Work in Progress: Progress of the NSF RED Revolution

The National Science Foundation (NSF) REvolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments (RED) program is an important initiative in engineering education. The goals of RED are to “enable engineering and computer science departments to lead the nation by successfully achieving significant sustainable changes necessary to overcome longstanding issues in their undergraduate programs and educate inclusive communities of engineering and computer science students prepared to solve 21st-century challenges.” In 2015, six RED projects were funded followed by seven in 2016 and six more in 2017, bringing the total number of projects to 19. In addition, NSF funded REDPAR (RED Participatory Action Research), the collaborative effort between researchers at Rose-Hulman and the University of Washington to facilitate communication and collaboration among the RED teams and to study the processes followed by RED teams. This work in progress provides a brief overview of the program and current progress of some projects. We highlight the diversity of current RED projects through updates from eight projects across the three cohorts: four from Cohort 1: Arizona State University, Colorado State University, Oregon State University, and the University of San Diego, three from Cohort 2: Boise State University, Rowan University, Virginia Tech, and one from Cohort 3: Georgia Tech. Updates are also included from the REDPAR team about the RED Consortium (REDCON) and research that crosses the consortium. We hope that this paper will help the engineering education community to learn how these projects are changing the landscape of engineering education in the USA and consider approaches for enacting change on other campuses

Towards an industry-collaborative, reflective software learning and development environment

A significant mismatch (88%) has been found between what employers and graduates perceived as important abilities and how universities had prepared graduates for employment. Conventional Teaching and Learning approaches fall short of providing the kind of learning experiences needed to prepare graduates for the realities of professional practice in industry. On the other hand, current students have very different learning styles than their forebears. Their learning preferences are experiential, working in teams, and using technology for learning. One solution to address this mismatch issue is the software development studio. Our aim is to provide an industry-collaborative, reflective learning environment that will effect the students development of holistic skills, such as teamwork, collaboration and communication, together with technical skills, in a discipline context. This paper further describes the design and validation via prototyping for our software development studio, the progress that we have made so far, and presents the preliminary insights gleaned from our studio prototyping. The prototypes raised issues of attitudinal change, communication, reflection, sharing, mentoring, use of process, `doing time, relationships and innovation

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research

Talking About a Revolution: Overview of NSF RED Projects

A significant initiative in engineering education in the U.S. began in 2014 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) initiated the IUSE/PFE: REvolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments (IUSE/PFE: RED) program. The goals of IUSE/PFE: RED (hereinafter referred to as RED) are to “enable engineering and computer science departments to lead the nation by successfully achieving significant sustainable changes necessary to overcome longstanding issues in their undergraduate programs and educate inclusive communities of engineering and computer science students prepared to solve 21st-century challenges.” In 2015, six RED projects were funded followed by seven more in 2016. In addition, NSF funded researchers at Rose-Hulman and the University of Washington (called Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments Participatory Action Research REDPAR) to facilitate communication and collaboration among the RED teams and to study the processes followed by RED teams. Overviews of funded RED projects and the collaborative projects across teams are included here. In the conference session, a former RED program officer will introduce the RED program. Then seven RED teams (ASU, Purdue, Oregon State, USD, Colorado State, Iowa State, and Boise State) and the REDPAR team will present highlights from their projects. Session attendees will then engage with RED team members in an interactive format to learn more about the projects, gain insight into how they might prepare their own future RED proposals, see how these projects are changing the landscape of engineering education across the U.S., and consider approaches for applying lessons to their own institutions to enact change

Using Studio-Based Learning for Enhancing EFL Preservice Teachers’ Pedagogical Knowledge and Investigating the Effect on their Pedagogical Content Knowledge

This research utilized a studio-based learning classroom to enhance students/teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and investigated the effect of this treatment on their pedagogical content knowledge. Participants of the research were pre-tested and divided into an experimental group (n=38) and a control group (n=38). The research employed a pre/post pedagogical knowledge test and an analytic pedagogical content knowledge rubric. The experiment lasted for 2 months during which the experimental group members were trained in a collaborative studio classroom on classroom management and lesson planning. Traditional lectures on the same topics were delivered to the control group. Upon the completion of the experiment, the participants were post-tested. When statistical analysis was done, it was found that a significant difference existed between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups on the post- administration of both the test and the rubric. Moreover, the proposed studio-based learning classroom was found to be of a large effect size on enhancing the pedagogical knowledge of the targeted topics of the experimental group. So, it was concluded that it had a greater effect size in enhancing the targeted pedagogical knowledge topics for the experimental group than the traditional lecturing for the control group. It seemed also that a positive correlation existed between enhancing students/teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and developing their pedagogical content knowledge. So, the research recommended that: (1) As students’ pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge are not less important than their content knowledge, they should be given more attention in Egyptian EFL faculties of education. (2) Developing EFL prospective teachers' pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge via studio-based learning is worthwhile and requires more investigation. Keywords: Pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, studio-based learning, EFL students/teachers’ preparation

