Collaborative Research: Workshops to Develop a Community-Informed Framework Characterizing the Impact of Engineering Education R&D

该项目的目标是广泛和全面地定义工程教育研究背景下的影响，使研究结果能够更有效地用于未来工程师的教育。通过这样做，该项目将增加NSF在工程教育研究方面的先前和未来投资的影响。研究人员和教育工作者将共同努力，就工程教育研究如何影响教育实践形成共同的理解和语言。这将使他们能够有效地向不同的受众阐明其工作的影响，并更仔细地规划其今后工作的广泛影响。研究结果将为未来研究更好的指标和措施提供基础，以评估项目层面和跨资助计划的影响，以及对当前工程计划的直接影响。该项目正在与全球工程教育界合作，为工程教育领域创建一个有效的研究影响框架，该框架包括研究人员和从业者对影响的看法；并描述实践者对研究在工程教育实践中的作用的见解。在问责制日益加强的环境中，工程教育研究人员被要求定期确定其工作的实际影响。不幸的是，工程教育内外缺乏关于如何描述研究影响的学术研究。工程教育研究人员和实践者对该领域的研究影响的共同理解有助于就工程教育研究如何影响实践进行对话。本研究产生的工程教育研究影响框架将广泛借鉴实践者和研究人员的观点，以及其他学科（包括健康科学和一般科学）开发的现有研究影响框架。因此，它将与广泛的工程教育、研究和实践活动密切相关。研讨会、面试和招聘程序确保广泛的利益相关者和专家的观点得到体现。实现项目目标的方法学方法采用了一种工具开发程序，用于框架的开发和验证，并将作为影响评估后续研究的基础。由于本项目旨在广泛而全面地定义工程教育研究背景下的影响，因此最终的定义将超越深奥的科学影响，如期刊和学术团体，而关注工程教育和相关研究的社会影响。研讨会让大量的社区成员参与到开发中，这积极地影响了意识、质量、可用性/适用性的健壮性、传播、购买，并帮助在社区中围绕影响达成共识。额外的努力和访谈将确保在最终的框架中代表从业者的观点，即使这些团体不参加工程教育会议。这项工作也可能会对其他工程学科和NSF产生更广泛的影响。

The goal of this project is to broadly and comprehensively define impact in the context of engineering education research, allowing the results of that research to be used more effectively in the education of future engineers. By doing so this project will increase the impact of NSF's prior and future investments in engineering education research. Researchers and educators will work together to develop a shared understanding and language around how engineering education research can influence educational practice. This will enable them to effectively articulate the impact of their work to diverse audiences and more carefully plan broad impacts for their future work. The results will provide a basis for future studies on better indicators and measures for assessing impact at the project level and across funding programs as well as directly impact current engineering programs.This project is engaging the global engineering education community in creating a valid research impact framework for the field of engineering education that is inclusive of researchers and practitioners' perspectives on impact; and describing practitioners' insights on the role of research in engineering education practice. In an environment of increased accountability, engineering education researchers are being asked to identify the tangible impacts of their work on a regular basis. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of scholarship within and beyond engineering education on how to characterize the impact of research. A shared understanding among engineering education researchers and practitioners of what research impact looks like for this field lends itself to conversations on how engineering education research can influence practice. The engineering education research impact framework resulting from this study will draw broadly upon the perspectives of practitioners and researchers as well as existing research impact frameworks developed by other disciplines, including health sciences and science in general. As such, it will be robustly relevant across a wide range of engineering education research and practice activities. Workshops, interviews and recruitment procedures ensure representation of perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders and experts. The methodological approach to achieving the project goal adapts an instrument development procedure for framework development and validation, and will serve as the basis for a follow up study of an impact assessment. Because this project seeks to broadly and comprehensively define impact in the context of engineering education research, the resulting definition will extend beyond esoteric scientific impacts such as journals and academic communities to focus on the social impacts of engineering education and related research. Workshops engage a large number of community members in development, which positively impacts awareness, quality, robustness of usability/applicability, dissemination, buy in, and helps develop consensus in the community around impact. Additional efforts and interviews will ensure representation of practitioner perspectives in the resulting framework, even if these groups do not attend the engineering education conferences. This work may also inform initiatives around broader impacts in other engineering disciplines and across NSF.