Faculty Empowering Faculty: SoTL Leaders Catalyzing Institutional and Cultural Change

Faculty are increasingly interested in engaging in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) across disciplines, necessitating educational development support. While many institutions utilize one-time workshops and faculty communities offering professional development funding, the case study presented in this article takes a different approach. The aim of the Engaged Teacher-Scholar (ETS) program is to support faculty growth in a process of becoming ETS leaders across the university campus. ETS leaders advance an individual SoTL research project and are trained to develop a plan for and offer professional development events to their department, college, and university related to SoTL. The article presents an overview of the program’s objectives, organization, and outcomes over four years of implementation. The article concludes with implications for implementation at other institutions

Designing Value into Engineering Learning Through Service Activities Using a Blueprint Model

Both course-based service-learning (S-L) and extracurricular community service activities, together referred to as Learning Through Service, provide the opportunity for rich learning, personal growth, and tangible beneficial outcomes for students, community partners, and faculty. However, to fully realize this potential careful planning and design of the Learning Through Service (LTS) effort are required. This paper describes a framework with nine important elements to consider for LTS program design: (1) stakeholders, (2) value propositions, (3) relationships, (4) channels, (5) key activities, (6) resources, (7) partnerships, (8) value stream returns, and (9) value stream costs/outlays. This LTS development framework is based on the Business Canvas Model used in developing and evaluating the business viability of an innovative product or service. For LTS, the stated program design attributes were identified based on the personal LTS experience of the research team and input from additional experts. These nine elements can be effectively presented as a blueprint for an LTS program. Thoughtful planning in each of these areas will help ensure that the program goals are met and provide optimal benefits for all of the stakeholders. These elements also help to identify where management and assessment efforts are best targeted. Specific examples for each of the nine attributes from thirty-four different LTS programs are presented. Some of these LTS programs were in the planning phases and missing elements that could make the programs more meaningful, such as student reflection or engaging community partners as equals. Together, the model and examples provide guidance for others who are interested in designing a new LTS program, or improving an existing one.</div

Understanding Undergraduate Research Experiences through the Lens of Problem-based Learning: Implications for Curriculum Translation

There has been criticism about STEM education not focusing enough on problem solving, especially in authentic real-world contexts which are most often associated to ill-structured domains. To improve education, it is essential that curricula bring students to high levels of cognitive development by exposing them to authentic problems. Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy that offers a strong framework upon which to build a curriculum to teach students essential problem solving skills. An authentic problem solving experience, which is highly valued and promoted outside of the classroom, yet almost non-existent in the classroom is undergraduate research (UR). Herein, the goal was to understand the nature of UR problems and what students learn during these experiences as a means of translating UR problems and experiences into the classroom using PBL methodologies. Using survey design, data was collected from sixty students participating in summer undergraduate research experiences. Our findings revealed UR problems to be well-suited for PBL implementation in the classroom since they are moderately structured and fairly complex because they require students to use many cognitive operations, to integrate multiple domains (knowledge, skills, and attitudes), to work on interdisciplinary teams, to deal with a continuously changing environment, etc

On a Vision to Educating Students in Sustainability and Design—The James Madison University School of Engineering Approach

In order for our future engineers to be able to work toward a sustainable future, they must be versed not only in sustainable engineering but also in engineering design. An engineering education must train our future engineers to think flexibly and to be adaptive, as it is unlikely that their future will have them working in one domain. They must, instead, be versatilists. The School of Engineering at James Madison University has been developed from the ground up to provide this engineering training with an emphasis on engineering design, systems thinking, and sustainability. Neither design nor sustainability are mutually exclusive, and consequently, an education focusing on design and sustainability must integrate these topics, teaching students to follow a sustainable design process. This is the goal of the James Madison University School of Engineering. In this paper, we present our approach to curricular integration of design and sustainability as well as the pedagogical approaches used throughout the curriculum. We do not mean to present the School’s model as an all or nothing approach consisting of dependent elements, but instead as a collection of independent approaches, of which one or more may be appropriate at another university