The use of technology to facilitate teaching and learning in studio-based spaces in the aftermath of COVID-19

Education technology has become increasingly important in South African higher education institutions. However, the efficacy of these technological innovations has not been unanimously acknowledged in the departments of Applied Design and Multimedia at CPUT. Lecturers and students have experienced difficulty in integrating education technology systems into all facets of studio-based learning. Aim: This study investigated the role of education technology tools in arts education and the extent, to which learning management systems (LMSs), such as Blackboard, are used in studio-based teaching and learning environments at CPUT. Methods: Owing to the exploratory nature of this study, the researcher adopted a qualitative approach in the form of a multiple case study as the study’s research design. Data analysis was used to analyse the data that was obtained from the interviews and relevant supporting documents. Results: The findings revealed that several lecturers were reluctant to make extensive use of education technology systems due to their perceptions of the primacy of traditional face-to-face teaching methods. Implications: The findings may provide vital information for education technologists, policy makers, and curriculum and instructional designers looking to benefit from education technology in the current fourth industrial revolution. Recommendation: The study recommends extensive use of education technology tools in discipline-specific settings, such as studio-based spaces, and close collaboration between lecturers and instructional designers when developing education technology systems for studio-based courses. The study also concluded that the e-learning system, used at the time of the study, needed to be optimally designed to meet the needs of studio-based disciplines. It is highly likely, that failure to do so would preclude the possibility of successfully integrating future technological innovations into studio-based teaching and learning environments in the post-COVID-19 era and a debilitating failure to prepare students to work in technologically advanced environments would be an inevitable consequence

Architectural design communication (ADC) in online education during COVID-19 pandemic: a comparison of Turkish and Spanish universities

[EN] Purpose The paper aims to examine the concept of architectural design communication (ADC) for updating design studio dynamics in architectural education during the Covid-19 pandemic. Within this perspective, the changing and transforming contents of architectural education, the thinking, representation and production mediums are examined through the determined components of ADC. There are five components in the study, which are (1) Effective Language Use, (2) Effective use of Handcrafts, (3) Effective Technical Drawing Knowledge, (4) Effective Architectural Software Knowledge and (5) Outputs. Design/methodology/approach The research method is based on qualitative and quantitative methods; a survey study is applied and the comparative results are evaluated with the path analysis method. The students in the Department of Architecture of two universities have been selected as the target audience. Case study 1 survey is applied to Altinbas University (AU) and Case study 2 survey is applied to Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) students during the COVID-19 pandemic; '19-'20 spring term, online education. Findings As a result, two-path analysis diagrams are produced for two universities, and a comparative analysis is presented to reveal the relationships of the selected ADC components. Originality/value This paper fulfills an identified need to study how ADC can be developed in online education platforms.Akçay Kavakoglu, A.; Guleç Ozer, D.; Domingo Calabuig, D.; Bilen, O. (2022). Architectural design communication (ADC) in online education during COVID-19 pandemic: a comparison of Turkish and Spanish universities. Open House International. 47(2):361-384. https://doi.org/10.1108/OHI-07-2021-014436138447

A Learning Trajectory for Developing Computational Thinking and Programming

A learning trajectory for developing computational thinking and programming This research study identifies the relationship between students’ prior experiences with programming and their development of computational thinking and programming during their first year engineering experience. Many first year programs teach students basic programming constructs using languages like MATLAB or LABView. The reason for this is because the disciplinary schools expect students to transform the constitutive properties that model a system’s behavior into a computer model they can use to analyze a system’s performance. Some undergraduate engineering students are entering college with strong computational backgrounds, while others are not. Peer learning has been used to accommodate the variance is skills between students; however, more needs to be known about the opportunities and issues with helping students develop these skills. This study is the first in a series to better identify students’ transition into developing and reasoning with analytical tools. The initial conjecture is that well balanced teams of novice and expert programmers can have a positive effect on the novice programmer’s development. Further the learning progression across two programming languages is critical to developing a student’s ability to generalize across various computational tools. Self-report background survey, students’ performance on academic assessments and an end of semester exit survey are being analyzed to identify a pattern in the development of novice programmers’ ability to design algorithms and implement them in code. This paper will be of interest to instructors with the objective of developing computational thinking and programming in classrooms with a large variance in students’ backgrounds with programming