Collaborative Research: An Innovative Instructional Strategy for Widespread Dissemination of Electric Energy Systems Curriculum as a Model in STEM Education

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Engineering - Electrical (55) The project, a collaboration effort between the University of Minnesota and Northern Arizona University, is developing a forward-looking easily implemented curriculum in electric energy systems. To accomplish this, the investigators are developing and assessing a learner-centered, web-enabled strategy that allows students to learn content online and work face-to-face with other students and faculty on real-world energy related problems that foster critical thinking through active engagement. They also are developing faculty expertise through sustainable online curricular content and connections with resource faculty to support implementation in smaller programs with limited faculty resources. The project builds upon prior work funded by NSF and other agencies that has successfully revised the curricular content of power engineering courses in nearly 100 schools nationwide. To sustain and expand this success, the current project is focusing on innovative pedagogy and the need for faculty development. The evaluation effort, under the leadership of an experienced evaluator, is using indirect assessments (e. g., student surveys and faculty interviews), direct assessment of student products using rubrics, and observation of class activities. The project team is disseminating their material and pedagogical approach through a website repository, through regularly scheduled Internet-based video conferences between new and resource faculty, through a series of on-going faculty workshops funded by ONR, through a workshop for engineering deans to promote the approach as a model for other areas, and through papers and presentation. Broader impacts include extensive faculty development efforts, wide dissemination of their material and methods, and their effort to promote the approach as a model for curriculum reform in other areas.