EAGER: Investigating the rapid transition from face-to-face to exclusively online engineering laboratory classes in an Electrical and Computer Engineering program

新冠肺炎全球健康危机迫使教育工作者迅速转向在线教学方式。虽然这一努力对教师来说已经很困难，但对于已经设计了一部分课程的讲师来说，这尤其具有挑战性，就像许多STEM课程一样，他们已经设计了一部分动手实验室教学。为了提供有效的面授教育，重要的是保持实验室的教育和课程价值不变，同时利用在线教育和在线实验工具提供的好处。该项目将超越新冠肺炎危机的要求，调查在工程实验课程中使用全套在线实验室模块的影响。本研究评估了教师对采用的抵触、学生的动机和自我调节以及用户体验和成功的影响。在线实验室(远程和虚拟)长期以来一直被认为是改善学生教育体验的有希望的选择，但广泛采用一直受到限制。在目前的情况下，我们可以通过将长达一学期的动手体验式学习部分重新投入到一套完整的在线教学实验室中，从而建立一个成功的用例。然而，迅速部署全面的在线实验和工程学教学对我们的主导教学模式提出了挑战，特别是在传统的面对面教学机构中，教职员工和学生都可能表现出抵制，但也出人意料地采用了在线教育技术。虽然存在相当大的挑战，但建立并经验性地调查这样一个成功的用例，为知识生成提供了很高的回报机会，并为全国工程专业的教师和学生带来了好处。该项目将利用在线实验室和集成在线教学模块的开发和部署来调查在基础电气和计算机工程实验室课程中使用完全在线教学模式的影响。为了实现这一目标，该项目将回答以下三个研究问题：a)在大规模拥抱教育技术的阻力连续体中，教师如何经历自上而下强制的、时间有限的、快速过渡到工程学课程中完全基于在线的实验室模块？B)通过自我调节和动机调查，在参与度方面，完全在线实验室教学和在线实验如何影响学生的学习体验？C)哪些用户体验因素影响将在线实验活动完全引入工程课程和课程的成功？研究设计将包括三个方面：教师、学生和用户体验视角。所有的推进都将采用一种融合的、平行的、混合方法的研究方法，使用定量和定性的测量方法。在创新扩散、传播范式、学生认知和情感参与以及以用户为中心的设计等理论框架的指导下，该项目将发展关于如何在工程教育环境中成功部署在线实验的深入知识。因此，该项目将a)形成一个专门针对在线工程实验室的教育技术传播框架，并反映有效性和适合性的因素；b)提供一个以学生为中心的在线实验模式，并为学生提供明确的指导方针；以及c)为设计以用户为中心的在线实验活动提供一个成功因素的综合模式。这项研究的结果还将扩大工程学科的影响范围和影响，这些学科历来需要面对面的设施来提供完整的实验室教学。该项目将提供在线实验体验，支持核心教育学习目标，同时应对多样化、移动性和地理分布的工程工作队伍的挑战。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 COVID-19 global health crisis has forced educators to rapidly shift to online instruction methods. While this effort is already difficult for faculty, it is particularly challenging for instructors who have designed a portion of their curricula with hands-on laboratory instruction, as in the case for many STEM courses. To offer the effective education in-person instruction affords, it is important to maintain the same educational and curricular value of laboratories while taking advantage of benefits that online education and online experimentation tools offer. This project will transcend the demands of the COVID-19 crisis as it investigates the impact of using a full set of online laboratory modules in an engineering laboratory course. Impacts on faculty resistance to adoption, student motivation and self-regulation, and user experience and success are evaluated in this study. Online labs (remote and virtual) have long been considered promising options to enhance the student educational experience, but broad adoption has been limited. The current circumstances allow us to establish a successful use case by re-casting a semester-long, hands-on, experiential learning component into a fully online set of instructional labs. Nevertheless, rapidly deploying fully online experimentation and instruction in engineering challenges our dominant instructional model, especially in a traditional face-to-face institution in which both faculty and students may show resistance but also surprising adoption of online education technology. While associated with considerable challenges, establishing and empirically investigating such a successful use case offers high reward opportunities for knowledge generation, as well as benefits for faculty and students in engineering programs across the nation.This project will leverage the development and deployment of online labs and integrated online instruction modules to investigate the impact of using an exclusively online instructional mode for a fundamental electrical and computer engineering laboratory course. To reach this goal, the project will answer the following three research questions: A) How do faculty experience a top-down mandated, time-constrained, and rapid transition to exclusively online-based laboratory modules in engineering courses along the continuum of resistance towards the wholesale embrace of educational technologies? B) How does exclusively online laboratory instruction and online experimentation impact students’ learning experiences in terms of engagement, investigated through self-regulation and motivation? C) What user experience factors influence the success of introducing exclusively online experimentation activities into engineering courses and curricula? The research design will comprise three thrusts: faculty, student, and user experience perspective. All thrusts will employ a convergent, parallel, mixed-methods research approach using quantitative and qualitative measures. Informed by theoretical frameworks including the diffusion of innovation, the propagation paradigm, student cognitive and emotional engagement, and user-centered design, this project will develop in-depth knowledge on how online experimentation can be successfully deployed in engineering education settings. As a result, this project will a) lead to a framework for educational technology propagation, specific to online engineering labs and reflecting factors for both efficacies and fit, b) inform a model for student-centered online experimentation with explicit guidelines for student support, and c) inform a comprehensive model of success factors for designing user-centered online experimentation activities. The results of this research will also expand the reach and impact of engineering disciplines that have historically required face-to-face facilities to provide integral laboratory instruction. This project will enable online experimentation experiences that support core education learning objectives while also meeting the challenges of a diverse, mobile, and geographically distributed engineering workforce.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.