ABSTRACT
How does online learning at a residential college impact community building? During the Covid-19 pandemic, qualitative focus group interview data were collected at a large mid-Atlantic university with each undergraduate engineering student cohort. Students adapted relationships with peers and professors to respond to the ongoing dynamic conditions of collegiate and regional Covid-19 requirements and experiences. This qualitative research study investigates the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on the community and relational aspects of an undergraduate making and engineering design centered engineering program in the United States. The qualitative data illustrate trends in inner-cohort relationships, qualities of the engineering department, and how students developed and maintained relationships throughout the pandemic. This paper offers implications and strategies for building and maintaining community in learning environments that are experiencing rapid and dynamic shifts. The themes and patterns can provide unique insight into the aspects of community important to students' lived experiences during the portion of the pandemic when online and hybrid learning were most prevalent. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022
ABSTRACT
Present-day higher education institutions offering undergraduate engineering programs need to prepare their students for a world filled with complex global challenges. Such preparation requires the acquisition of multidisciplinary knowledge and the application of multidisciplinary methodologies. A pilot initiative was launched in Fall 2017 for an elective three-year (sophomore to senior year) cross-departmental multi-disciplinary undergraduate engineering program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) named New Engineering Education Transformation (NEET). The program has three cross-departmental pathways across STEM disciplines and technical domains. The program has completed its fourth year of operation and has grown to become the fourth-largest undergraduate academic cohort at MIT. This paper is divided into two parts: the first part describes the revision of program requirements and their implementation during Fall 2019-Fall 2020. The second part describes the launching of a new single-themed program titled Climate & Sustainability Systems, which took place and was implemented during Summer-Fall 2021. Both initiatives responded to issues and changing circumstances raised by students, faculty, and instructional staff, with the aim of affording students more flexibility, reducing the additional workload beyond their chosen majors, enhancing their educational experience, and increasing their engagement with the program-wide community. In January 2020, following feedback collected from MIT students, faculty, instructional staff, and senior administration, we began a systematic process of reviewing the program's academic requirements. Data collected includes student questionnaires and specifications of program requirements throughout the study period. The revised requirements were published toward the end of the Spring 2020 semester, serendipitously around the same time as the COVID-19 mandated university-wide pivot from in-person on-campus teaching to emergency remote teaching and were implemented in Fall 2020. Since the publication of these new requirements, enrollment in the program has increased substantially year-on-year across all program threads. Subsequent data collection during Spring 2020 and Spring 2021 showed that word-of-mouth about the program has grown stronger, with 'current students' and 'other first-years' being two of the most-cited sources as to how first-years get to know about NEET. This paper explains the impetus for changing the program requirements, describes how the new requirements were formulated and implemented, and outlines what we have learned from implementing the revised requirements. We also describe how we collaborated with various stakeholders in the planning, design, and implementation of the revised requirements. For the second part of the paper, we describe how we launched a new climate and sustainability pathway based on our three-year experience of introducing pathways connected to energy, manufacturing ands materials, and sustainable development of cities, and on the growing interest amongst students in combating climate change in a sustainable manner. We describe how the process of consolidation was planned out and designed, how we collaborated with various stakeholders and how initial implementation has undergone. It should be emphasized that the approach we have taken here is largely qualitative and based primarily on how students and other key stakeholders responded to, engaged with the NEET program, and helped to evolve it. NEET leadership commissioned a systematic programmatic evaluation starting from Spring 2021, and we will be guided by their assessment of the changes as we look to the future. This paper is intended for institutional leadership, departmental leadership, faculty, and academic staff seized by the need to create and implement relevant and engaging cross-departmental multi-disciplinary undergraduate engineering programs. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
ABSTRACT
Engineering curricula across the United States seek to develop well-rounded engineers with the ability to solve real problems upon graduation. To that end, capstone/senior design classes are present in most if not all ABET accredited undergraduate engineering programs. As the goal is to expose students to the tools they will need to solve actual problems, these classes are centered around team projects in a laboratory setting, with some lecture delivery in a supporting function. Physical distancing rules, as well as reduced/remote access of laboratories and equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, posed significant challenges to the continued delivery and greatly hindered achievement of the stated educational outcomes of these classes. A southwestern institution developed new and creative strategies to address these challenges while continuing to operate under these constraints. Some were temporary, while others led to discoveries that modified the class delivery in the long term thus benefiting both students and instructors. In this paper we will describe the challenges we faced and the solutions we came up within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, as well as the student reaction to the COVID-19 laboratory experience. The learnings from the affected 2019 - 2021 capstones provide an opportunity to both apply methods to normal, post-pandemic instruction and to be prepared for potential future interruption of capstone team-based laboratories. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
ABSTRACT
For several years Engineering Unleashed has provided in-person faculty development events focused on expanding an entrepreneurial mindset in undergraduate engineering programs. During Spring 2020, it was decided that ten faculty development workshops scheduled to be in-person multiple-day summer workshops would be delivered in a virtual format due to COVID-19. Workshop teams of facilitators and coaches structured the pivot to remote learning effectively and efficiently, reflecting the entrepreneurial mindset that infuses the workshops. The pandemic created an opportunity to build community and connections using new tools. In this paper we share how the workshop teams of 47 facilitators and coaches restructured their workshops, creating value for the 229 faculty members participating. The approaches developed and lessons learned during this shift are outlined to provide a template for other groups offering remote faculty development programs. We discuss the importance of continuous feedback for improvement and of significant communications between facilitators and coaches. Surveys of faculty participants indicated that learning objectives were met by the remote workshops. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021