Collaborative Research: RFE: Pandemic Impact: Undergraduates’ Social Capital and Engineering Professional Skills

COVID-19 大流行给工程师教育带来了许多变化，其中最明显的变化之一是学生之间以及校园人员之间的关系。例如，最近对工程本科生的一项研究发现，一年级学生很难在校园里发展支持他们成功的关系，而高年级学生则依赖他们以前在校园里的亲密关系。随着我们摆脱大流行的影响，这项研究将调查工程本科生如何利用与其他学生、教师和工作人员的关系以及校外联系来发展他们的专业技能。团队合作、沟通和职业道德等非技术专业技能对于工程师的专业形成至关重要，因为当今的工程师在不同的团队中工作，以解决复杂的 21 世纪问题。传统上，这些技能是在工程课程内（课程内）和课程外的活动（例如学生组织、工程专业协会的学生分会和实习）中培养的。由于工程高等教育在大流行后的世界中不可避免地发生变化，这项工作将提供研究来支持设计有效的面对面和虚拟机会，让学生发展和实践专业技能。该项目产生的知识将为教育工作者和学生提供如何在工程课程内外促进专业技能发展的建议和示例，从而促进工程师的专业形成。该项目的首要研究问题是：“工程本科生如何利用关系（作为社会资本运作）来获得发展专业技能的机会？”社会资本理论框架承认社会关系在工程课程内外培养这些技能的重要性。该研究将使用解释性顺序混合方法设计，精心设计定量和定性阶段，并特别注意混合。定量阶段将利用 NSF 资助项目（EEC-2030083 和 EEC-2030133）的调查工具、本科生支持调查以及专业技能机会调查。我们将研究三组​​在疫情不同阶段开始学习的工程学习者，并在定量阶段招募多达 1,500 名学生。研究设计将使用分层有目的抽样来选择约 30-45 名调查参与者的子集进行访谈。该项目的推广计划侧重于 (1) 与参与机构建立互惠伙伴关系，为 (2) 国家工程教育界提供量身定制的、情境化的研究结果以及实践建议。在这些受众中，研究人员将促进与（1）工程讲师和助教、（2）课外活动顾问、（3）工程课外活动的学生领袖以及（4）管理人员和工作人员的互动对话。研究人员将与这些受众分享研究结果，并合作制定计划，帮助学生建立学术社会资本和专业技能。这项工作有可能通过促进未来劳动力成员急需的专业技能的发展来改变工程教育。这项工作最终将通过确保员工拥有必要的非技术技能来促进其工程团队和设计的成功，从而为未来的工程工作做出贡献。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many changes in educating engineers, one of the more pronounced changes is the relationships students have with each other and campus-based personnel. For example, a recent study of engineering undergraduates found that first-year students struggled to develop relationships on campus that support their success, whereas senior students relied on their previous close relationships on campus. As we transition out of the pandemic, this research will investigate how engineering undergraduates use relationships with other students, faculty, and staff as well as off-campus contacts to develop their professional skills. Non-technical professional skills such as teamwork, communication, and professional ethics are essential for the professional formation as engineers, as today’s engineers work in diverse teams to solve complex 21st-Century problems. These skills have traditionally been developed both within the engineering curriculum (in courses) and outside of the curriculum, in activities such as student organizations, student chapters of engineering professional societies, and internships. As engineering higher education inevitably changes in the post-pandemic world, this work will offer research to support the design of effective in-person and virtual opportunities for students to develop and practice professional skills. Knowledge generated from this project will promote the professional formation of engineers by providing educators and students with recommendations and examples of how to foster professional skill development both as part of the engineering curriculum and outside of it. The project’s overarching research question is: “How do engineering undergraduates leverage relationships (operationalized as social capital) to gain opportunities to develop professional skills?” The social capital theoretical framing acknowledges the importance of social relationships in developing these skills within and outside of the engineering curriculum. The research will use an explanatory sequential mixed methods design with carefully designed quantitative and qualitative phases and special attention to mixing. The quantitative phase will utilize a survey instrument from NSF-funded projects (EEC-2030083 and EEC-2030133), the Undergraduate Student Support Survey, along with a Professional Skills Opportunities survey. We will study three groups of engineering learners who started during various phases of the pandemic, recruiting up to 1,500 students for the quantitative phase. The research design will use stratified purposeful sampling to select a subset of about 30-45 survey participants for interviews. The project’s propagation plan focuses on (1) reciprocal partnership with participating institutions by providing tailored and contextualized findings along with recommendations for practice for (2) the (inter)national engineering education community. Within these audiences, the researchers will promote interactive dialogue with (1) engineering instructors and teaching assistants, (2) advisors of co-curricular activities, (3) student leaders of engineering co-curricular activities, and (4) administrators and staff. The researchers will share findings with these audiences and collaboratively develop plans for helping students build academic social capital and professional skills. This work has potential to transform engineering education by promoting development of much-needed professional skills for future members of the workforce. The work will ultimately contribute to tomorrow’s engineering work by ensuring that workforce members possess essential non-technical skills that facilitate the success of their engineering teams and designs.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.