Understanding the Role of Credentialing in Promoting and Sustaining Innovative Engineering Practices

工程师的教育方式必须随着世界环境和技术的发展而不断发展。虽然个人和小团体有许多成功的努力，但大规模的课程改革是保持这些成功的关键。该团队收集和分析的早期数据显示，大规模课程改革的障碍之一是理解如何证明创新教育做法，特别是那些不发生在传统的、以讲授为导向的课堂上的做法。对于寻求高质量教育项目的学生和寻找高质量毕业生的雇主来说，资格认证是一个重要标志。这项研究使用在整个课程中具有创新性的工程学学位课程的真实经历来了解他们是如何通过资格认证过程的。这项工作的影响是确定如何将文凭的使用作为更好的工程教育的障碍，转化为让更多的工程项目进行大规模创新的杠杆。即使工程课程的变化是系统性的，该团队收集的早期数据也表明，证书是工程教育实践真正、可持续改进的关键障碍，尽管往往被误解或没有明确承认。在实施层面(如课程、课程、大学证书)及其研究到实践周期之间的沟通并不直接，尽管这对于在工程教育中产生可持续变化是必要的。因此，这项研究的目标是回答：存在哪些差距，以及我们如何在机构、联邦和认证层面上弥合创新的课程/教学举措和资格认证？第一年和第二年的数据收集和分析将使团队能够探索和描述证书在可持续工程教育变革中所起的作用。研究团队和咨询委员会将讨论如何扩大研究到实践的周期，以便将大学一级的基础设施包括在内。该小组将通过包括教职员工、行政人员和工作人员在内的执行讲习班以及通过传统出版物和会议广泛传播成果。这项工作将：1)从多个角度探讨认证在可持续工程课程改革中的作用，包括教师、学术管理人员、注册和财务援助人员、认证人员和其他人；2)将研究扩展到实践周期，包括研究和实践发生的基础设施；3)开发和传播材料，为变革推动者提供信息，以便他们能够提高认证工作的效率。该项目的成果包括：一个认识到工程教育创新的潜在基础设施障碍的变革模式，为大学变革推动者提供了帮助他们驾驭资格认证过程的材料，以及增加了对如何支持和维持工程教育的长期变革的理解。

The way engineers are educated must constantly evolve as the world context and the technologies evolve. While there are many successful efforts by individuals and small groups, large-scale curricular changes are key to maintaining these successes. Earlier data collected and analyzed by this team shows that one of the barriers to large-scale curricular change is understanding how to credential innovative educational practices, particularly those practices that do not take place in a traditional, lecture-oriented classroom. Credentialing is an important mark for students looking for quality education programs as well as employers looking for quality graduates. This study uses the real experiences of engineering degree programs that are innovative across their curriculum to learn how they navigated the credentialing processes. The impact of the work is to determine pathways to turn the use of credentialing as a barrier to better engineering education into a lever for getting more engineering programs to make large-scale innovations. Even when engineering curricular changes are systemic, earlier data collected by this team shows that credentialing is a key, though often misunderstood or not explicitly acknowledged, barrier to real, sustainable improvement to engineering education practice. Communication across implementation levels (e.g., course, curriculum, university credentialing) and their research to practice cycles is not straightforward, even though it is necessary to produce sustainable change in engineering education. Therefore, the goal of this research is to answer: What gaps exist and how do we bridge innovative curricular/pedagogical initiatives and credentialing at the institutional, federal, and accreditation levels? Data collection and analysis in years 1 and 2 will allow the team to explore and describe the role credentialing plays in sustainable engineering education change. The research team and advisory board will address ways to expand the research-to-practice cycle so that university-level infrastructure is included. The team will broadly disseminate the results via Implementation Workshops that will include faculty, administrators and staff, as well as through traditional publications and conferences. This work will: 1) Explore the role credentialing plays in sustainable engineering curricular change from multiple viewpoints, including faculty, academic administrators, registrar and financial aid staff, accreditors, and others; 2) Expand the research to practice cycle to include the infrastructure within which both the research and the practice occur; and 3) Develop and disseminate materials to inform change agents so they can increase the efficacy of their credentialing efforts. The results of the project include: a model of change that recognizes the potential infrastructure barriers to innovation in engineering education, materials for university change agents to help them navigate the credentialing process, and increased understanding of how to support and sustain long term change in engineering education.