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

促进学生成功：在化学工程途径的大型入门课程中实施网络学习工具

• 批准号: 1928842
• 负责人: Michael Brown
• 金额: $ 29.31万
• 依托单位: Iowa State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1928842&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Catalyzing; Student; Success; Implementing; Cyberlearning

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.

在NSF改善本科STEM教育计划的支持下：教育和人力资源（IUSE：EHR），该项目旨在通过改善学生学习和保留化学工程学来满足国家利益。保留攻读化学工程学位的学生对未来的STEM劳动力至关重要，但是入门课程的缺陷是学位持久性和完成的障碍。该项目的目的是在化学工程课程的入门课程中实施网络学习工具。 预计这些工具将增加学生在课程中的成功，从而提高学生在化学工程专业的学生的保留和为劳动力或高级教育做好准备的化学工程师的毕业。该项目计划通过开发和测试以化学和化学工程为重点的在线仪表板来实现目标，该仪表板集成到大学的在线学习管理系统中。仪表板将包括可视化学生进度的徽章，是激励学习行为和寻求帮助的排行榜，并奖励以提供有关掌握关键化学或化学工程概念的掌握反馈。 该项目的结果有可能提高人们对网络学习工具如何激发化学工程课程的学生的了解。 该结果还具有有关在其他STEM领域中有效使用网络学习工具的基本知识的潜力。尽管研究显示网络学习对参与和学术成就的积极影响，但只有少量研究集中在大型入学型STEM课程上。 此外，这些研究中很少有可靠的措施来严格和系统地评估学生的行为，认知和情感变化。该项目旨在通过开发和测试学生仪表板来填补这一空白，该学生仪表板跟踪学生的成就，并激励他们使用软件来提高入门课程的表现。 仪表板的开发和测试将与三个研究人群一起进行，包括多个大型入学，本科课程，包括一般化学。开发过程将受益于严格的评估框架，包括国家专家顾问委员会，以提供有关项目进度的形成性和总结反馈。项目可交付成果包括（1）开发在线仪表板，（2）使用调查，在线数据和焦点小组对仪表板进行评估，以及（3）通过演示，出版物，网站和社交媒体传播项目成果。对学生如何理解仪表板以及仪表板在新兴的工程师身份中可能扮演的角色的定性分析，对行为成果和动机调查的定量分析将得到补充。新颖的数据收集将进行三角调查结果，以详细了解化学工程学中的学生动机和学术成就，并通过使用以化学工程为中心的在线仪表板来告知。 NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。 通过参与的学生学习轨道，该计划支持有希望的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估的评估来支持的。