Sustainable Construction Education using Problem-Based Learning and Service Learning Pedagogies

Incorporating the concepts of sustainable development in engineering education is becoming a necessity in order to prepare future professionals with the dynamic mindset and broad knowledge needed to effectively and efficiently solve the interdisciplinary challenges of the 21st century. To this end, utilizing the principles of active learning towards sustainable construction education leads to stronger learning outcomes and development for students. The objective is to enhance the undergraduate student skill-set that is required to make them more enabled, aligned, and supported to design, construct, and operate our infrastructure systems. In this paper, the authors provide the associated course development principles grounded in problem-based-learning (PBL) and service-learning (SL) pedagogies, course management strategy, as well as the educational and learning philosophies. To this end, the course PBL activities utilized interrelated and mutually supportive assignments and projects where the assigned problems were not created equally (i.e., varying in complexity and structuredness). Through the evolution of problem-based course activities, the students were engaged in a service-based assignment in relation to the LEED certification process for a new on-campus building. Also, the associated student work was shared with the project developers for potential usage, and resulted in a peer-reviewed journal paper that is forthcoming in the Journal of Management in Engineering. The results and analysis associated with this study were comprised of PBL activity characterization, instructor evaluation of student performance, and student self-reflections of the course. The results suggest that even with increased complexity of PBL activities, students\u27 performance increased throughout the semester. Although arriving with some resistance, students ultimately took ownership of the entire educational experience and completed a final open-ended, complex, and authentic service learning activity. Through engaging students in discussions and guiding their reflections on scientific material, instructors are regarded as facilitators and collaborators rather than sources of authority. This paper provides an example that could be followed by other engineering faculty in setting and planning big goals for engineering students

On a Vision to Educating Students in Sustainability and Design—The James Madison University School of Engineering Approach

In order for our future engineers to be able to work toward a sustainable future, they must be versed not only in sustainable engineering but also in engineering design. An engineering education must train our future engineers to think flexibly and to be adaptive, as it is unlikely that their future will have them working in one domain. They must, instead, be versatilists. The School of Engineering at James Madison University has been developed from the ground up to provide this engineering training with an emphasis on engineering design, systems thinking, and sustainability. Neither design nor sustainability are mutually exclusive, and consequently, an education focusing on design and sustainability must integrate these topics, teaching students to follow a sustainable design process. This is the goal of the James Madison University School of Engineering. In this paper, we present our approach to curricular integration of design and sustainability as well as the pedagogical approaches used throughout the curriculum. We do not mean to present the School’s model as an all or nothing approach consisting of dependent elements, but instead as a collection of independent approaches, of which one or more may be appropriate at another university.sustainable design process; engineering education; curriculum development; pedagogy; sustainable values; individual behavior

The Reflective Learner: Perspectives of Engineering Faculty Engaged In Learning through Service

Over the past decade, Learning through Service (LTS) has proliferated in higher education as an effective teaching and learning method.&nbsp; LTS is an umbrella term that includes both curricular and extracurricular activities, recognizing that there are many models that exist currently for how faculty members use opportunities for students to learn while providing service to a community.&nbsp; Reflection by the students on their service activity provides rich opportunities for students to add meaning to their learning through engagement with community.&nbsp; While, many colleges and universities in the United States have increased the use of LTS in engineering programs, there has been limited study to evaluate engineering faculty perception of the purpose of reflection in support of facilitating and assessing the expected learning outcomes.&nbsp; In this research, twenty-six interviews were conducted with engineering LTS practitioners to explore how and why engineering faculty incorporate reflection in LTS efforts.&nbsp; The findings reveal that majority of engineering LTS faculty practitioners engage students in reflection to enhance the professional development skills of their students, with fewer of the faculty using reflection to develop students&rsquo; personal skills.</div