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。虽然个人和小团体做出了许多成功的努力，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表明，大规模课程改革的障碍之一是理解如何认证创新的教育实践，特别是那些在传统的、以讲座为导向的课堂上没有发生的实践。学历是学生寻找优质教育项目和用人单位寻找优质毕业生的重要标志。本研究利用工程学位课程的真实经验，在他们的课程创新，了解他们如何导航的认证过程。这项工作的影响是确定了将证书的使用作为更好的工程教育的障碍转变为使更多的工程项目进行大规模创新的杠杆的途径。即使工程课程的变化是系统性的，该团队收集的早期数据表明，资格认证是一个关键，尽管经常被误解或没有明确承认，阻碍了工程教育实践的真正、可持续的改进。跨实施层面（例如，课程、课程设置、大学证书）的沟通和他们的研究到实践周期并不简单，即使它对工程教育产生可持续的变化是必要的。因此，本研究的目标是回答：存在哪些差距，以及我们如何在机构、联邦和认证级别的创新课程/教学举措和认证之间架起桥梁？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资格认证在可持续工程教育变革中的作用。研究小组和顾问委员会将讨论如何扩大从研究到实践的循环，以便将大学水平的基础设施包括在内。该小组将通过包括教员、行政人员和工作人员在内的实施讲习班以及通过传统出版物和会议广泛传播结果。这项工作将：1)从多个角度探讨资格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、认证机构等；2)扩大研究到实践的周期，包括研究和实践发生的基础设施；3)开发和传播材料，以告知变革推动者，使他们能够提高其认证工作的效率。该项目的结果包括：一个识别工程教育创新的潜在基础设施障碍的变化模型，大学变化代理人的材料，以帮助他们导航认证过程，以及增加对如何支持和维持工程教育长期变化的理解。

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.