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。虽然有许多成功的努力，个人和小团体，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表明，大规模课程改革的障碍之一是了解如何认证创新的教育实践，特别是那些不在传统的以讲座为导向的课堂上进行的实践。资格认证是学生寻找优质教育课程以及雇主寻找优质毕业生的重要标志。本研究使用工程学位课程的真实的经验，在他们的课程创新，以了解他们如何导航的认证过程。这项工作的影响是确定途径，将使用资格认证作为更好的工程教育的障碍，转变为获得更多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，早期的数据收集的这个团队表明，认证是一个关键，虽然往往被误解或没有明确承认，障碍真实的，可持续发展的工程教育实践。跨实施级别的沟通（例如，课程，课程，大学认证）和他们的研究实践周期并不简单，即使有必要在工程教育中产生可持续的变化。因此，本研究的目标是回答：存在什么差距，我们如何弥合创新的课程/教学计划和资格认证的机构，联邦，和认证水平？第1年和第2年的数据收集和分析将使团队能够探索和描述认证在可持续工程教育变革中的作用。研究小组和咨询委员会将探讨如何扩大研究到实践的周期，以便包括大学一级的基础设施。该小组将通过包括教师、行政人员和工作人员在内的实施讲习班以及通过传统的出版物和会议广泛传播成果。这项工作将：1）从多个角度探索认证在可持续工程课程变革中的作用，包括教师，学术管理人员，注册和财政援助人员，认证人员等; 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;以及3）编制和传播材料，向变革推动者提供信息，使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型，大学变革代理人的材料，以帮助他们浏览认证过程，并增加了对如何支持和维持工程教育长期变革的理解。

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.