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

美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的一项重大投资，包括来自工程教育和工程理事会各中心以及教育和人力资源理事会本科教育司的奖励，已经促成了一个来自多个机构的大型学生记录数据库的创建，该数据库由一个小型跨学科研究团队在保护学生身份的同时，对学生的路径进行了开创性的研究。利用这个数据库，研究小组表明，虽然个别工程项目的毕业率可能很低，但从多机构的角度来看，工程项目作为一个整体，比其他学科的学生毕业率更高。研究小组还发现，女性和男性在工程专业的毕业率相似，这可能是因为政府努力让工程教育成为一个欢迎女性的环境，以及攻读工程专业的女性拥有较高的学历。与总体毕业率一样，个别机构和项目的结果可能也确实更差。对不同工程学科的学生路径的全面研究为实践者提供了丰富的学科背景信息。该团队还设计了各种指标，为研究人员和从业人员提供了对学生途径的更好理解。这些实质性的发现、多项最佳论文奖和其他认可证明了数据源和研究团队的质量。在努力向其他机构征求数据并为其他研究人员创造使用该数据库的机会之后，该项目将使更广泛的研究人员更容易获得数据，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获得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，即美国工程教育学会，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）和一个对他们收集的数据的访问收费的机制。ASEE不与其他数据提供商竞争，因为ASEE不是一个学术机构，这将使它更容易获取新数据来扩展这一资源。该项目将支持ASEE构建一个新的数据模式来收集和存储这个更丰富的数据集，并构建一系列工具，使从业者和研究人员更容易通过仪表板查看数据的各个方面。在项目期间，ASEE还将与机构合作伙伴转让所有法律协议。目前使用该数据库的研究小组将作为与机构合作伙伴提供接口的联络人来支持这项工作。为了支持越来越多的研究人员使用数据库，研究小组还将举办研讨会，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软件工具，供其他研究人员和从业人员使用。ASEE的数据收集存档和维护确保了当前数据集的保存，它将发展为包括更大、更多样化的机构，并且数据集将更容易访问，这将确保这些见解能够继续下去，并通过ASEE的国家平台影响多个国家利益相关者。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.