Enhanced Learning in Undergraduate Education: A Research Communications Studio Model

目标和方法：这个项目的目标是开发和批判性地评估一种新的Research Communications Studio模式，该模式旨在改善工科本科生的学习、保持和多样性。该项目将提供急需的数据，说明如何通过实践研究和工作室小组内的互动来增强学生的学习。在研究交流工作室(RCS)，与工程系一起从事研究工作的三到五名本科生组成的小组将在传播系和工程学研究生的指导下会面。为了确保该模式完全融入学院的研究和教学计划，该项目将为教职员工/研究主任提供指导，并为研究生导师提供培训。RCS模式主要关注研究主管分配给学生的沟通任务。RCS项目强调学生参与专业会议，在那里展示他们的本科生项目的结果。该工作室通过明确研究和交流的原则并通过让学生反思这些经历来加强基于探究的学习。南卡罗来纳州项目评估办公室将对这些方法、结果和意义进行评估。评估数据将包括入学人数、对毕业的坚持程度、对教职员工和学生的采访。将收集项目参与者以及非参与本科生的控制组的数据。RCS项目是以维果茨基的指导参与和分布式认知理论为基础的，即工程新手在群体或社区内的认知发展。该项目探索了三个与演播室教学方法对学习质量的影响有关的假设：1)学习质量；2)留存和入学；3)认知发展和自我指导学习。项目评估部分将提供数据，以检验三个假设和RCS模型的总体有效性，特别是通过研究性学习在认知发展方面使用沟通。跨学科项目团队包括工程、通信和教育专业人员。他们的专长涵盖化学、电气和机械工程、修辞学、教育心理学和专业交流的互动教学方法。更广泛的影响。为了招收和留住更多、更多样化的本科生，研究密集型大学的工程学院正在扩大本科生与教职员工进行研究的机会。然而，迫切需要从这个项目中更好地了解学生的认知发展，以确定在提高学生学习、保持和表现方面有效的指导和指导模式。与南卡罗来纳州少数群体参与联盟的合作旨在促进代表人数不足的少数群体参与研究，并提供关于少数群体的表现和留存是否通过RCS得到改善的数据。建议的RCS实施计划符合国家支持的研究密集型工程学院的典型情况和限制。因此，它应该具有广泛的适应性。将通过各种方法传播项目成果，最主要的是通过计划在第三年和第五年举办的两个国家讲习班。

Objectives and Methods: The objectives of this project are to develop and to critically assess a novel Research Communications Studio model that is designed to improve learning, retention, and diversity of undergraduate engineering students. The project will provide much-needed data on how student learning is enhanced via hands-on research and interactions that take place within the studio group. In the Research Communications Studio (RCS), small groups of three to five undergraduate students, who are working on research with an engineering faculty, will meet under the mentorship of communications faculty and engineering graduate students. To ensure full integration of the model into the colleges program of research and instruction, the project will provide orientation for faculty/research directors and training for graduate student mentors. The RCS model focuses strongly on the students communications tasks, as assigned by their research directors. The RCS project emphasizes student participation in professional meetings where results of their undergraduate projects are presented. The studio enhances inquiry-based learning by making principles of research and communications explicit and by engaging students in reflection on those experiences. Assessment of the methodologies, results, and significance will be done by the South Carolina Office of Program Assessment. Assessment data will include measures of enrollment, persistence to graduation, interviews with faculty and students. Data will be collected for project participants as well as for a control group of non-participating undergraduate students.Intellectual Merit. The RCS project is predicated upon Vygotskian theories of guidedparticipation and distributed cognition, i.e. cognitive development of the engineering novice within groups or communities. The project explores three hypotheses related to the effect of studio methods of instruction on 1) quality of learning 2) retention and enrollment and 3) cognitive development and self-directed learning. The program evaluation component will furnish data to test the three hypotheses and the overall effectiveness of the RCS model, especially the use of communications, in cognitive development through research-based learning. The interdisciplinary project team includes engineering, communications, and education professionals. Their expertise spans chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering, rhetoric, educational psychology, and interactive methods of teaching professional communications. Broader impacts. In an effort to recruit and retain more, and more diverse, undergraduate students, engineering colleges in research-intensive universities are expanding opportunities for undergraduates to conduct research with a faculty members group. However, better understanding of student cognitive development from this project is urgently needed to identify modes of mentoring and instruction that are effective in improving student learning, retention, and performance. Collaboration with the South Carolina Alliance for Minority Participation is designed to promote research participation by underrepresented minorities, and to provide data on whether minority performance and retention is improved via the RCS. The proposed RCS implementation plan conforms to the situations and constraints typical of a state-supported, research intensive engineering college. It should therefore be widely adaptable. Dissemination of results from the RCS project will occur in a variety of methods, most notably through two national workshops planned for years three and five.