Collaborative Research: Sustaining and Scaling the impact of the MIDFIELD project at the American Society for Engineering Education

国家科学基金会的大量投资，包括工程局工程教育和中心以及教育和人力资源局本科生教育司颁发的奖项，导致创建了一个大型数据库，其中包含来自多个机构的学生记录，一个小型跨学科研究小组对学生路径进行了开创性的研究，同时保护了学生的身份。使用这个数据库，该团队已经表明，尽管个别工程类项目的毕业率可能很低，但从多个机构的角度来看，工程类项目作为一个整体，毕业的学生比例高于其他学科类别。该团队还表明，工程专业的女性和男性毕业率相似，这很可能是因为努力让工程教育成为一个欢迎女性的环境，以及学习工程的女性拥有较高的学历。与整体毕业率一样，个别机构和项目可能也确实会产生更糟糕的结果。对不同工程学科学生途径的全面研究为从业者提供了针对其学科背景的丰富信息。该团队还设计了各种衡量标准，为研究人员和从业者提供了对学生路径的更好理解。这些实质性的发现、多个最佳论文奖和其他认可证明了数据来源和研究团队的质量。在努力向更多机构征集数据并为其他研究人员创造使用该数据库的机会之后，该项目将使更多的研究人员更容易获得这些数据，同时更容易招募新的机构合作伙伴。将数据提供给不同学科的更广泛的研究人员，将使用不同的方法更快地产生更大范围的研究结果。该项目将把这个有用的数据集转移到ASEE(美国工程教育学会)，并允许ASEE建立技术基础设施，以在转移后维护数据收集。ASEE有一个收集机构数据的机制(尽管细节较少)，以及一个对他们收集的数据的访问收费的机制。ASEE不与替代数据提供商竞争，因为ASEE不是一个学术机构，这将使征集新数据以扩大这一资源变得更容易。该项目将支持ASEE建立新的数据模式，以收集和存储这一更丰富的数据集，并建立一系列工具，使从业人员和研究人员更容易通过仪表盘查看数据的各个方面。在项目期限内，ASEE还将转让与机构合作伙伴的所有法律协议。目前使用该数据库的研究人员小组将支持这一努力，作为与机构合作伙伴之间的联系。为了支持越来越多的研究人员使用数据库，研究小组还将举办讲习班，帮助人们了解数据库以及如何有效地使用它。研究小组还将继续开发可供其他研究人员和从业人员使用的软件工具。在ASEE存档和维护数据收集确保当前的数据集将被保留，它将增长到包括更大和更多样化的机构集合，并且数据集将更容易访问，这将确保这些洞察力能够继续，并通过ASEE的国家平台影响多个国家利益相关者。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。

A substantial investment by the National Science Foundation, including awards from Engineering Education and Centers in the Engineering Directorate and the Division of Undergraduate Education in the Education and Human Resources Directorate, has led to the creation of a large database of student records from multiple institutions that has yielded groundbreaking research on student pathways by a small interdisciplinary team of researchers, all while protecting student identity. Using this database, the team has shown that while individual engineering programs may have poor graduation rates, that a multi-institutional view reveals that engineering programs as a whole graduate a larger fraction of students than other groups of disciplines. The team has also shown that women and men have similar graduation rates in engineering, likely a result of efforts to make engineering education a welcoming environment for women and the high academic credentials of the women who do study engineering. As with the overall graduation rate, individual institutions and programs can and do have worse outcomes. A comprehensive study of student pathways in various engineering disciplines provided practitioners with rich information specific to their disciplinary context. The team has also designed a variety of metrics that have provided researchers and practitioners with an improved understanding of student pathways. The quality of the data source and the research team is attested by these substantial findings, multiple best paper awards, and other recognitions. Following efforts to solicit data from additional institutions and create opportunities for other researchers to use the database, this project will make the data more accessible to a wider range of researchers while making it easier to recruit new institutional partners. Making the data available to a wider range of researchers in different disciplines will use result in a larger range of research results more quickly using different approaches. This project will transition this useful dataset to ASEE, the American Society for Engineering Education, and allow ASEE to build the technical infrastructure to maintain the data collection after the transition. ASEE has a mechanism for collecting institutional data (though with less detail) and a mechanism for charging for access to the data they collect. ASEE does not compete with alternative data providers because ASEE is not an academic institution, which will make it easier to solicit new data to expand this resource. The project will support ASEE in building a new data schema to collect and store this richer dataset as well as build a range of tools to make it easier for practitioners and researchers to view aspects of the data through dashboards. During the term of the project, ASEE will also transfer all legal agreements with the institutional partners. The current team of researchers using the database will support this effort as a liaison to provide an interface with institutional partners. To support a growing community of researchers in using the database, the research team will also deliver workshops to help educate people about the database and how to use it effectively. The research team will also continue to develop software tools that can be used by other researchers and practitioners to work with the database. Archiving and maintaining the data collection at ASEE ensures that the current dataset will be preserved, that it will grow to include a larger and more diverse set of institutions, and that the dataset will be more accessible, which will ensure that these insights are able to continue and, through ASEE’s national platform, influence multiple national stakeholders.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.