Further Development of an Open Educational Resource to Improve Architectural Engineering Students’ Conceptual Knowledge When Writing to Learn

对核心工程基础的概念性理解使工程师能够预测系统将如何运行，确定问题的适当解决方案，选择相关的设计流程，并解释周围世界是如何工作的。概念理解指的是对具体和抽象概念的丰富认知表达，例如砖石贴面墙复合材料如何与热能原理相一致。这样的概念理解是必不可少的，然而，新进入大学的学生，甚至是刚刚毕业的学生，通常都会误解工程概念，即使是在现实世界实践中解决简单问题所需的工程概念。在本科培训中及早解决这一差距将为培养下一代工程师奠定更坚实的基础，这些工程师对我们国家的经济韧性和未来在国际舞台上的竞争力至关重要。该项目开发的软件和方法提供具有即时反馈的摘要写作练习，以支持课堂讲课和讨论。这个项目的更广泛的好处包括，研究成果和软件可以补充和推广其他STEM写作教学。该软件将被设计成由课程教师快速而简单地设置，并可用于任何内容领域，因此它在本科甚至高中水平的任何STEM课程中都有潜在的广泛应用。该软件和方法自动扩展到注册人数较多的课程，例如服务于数万名学生的大规模在线开放工程课程，从而在几乎不增加成本的情况下为这些课程增加更深层次的概念参与。带反馈的总结写作，也称为写来学，是建立概念理解的有效方法，但给论文评分很耗时，特别是在注册人数较多的课程中。第二种基于证据的提高学生概念理解的方法是有目的地明确地将领域知识的概念表征包括在课程中，例如，使用网络图作为个人反馈和课堂讨论。当学生使用网络图时，他们的概念模型的形式更像是专家的模型。结合这些发现，这个为期两年的跨学科研究和软件开发项目将调查知识结构反馈作为课程概念的网络图在通过教育视角研究的工程领域写作学习时的影响。这四项调查将依次比较(1)有网络反馈的写作与没有网络反馈的写作，(2)有网络反馈的写作与没有反馈的写作，(3)有或没有延迟教师对课堂概念结构的解释作为播客的网络反馈写作，以及(4)有网络反馈的写作，有或没有教师在课堂上立即对课堂概念结构的解释。本项目中的四项研究有可能补充已知的关于知识结构网络作为STEM课程中写作学习的反馈机制的理论和实践。这四项调查的结果可以揭示明确教授领域知识概念结构的潜力，以补充传统的教学方法，并将写作延伸到学习STEM内容研究，将反馈作为概念网络结构。研究成果将通过网络研讨会、社交媒体、持久项目网站、期刊、研讨会和会议演示文稿进行传播。开发的软件将通过项目网站作为开放教育资源向公众开放。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。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。

Conceptual understanding of core engineering fundamentals enables engineers to predict how a system will behave, to determine appropriate solutions to problems, to choose relevant design processes, and to explain how the world around them works. Conceptual understanding refers to rich cognitive representations of concepts, both concrete and abstract, such as how a masonry veneer wall composite aligns with heat energy principles. Such conceptual understanding is essential, yet newly entering college students and even recent graduates commonly misperceive the engineering concepts needed to solve even simple problems in real-world practice. Addressing this gap early in undergraduate training will lay a stronger foundation for building the next generation of engineers who are vital for our nation’s economic resilience and future competitiveness on the international stage. The software and approach developed by this project provides summary writing exercises with immediate feedback to support classroom lecture and discussion in real time. The broader benefits of this project include that the research findings and the software can complement and extend other STEM writing pedagogies. The software will be designed to be quick and simple to set up by a course instructor and can be used in any content area, thus it has potentially wide application in any STEM course at the undergraduate and even high school levels. The software and approach automatically scale to courses with large enrollments, for example massive open online engineering courses that serve tens of thousands of students, thus adding deeper conceptual engagement to these courses at little extra cost.Summary writing with feedback, also called writing-to-learn, is an effective way to build conceptual understanding, but grading essays is time consuming especially in large enrollment courses. A second evidence-based way to improve students’ conceptual understanding is to intentionally and explicitly include domain knowledge conceptual representations in courses, for example, using network graphs as individual feedback and for classroom discussions. When students use network graphs, the form of their conceptual model becomes more like an expert’s model. Combining these findings, this 2-year interdisciplinary research and software development project will investigate the influence of knowledge structure feedback as network graphs of lesson concepts when writing to learn in the engineering domain studied through an educational lens. The four investigations, in order, will compare (1) writing with network feedback to no writing, (2) writing with network feedback to writing without feedback, (3) writing with network feedback with or without delayed instructor explanations of the lesson conceptual structure as podcasts, and (4) writing with network feedback with or without immediate instructor explanations of the lesson conceptual structure during lectures. The four investigations in this project have potential to add to the known theory and practice regarding knowledge structure networks as feedback mechanisms when writing to learn in STEM courses. Results of these four investigations could inform the potential of explicitly teaching domain knowledge conceptual structure to augment traditional teaching approaches, and extend the writing to learn STEM content research to include feedback as conceptual network structure. The research findings will be disseminated through webinars, social media, a persistent project website, journals, workshops, and conference presentations. The software developed will be available to the public as an open education resource through the project website. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.