Design and Development: NSF Engineering Research Centers Unite: Developing and Testing a Suite of Instruments to Enhance Overall Education Program Evaluation

NSF工程研究中心联合项目旨在开发和测试一套全面的工具，旨在加强对NSF资助的工程研究中心(ERC)提供的教育和多样性项目的评估。ERC教育和多样化规划，包括与本科生、研究生和博士后学者的学年活动，以及为本科生、高中生、K-12教师和社区大学教师提供的暑期项目，是一种从中心活动传播新兴知识的机制。至关重要的是，对这些大型、多机构中心提供的项目进行有效性评估，以确保其影响超出ERC技术研究。由此产生的一套工具，加上一个评估器工具箱，将填补现有的空白，并允许中心以以前不可能的方式进行合作。这个项目由亚利桑那州立大学Tri-ERC教育联盟(TEEC)领导，该联盟由教育领袖、研究人员和评估者组成，与目前资助的三个ERCs相关-生物中介和生物启发岩土技术中心(CBBG)、纳米水处理纳米系统中心(NENT)和量子能源和可持续太阳能技术中心(QESST)。该小组要实现的目标包括：1)确定目前得到资助的应急中心的评价需求，2)创建一套评价工具，3)创建评价人员工具箱，4)广泛提供我们的资源。我们将创建量化(例如调查)和定性(例如访谈、焦点小组和实验室观察方案)措施，以了解当前ERC的需求和观点。这些工具将在技术、经济、经济和文化权利委员会和其他已表示有兴趣使用该套工具的参与的权利和责任委员会进行实地测试。这些工具将附带一个评价者工具箱，旨在支持和指导评价者使用这些工具。这些资源将成为围绕评估创建ERC实践社区的一种双重手段。由此产生的资源将通过目前使用的电子资源中心网站/中心广泛提供。此外，量化的多ERC仪器(MERCI)将转换为在线ERC评估系统，评估者可以轻松访问。拟议的制度将具体简化量化评价，这将使中心评价人员在选择定性评价方法方面具有更大的灵活性和创造性。许多资源中心采用这些共享资源，将为跨资源中心的比较提供前所未有的机会。这些发现将对ERC评估其教育和多样性规划的方式产生重大影响，并提供了一套潜在的工具，用于有效地评估任何提供类似教育和多样性规划的大型中心。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The NSF Engineering Research Centers Unite project aims to develop and test a comprehensive set of instruments designed to enhance the evaluation of education and diversity programs offered by NSF-funded Engineering Research Centers (ERC). ERC education and diversity programming, including academic year activities with undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars plus summer programs for undergraduate students, high school students, K-12 teachers, and community college instructors, is a mechanism to disseminate emerging knowledge from center activities. It is critically important that programs offered by these large, multi-institutional centers be evaluated for effectiveness to ensure their impact beyond ERC technical research. The resulting suite of instruments supplemented by an evaluator toolbox will fill an existing void and allow centers to collaborate in ways previously not possible. This will enhance our understanding of ERCs and their overall impact on skill development, climate of inclusion, and future STEM workforce development.This project is led by the Arizona State University Tri-ERC Education Consortium (TEEC), which consists of education leaders, researchers, and evaluators associated with three currently funded ERCs - Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics (CBBG), Nanosystems Center for Nano-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT), and Center for Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies (QESST). The goals to be undertaken by this team include: 1) identifying the evaluation needs of currently funded ERCs, 2) creating a suite of evaluation instruments, 3) creating an evaluator toolbox, and 4) making our resources broadly available. We will create quantitative (e.g. survey) and qualitative (e.g., interview, focus group, and lab observation protocols) measures informed by the needs and perspectives of current ERCs. These instruments will be field-tested across TEEC ERCs and other participating ERCs who have indicated an interest in using the suite of instruments. These instruments will be accompanied by an evaluator toolbox designed to support and guide evaluators in the use of these instruments. These resources will doubly serve as a means of creating an ERC community of practice around evaluation. The resulting resources will be made broadly available electronically through currently used ERC websites/hubs. Additionally, the quantitative Multi-ERC Instrument (MERCI) will be converted into an online ERC Evaluation System easily accessed by evaluators. The proposed system will specifically streamline quantitative evaluation, which will provide for greater flexibility and creativity in the selection of qualitative evaluation approaches used by center evaluators. The adoption of these shared resources by numerous ERCs will open up never before seen opportunities for cross-ERC comparisons. The findings will significantly impact how ERCs evaluate their education and diversity programming and presents a potential suite of instruments for effectively evaluating any large center that offers similar education and diversity programs.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.