Catalyzing Student Success: Implementing Cyberlearning Tools in Large Introductory Courses in the Chemical Engineering Pathway

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With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE:EHR), this project aims to serve the national interest by improving student learning and retention in chemical engineering. Retention of students pursuing chemical engineering degrees is essential to the future STEM workforce, but deficiencies in introductory coursework are a barrier to degree persistence and completion. The objective of this project is to implement cyberlearning tools in introductory courses in the chemical engineering curriculum. It is expected that these tools will increase student success in the courses, thus improving retention of students in the chemical engineering major and graduation of chemical engineers who are prepared for the workforce or advanced education. The project plans to achieve the objective by developing and testing a chemistry- and chemical engineering-focused online dashboard that is integrated into the University's online learning management system. The dashboard will include badges to visualize student progress in the course, a leaderboard to motivate study behavior and help-seeking, and rewards to provide immediate feedback about mastery of key chemistry or chemical engineering concepts. The results from this project have the potential to increase understanding about how cyberlearning tools can motivate students in chemical engineering coursework. The results also have the potential to provide foundational knowledge about effective use of cyberlearning tools in other STEM fields.Despite research showing positive impact of cyberlearning on engagement and academic achievement, only a small number of studies have focused on large enrollment STEM courses. In addition, few of these studies incorporate robust measures to rigorously and systematically assess students' behavioral, cognitive, and affective changes. This project aims to fill this gap by developing and testing a student dashboard that tracks student accomplishments and motivates them to use the software to improve their performance in introductory courses. Dashboard development and testing will occur with three study cohorts of students in multiple, large enrollment, undergraduate courses, including general chemistry. The development process will benefit from a rigorous evaluation framework, including an advisory board of national experts, to provide formative and summative feedback on the project progress. Project deliverables include (1) development of an online dashboard, (2) evaluation of the dashboard using surveys, online data, and focus groups, and (3) dissemination of project outcomes through presentations, publications, a website, and social media. The quantitative analysis of behavioral outcomes and motivational surveys will be complemented by a qualitative analysis of how students made sense of the dashboard and what role the dashboard may have played in their emerging identities as engineers. The novel data collection will triangulate findings to offer a detailed understanding about how student motivation and academic achievement in chemical engineering interact and are informed by the use of a chemical engineering-focused online dashboard. The NSF IUSE:EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.