Building Capacity to Improve Transfer Success in Undergraduate Engineering

建设能力以提高本科工程转学的成功率

• 批准号: 2044434
• 负责人: Sarah Leibrandt
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-03-15 至 2023-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2044434&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Building; Capacity; Improve; Transfer; Success

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving the two-year to four-year transfer process for students who aim to earn a bachelor of engineering degree. Recent research indicates that it is becoming atypical for students to complete a four year baccalaureate STEM degree directly from high school. For example, nearly half of all STEM bachelor’s degree recipients attend a community college at some point in their college career. After they transfer to a four-year degree program, these students are often required to repeat courses they successfully completed at community college. Such challenges can be amplified by complex university admission requirements that may be difficult for transfer students to navigate. This project seeks to build capacity to address four goals: 1) Improve transfer efficiency in engineering disciplines; 2) Improve curricula that result in improved student retention; 3) Improve participation and persistence among students of color and students from low-income backgrounds in STEM; and 4) Increase the numbers of engineering graduates to contribute to the economy.The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) and New Mexico State University (NMSU), in collaboration with NMSU’s four community colleges, plan to address the goals by testing the feasibility of using sets of lower-division student learning outcomes (SLOs) as the basis for block transfer into engineering programs. This approach contrasts with most institutions’ practice of accepting transfer credit based on specific courses completed. Project partners hope to demonstrate that students who transfer can complete an engineering degree without substantially extending their time to graduation. SLO-based block transfer is the foundation of the project’s long-term goal of supporting institutions in reforming and generalizing their transfer practices within the STEM disciplines. These changes are intended to have direct benefits for students from underrepresented groups and students from low-income backgrounds. To accomplish this work, NMSU will identify the student learning outcomes that are critical for students to complete a four-year electrical engineering degree and map those SLOs to visually depict their prerequisite course relationships and preferable course sequencing. The resulting SLO map will inform identification of a lower-division SLO block to simplify curricula, potentially improving degree progress and persistence for all students, not just transfer students. WICHE will conduct a literature review to further identify factors that inhibit transfers within STEM and engineering disciplines; articulate a theory of change; and recruit leaders of national organizations and two-year and four-year institutions representing at least four states to analyze and refine NMSU’s proof of concept and assess the feasibility of scaling NMSU’s work to additional institutions. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.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.

该项目旨在通过改善旨在获得工程学士学位的学生的两年至四年的转学过程来服务于国家利益。最近的研究表明，学生直接从高中完成四年制STEM学士学位正变得越来越不典型。例如，近一半的STEM学士学位获得者在大学生涯的某个时候参加了社区大学。 在他们转入四年制学位课程后，这些学生经常被要求重复他们在社区大学成功完成的课程。复杂的大学入学要求可能会放大这些挑战，转学生可能很难掌握这些要求。该项目旨在建设能力，以实现四个目标：1）提高工程学科的转移效率; 2）改进课程，提高学生的保留率; 3）提高有色人种学生和低收入背景学生在STEM中的参与和坚持; 4）增加工程专业毕业生的数量，为经济做出贡献。西部州际高等教育委员会（WICHE）和新墨西哥州州立大学（NMSU），与NMSU的四个社区学院合作，计划通过测试使用低年级学生学习成果（SLO）作为块转移到工程项目的基础的可行性，以解决这些目标。这种做法与大多数机构的做法不同，后者接受基于完成的特定课程的学分转移。项目合作伙伴希望证明转学的学生可以在不大幅延长毕业时间的情况下完成工程学位。基于SLO的块传输是该项目长期目标的基础，该目标是支持机构在STEM学科内改革和推广其传输实践。 这些变化旨在使代表性不足群体的学生和低收入背景的学生直接受益。为了完成这项工作，NMSU将确定学生的学习成果，这些成果对学生完成四年制电气工程学位至关重要，并绘制这些SLO，以直观地描绘他们的先决条件课程关系和优选的课程顺序。由此产生的SLO地图将为识别较低级别的SLO块提供信息，以简化课程，从而可能提高所有学生的学位进度和持久性，而不仅仅是转学生。WICHE将进行文献综述，以进一步确定抑制STEM和工程学科内转移的因素;阐明变革理论;并招募代表至少四个州的国家组织和两年制和四年制机构的领导人，以分析和完善NMSU的概念证明，并评估将NMSU的工作扩展到其他机构的可行性。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过机构和社区转型的轨道，该计划支持的努力，以改变和改善高等教育机构和学科社区的STEM教育.这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估支持.