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

新冠肺炎疫情给工程师教育带来了许多变化，其中一个比较明显的变化是学生之间以及与校园工作人员之间的关系。例如，最近对工科本科生的一项研究发现，一年级学生在校园里很难建立起支持他们成功的人际关系，而大四学生则依赖于他们以前在校园里的亲密关系。随着我们走出大流行，这项研究将调查工程学本科生如何利用与其他学生、教职员工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职业形成至关重要，因为今天的工程师在不同的团队中工作，以解决21世纪的复杂问题。这些技能传统上都是在工程课程内(课程内)和课程外，在学生组织、工程专业协会的学生分会和实习等活动中发展起来的。随着工程高等教育不可避免地在大流行后的世界中发生变化，这项工作将提供研究，以支持设计有效的面对面和虚拟的机会，让学生发展和实践专业技能。该项目产生的知识将通过向教育工作者和学生提供建议和范例，说明如何在工程课程中和之外促进专业技能发展，从而促进工程师的职业形成。该项目的首要研究问题是：“工程学本科生如何利用人际关系(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发展工程课程内外这些技能方面的重要性。研究将使用解释性的顺序混合方法设计，精心设计定量和定性阶段，并特别注意混合。定量阶段将利用国家科学基金会资助的项目(欧洲经济共同体-2030083和欧洲经济共同体-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学生，为量化阶段招收多达1500名学生。研究设计将采用分层有目的抽样，选择约30-45名调查参与者的子集进行访谈。该项目的宣传计划侧重于(1)与参与机构建立互惠伙伴关系，为(2)国家工程教育界(国际)提供量身定制和因地制宜的调查结果和实践建议。在这些受众中，研究人员将促进与(1)工程学教师和助教，(2)联合课程活动的顾问，(3)联合课程活动的学生领袖，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，并共同制定计划，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劳动力成员拥有基本的非技术技能来促进他们的工程团队和设计的成功，从而最终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优势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.