineering education.A survey was designed to capture data relevant to the research questions around implementation of PBL and tensions encountered. The data collection (1 month) period resulted in 313 valid survey responses who met inclusion criteria. Sixty-five engineering educators were interviewed on their teaching practices and management of tensions encountered when implementing PBL. At the end of the data collection period, I was left a sense of admiration for these educators who, despite having to address predictable and unpredictable tensions because of their pedagogical beliefs, maintained a course that they believed would best serve their students and society. So, between March 1 and July 29, 2011, a follow-up question was sent to all the educators who had been interviewed (n=65; response rate = 100%) and to those who not interviewed but had provided contact information (n=172; response rate = 33%). They were asked the following question: For an engineering educator wanting to implement PBL into their teaching practice, what words of wisdom (lessons learned) would you offer them (3‐5 bullet points)?The benefit of aggregating this sort of information may prove very useful for engineering educators and educational institutions planning the implementation of innovative pedagogies such as PBL.

Author(s):  
Angela Van Barneveld ◽  
Johannes Strobel

Problem-based learning approaches have been deemed by research literature to be an optimal approach to develop engineering graduate competencies and attributes. While project-based capstone courses tend to be the norm, PBL has a lesser although highly recommended presence in the early years of an engineering program. With early year implementations of innovative pedagogies, engineering educators who persist in their PBL implementations encounter tensions at various levels and are required to devise strategies to manage the tensions.This qualitative study focused on the variation in engineering educators’ ways of experiencing tensions in PBL implementations, as well as how they managed the tensions (n=14). In the specific context of the first two years of undergraduate engineering education, the research questions were (1) based on their teaching practices, what are the predominant tensions encountered by engineering educators? (2) What are the qualitatively different ways in which engineering educators experience tensions with a PBL implementation in their teaching practices? (3) How do engineering educators manage these tensions?Results revealed tensions at both the classroom and system level. Examples of a classroom tension included the transitioning of students not only into engineering but also into PBL-oriented learning environments. System-level tensions included a misalignment in the perceived value assigned to teaching by the individual instructor and the organization.For engineering educators considering the implementation of PBL, this study offered not only insights into potential tensions, but also the management strategies used to mitigate the tension. Implications for administrators, faculty development specialists, and curriculum designers are also discussed.


Author(s):  
Laura Davis ◽  
Alyson Mahar ◽  
Lev Bubis ◽  
Qing Li ◽  
Haoyu Zhao ◽  
...  

IntroductionSince 2007, Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) has systematically collected patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in the form of symptom data, for cancer outpatients visiting regional cancer centres or affiliate institutions. Data are used in real-time to facilitate conversation between clinicians and patients and have recently been combined with provincial administrative databases. Objectives and ApproachCCO collects PROs using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS), which scores 9 symptoms on a scale of 0 (no symptoms) to 10 (worst symptom severity). Data were imported from CCO in 2015 and linked to a cancer cohort at ICES. We investigated differences between patients who completed $\geq$1 ESAS record and patients who did not, as well as the number of records, timing of data collection and missingness. We describe our experience linking and using the PRO data to administrative data, including presenting trajectories of symptoms over time and combining scores into composite indices. Results120,745 cancer patients had 729,861 symptom records between 2007 and 2014. Not all patients with a cancer diagnosis had $\geq$1 ESAS record and this varied by patient, disease and system level factors. Because implementation occurred from a clinical perspective, data collection was irregular within and across patients and depended on treatment and other factors; the number of records per patient varied, as well the number of contributing patients in each time period following diagnosis. Attempts were made to create meaningful composite indices by combining all symptom scores as well as combining multiple high scores for each individual symptom. As a result, selecting the best statistical analysis to use these PRO data as an exposure or outcome is still uncertain. Conclusion/ImplicationsPRO data linked to provincial, administrative data holdings represent a new frontier for population-based cancer research, both in their challenging structure as well as their implications for clinical practice and health system. These lessons learned will hopefully support other researchers rigorous use of these data in the future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Eitzinger

Agricultural development projects often struggle to show impact because they lack agile and cost-effective data collection tools and approaches. Due to the lack of real-time feedback data, they are not responsive to emerging opportunities during project implementation and often miss the needs of beneficiaries. This study evaluates the application of the 5Q approach (5Q). It shows findings from analyzing more than 37,000 call log records from studies among five countries. Results show that response rate and completion status for interactive voice response (IVR) surveys vary between countries, survey types, and survey topics. The complexity of question trees, the number of question blocks in a tree, and the total call duration are relevant parameters to improve response and survey completion rate. One of the main advantages of IVR surveys is low cost and time efficiency. The total cost for operating 1,000 calls of 5 min each in five countries was 1,600 USD. To take full advantage of 5Q, questions and question-logic trees must follow the principle of keeping surveys smart and simple and aligned to the project's theory of change and research questions. Lessons learned from operating the IVR surveys in five countries show that the response rate improves through quality control of the phone contact database, using a larger pool of phone numbers to reach the desired target response rate, and using project communication channels to announce the IVR surveys. Among other things, the respondent's first impression is decisive. Thus, the introduction and the consent request largely determine the response and completion rate.


