Collaborative Research: Scaling Undergraduate STEM Transformation and Institutional Networks for Engaged Dissemination (SUSTAINED)

该项目旨在促进高等教育机构STEM部门越来越多地使用STEM学习助理，并改进这种方法的实施。学习助理（LAs）是有才华、训练有素的STEM本科生，由大学和两年制学院的STEM教师雇用，帮助将课程转变为基于证据的方法，并帮助入学学生充分利用主动学习方法。在过去的几年里，学习助手的模式已经迅速推广到实践中。为了应对不断增长的使用和援助请求，创建LA模式的团队最近建立了一个国际学习助理联盟——一个由88个机构组成的合作网络，这些机构使用学习助理来促进数学、科学和工程课程的教育转型。洛杉矶联盟的成员还与有兴趣开发和使用改进的结果衡量标准的同行机构进行合作研究。项目资源支持基于网络的过程的开发和实施，以传播基于研究的LA教学实践，包括为新用户提供资源和信息的数据库，这将有助于有效实施LA模型。项目资源还支持一项大规模的研究，研究使用LA模式注册课程的5万多名本科生的学习成果和保留率。在该奖项提供的初步支持下，洛杉矶联盟正在制定一个管理结构和一个在赠款之后的几年里可持续资助的计划。学习助理模型是本科STEM教育中的社会和结构组织模型，它与Peter Senge关于学习型组织的工作以及Jean Lave和Etienne Wenger关于实践社区的工作相关并建立在此基础上。这是一种支持越来越多地使用循证教学策略的方法。然而，这不是一种具体的教学策略，而是一种培训和使用高级本科生作为课程助理以及教师和参加STEM课程的学生之间的联络人的方法。建立在模型中的基本期望是，参与机构正在努力改变本科课程的教学方式，并研究这些变化的有效性。

This project is facilitating the growing use of STEM Learning Assistants in STEM departments in institutions of higher education and improving implementations of this approach. Learning Assistants (LAs) are talented highly-trained STEM undergraduates who are hired by university and two-year college STEM instructors to help transform courses to evidence-based approaches and assist enrolled students to get the full impact of active learning methods. The Learning Assistant model has spread rapidly into practice in the last few years. In response to growing use and requests for assistance, the team that created the LA model has recently developed an international Learning Assistant Alliance - a collaborative network of 88 institutions that use Learning Assistants to catalyze education transformation in mathematics, science, and engineering courses. Members of the LA Alliance also engage in collaborative research with peer institutions interested in developing and using improved outcome measures. Project resources are supporting the development and implementation of a web-based process for disseminating research-based LA instructional practices, including a database to provide resources and information for new users that will contribute to the efficient implementation of the LA model. Project resources are also supporting a large-scale research study of the learning outcomes and retention of over 50,000 undergraduates who have enrolled in courses using the LA model. With the initial support provided in this award, the LA Alliance is developing a governing structure and a plan for sustainable funding in years beyond the grant.The Learning Assistant model is a model for social and structural organization in undergraduate STEM education that is related to and builds on the work of Peter Senge on learning organizations and on the work of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger on communities of practice. It is an approach to supporting the growing use of evidence-based instructional strategies. However, it is not a specific instructional strategy but rather a method of training and using advanced undergraduate students as course assistants and liaisons between instructors and students enrolled in a STEM course. Built into the model is the baseline expectation that participating institutions are working to bring about change in the way undergraduate courses are taught and to study the effectiveness of these changes.