Developing a Digital Platform for Providing Scalable and Actionable Feedback to Support Students' Development of Professional Skills

开发一个数字平台，提供可扩展且可操作的反馈，以支持学生的专业技能发展

• 批准号: 2235606
• 负责人: Suzanne Ruder
• 金额: $ 44.43万
• 依托单位: Virginia Commonwealth University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-15 至 2026-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2235606&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Developing; Digital; Platform; Providing; Scalable

This project serves the national interest by developing a digital platform and classroom strategies for instructors to improve student professional skills across the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The explicit development of these skills (also known as transferable, process, 21st century, or soft skills) is of critical importance to prepare students for successful careers in science and technology. Skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and communication have been identified as essential for a modern national workforce by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine as well reports from many industries and employers. These reports further identify that increased proficiency in student professional skills will ensure undergraduates a more successful launch as they begin their careers. In this project, a digital platform will be developed that leverages the Enhancing Learning by Improving Process Skills project, a novel and widely available feedback-based skills rubric. This project will provide strategies for instructors in classrooms of all sizes to help them develop and evaluate student professional skills. The digital platform and classroom strategies will also allow instructors to provide students with rapid feedback and effective coaching on how to improve their professional skills. This innovative project brings attention to the development of student professional skills as it will increase students’ insights into the importance of these skills for scientists and advance their preparation for future STEM careers. This project will help students develop and improve their professional skills in STEM classrooms by using a scalable digital platform based on novel feedback-based skill rubrics from the Enhancing Learning by Improving Process Skills project (ELIPSS.com). This project will conduct research on how feedback and self-assessment can help students improve their professional skills, as well as examine how external and tailored feedback can help students become self-regulated learners. The project team will design and pilot a digital platform to streamline assessment and actionable feedback delivery to students, using a multidisciplinary team of STEM instructors from a range of class sizes and institutional settings to ensure the application’s utility and adoptability. Through interviews and survey responses, instructional team members will identify optimum strategies for generating and delivering feedback to students that is both impactful and timely. Data will be collected on the ways in which students interact with the suggestions for improving skill development; these data will be analyzed to gauge how they responded to this feedback and whether it helped them improve their skills. Students will complete a validated science motivation questionnaire to collect their insights on how their development of professional skills may further motivate them towards STEM majors and careers. Five culminating goals and outcomes provide a framework for the execution of this project. First is the creation of a digital platform, which is preloaded with customizable professional skills rubrics that were a product of the NSF-funded ELIPSS project. Second, a team of instructors from a range of STEM disciplines and institutions across the country will implement and subsequently disseminate these materials. Third is the development of a set of materials and training protocols to train additional instructors to use the skill-building rubrics and digital platform. Fourth is the assembly of a collection of best instructional practices to optimize student interaction with feedback on their professional skill development. Fifth, and finally, is an advanced understanding of how these efforts impact students - promoting their skill development, their perception of the importance of these skill for scientists, and their preparation for future STEM careers. Overall, the broad scope of this project will enable greater integration of professional skill development into undergraduate STEM programs - the digital platform and classroom strategies are designed to be used in all disciplines, class sizes and institutional settings and will rapidly impact a large number of students. These students will enter the STEM workforce with key preparation in valued professional skills that will better ensure their success. Even more broadly, the tools and classroom strategies developed through this project will support the advancement of STEM education on multiple levels: they support active learning pedagogies, support skill-based programmatic assessment, and provide a data-collection mechanism for future education research. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its 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.

该项目服务于国家利益，为教师开发一个数字平台和课堂战略，以提高学生在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域的专业技能。这些技能(也称为可转移技能、过程技能、21世纪技能或软技能)的明确发展对学生在科学和技术领域的成功职业生涯做好准备至关重要。批判性思维、解决问题、协作和沟通等技能已被美国国家科学院、工程院和医学院以及许多行业和雇主的报告确定为现代国家劳动力的必备技能。这些报告进一步指出，提高对学生专业技能的熟练程度将确保本科生在开始他们的职业生涯时获得更成功的启动。在这个项目中，将开发一个数字平台，利用通过改进流程技能加强学习项目，这是一个新的和广泛使用的基于反馈的技能类别。这个项目将为各种规模的教室的教师提供策略，帮助他们发展和评估学生的专业技能。数字平台和课堂战略还将使教师能够就如何提高他们的专业技能为学生提供快速反馈和有效的指导。这一创新项目引起了对学生专业技能发展的关注，因为它将增加学生对这些技能对科学家的重要性的洞察力，并促进他们为未来的STEM职业生涯做准备。这个项目将帮助学生在STEM课堂上发展和提高他们的专业技能，使用一个可扩展的数字平台，基于来自通过改进过程技能促进学习项目(ELIPSS.com)的基于反馈的新技能规则。本项目将研究反馈和自我评估如何帮助学生提高专业技能，以及外部和量身定做的反馈如何帮助学生成为自我调节的学习者。项目团队将设计和试点一个数字平台，以简化对学生的评估和可操作的反馈交付，使用来自不同班级规模和机构设置的STEM讲师组成的多学科团队，以确保应用程序的实用性和可采纳性。通过访谈和调查回复，教学团队成员将确定产生反馈并向学生提供及时有效反馈的最佳策略。将收集有关学生如何与改进技能发展的建议进行互动的数据；将分析这些数据，以衡量他们如何回应这些反馈，以及这是否有助于他们提高技能。学生将完成一份有效的科学动机问卷，以收集他们对专业技能发展如何进一步激励他们走向STEM专业和职业的见解。五个最终目标和成果为该项目的执行提供了一个框架。首先是创建一个数字平台，该平台预先加载了可定制的专业技能代码，这些代码是NSF资助的ELIPSS项目的产品。其次，来自全国各地STEM学科和机构的讲师团队将实施并随后传播这些材料。第三是编写一套材料和培训方案，以培训更多的教员使用技能建设红新语和数字平台。第四是收集最佳教学实践，以优化学生与他们的专业技能发展的反馈互动。第五，也是最后一点，是对这些努力如何影响学生的深入了解--促进他们的技能发展，促进他们对这些技能对科学家的重要性的认识，以及他们对未来STEM职业生涯的准备。总体而言，该项目的广泛范围将使专业技能发展更好地整合到本科STEM项目中-数字平台和课堂战略旨在用于所有学科、班级规模和机构设置，并将迅速影响大量学生。这些学生将进入STEM劳动力大军，在宝贵的专业技能方面做好关键准备，以更好地确保他们的成功。更广泛地说，通过该项目开发的工具和课堂战略将在多个层面上支持STEM教育的发展：它们支持主动学习教学法，支持以技能为基础的方案评估，并为未来的教育研究提供数据收集机制。NSF IUSE：EDU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。通过其参与的学生学习跟踪，该计划支持有前途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。