2006 ◽  
Vol 931 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sang-Joon John Lee ◽  
Emily L. Allen ◽  
Lili He

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a pilot project for a “bottom-up” approach to reform of undergraduate engineering education in nanotechnology, supported by a planning grant from the National Science Foundation (Engineering Education and Centers, Award #0431970). A core principle is to have individuals from different disciplines be the ones not only to build concise modules, but also to share them with content developers in other disciplines under a common organized framework. This bottom-up approach is an efficient way of introducing new content in existing curricula, and is especially helpful in university environments that may have no comprehensive “experts” in nanotechnology per se. Having individuals work together to develop bottom-up pieces from their own specialized fields provides a mechanism not only for curriculum enhancement but also for faculty professional development. In this work, pilot modules are developed as new content infused into existing courses in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and materials engineering at San José State University. Topics span different aspects of nanoscale materials, phenomena, devices, and manufacturing, and the content is structured in a framework such that components may be packaged as modular entities. We present pilot work accomplished in this work-in-progress, with emphasis on how lessons learned can be applied to expandability and sustainability of this bottom-up approach.


Author(s):  
Siti Mariana Ulfa

AbstractHumans on earth need social interaction with others. Humans can use more than one language in communication. Thus, the impact that arises when the use of one or more languages is the contact between languages. One obvious form of contact between languages is interference. Interference can occur at all levels of life. As in this study, namely Indonesian Language Interference in Learning PPL Basic Thailand Unhasy Students. This study contains the form of interference that occurs in Thai students who are conducting teaching practices in the classroom. This type of research is descriptive qualitative research that seeks to describe any interference that occurs in the speech of Thai students when teaching practice. Data collection methods in this study are (1) observation techniques, (2) audio-visual recording techniques using CCTV and (3) recording techniques, by recording all data that has been obtained. Whereas the data wetness uses, (1) data triangulation, (2) improvement in perseverance and (3) peer review through discussion. Data analysis techniques in this study are (1) data collection, (2) data reduction, (3) data presentation and (4) conclusions. It can be seen that the interference that occurs includes (1) interference in phonological systems, (2) interference in morphological systems and (3) interference in syntactic systems. 


Shore & Beach ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 92-101
Author(s):  
Richard Raynie ◽  
Syed Khalil ◽  
Charles Villarrubia ◽  
Ed Haywood

The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) of Louisiana was created after the devastating hurricanes of 2005 (Katrina and Rita) and is responsible for planning and implementing projects that will either reduce storm-induced losses (protection) or restore coastal ecosystems that have been lost or are in danger of being lost (restoration). The first task of the CPRA board was to develop Louisiana’s first Coastal Master Plan (CPRA 2007), which formally integrates and guides the protection and restoration of Louisiana’s coast. The System-Wide Assessment and Monitoring Program (SWAMP) was subsequently developed as a long-term monitoring program to ensure that a comprehensive network of coastal data collection activities is in place to support the planning, development, implementation, and adaptive management of the protection and restoration program and projects within coastal Louisiana. SWAMP includes both natural-system and human-system components and also incorporates the previously-developed Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS), the Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring (BICM) program, and fisheries data collected by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) in addition to other aspects of system dynamics, including offshore and inland water-body boundary conditions, water quality, risk status, and protection performance, which have historically not been the subject of CPRA-coordinated monitoring. This program further facilitates the integration of project-specific data needs into a larger, system-level design framework. Monitoring and operation of restoration and protection projects will be nested within a larger hydrologic basin-wide and coast-wide SWAMP framework and will allow informed decisions to be made with an understanding of system conditions and dynamics at multiple scales. This paper also provides an update on the implementation of various components of SWAMP in Coastal Louisiana, which began as a Barataria Basin pilot implementation program in 2015. During 2017, the second phase of SWAMP was initiated in the areas east of the Mississippi River. In 2019, development of SWAMP design was completed for the remaining basins in coastal Louisiana west of Bayou Lafourche (Figure 1). Data collection is important to inform decisions, however if the data are not properly managed or are not discoverable, they are of limited use. CPRA is committed to ensuring that information is organized and publicly available to help all coastal stakeholders make informed, science-based decisions. As a part of this effort, CPRA has re-engineered its data management system to include spatial viewers, tabular download web pages, and a library/document retrieval system along with a suite of public-facing web services providing programmatic access. This system is collectively called the Coastal Information Management System (CIMS). CPRA and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are also developing a proposal to create an interface for CIMS data to be exported to a neutral template that could then be ingested into NOAA’s Data Integration Visualization, Exploration and Reporting (DIVER) repository, and vice versa. DIVER is the repository that the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) program is using to manage NRDA-funded project data throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Linking CIMS and DIVER will make it easier to aggregate data across Gulf states and look at larger, ecosystem-level changes.


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