Service-Learning Integrated throughout a College of Engineering (SLICE): Implementation

这个系级改革项目将通过充满活力的服务学习教学法来振兴马萨诸塞大学洛厄尔分校的整个工程学院。服务学习是指在学分课程中将学术主题与社区服务相结合，其关键要素包括互惠、反思、指导和项目中的社区声音。服务学习（SL）已被证明在许多认知和情感方面是有效的，包括批判性思维和对多样性的容忍，并导致对课程主题的更好了解，合作学习，招募工程领域代表性不足的群体，保留学生和公民身份，以及帮助满足众所周知的ABET 2000标准(a)-(k)。这里的论点是，贯穿核心课程的SL将比一个强化课程更有效，必修和选修SL的混合比其中任何一个都更有效，并且SL可以比满足ABET 2000标准的传统课程更少的课程作业时间。因此，服务学习将被整合到广泛的课程中，以便学生在五个工程部门的每个学期的核心课程中都能接触到SL。该项目建立在麻省大学洛厄尔分校不同工程部门的各种核心课程的基础上，特别是通过辅助技术和全球可持续基础设施发展的项目。在40门课程中，36名教师正在实施或承诺整合服务学习；在规划阶段的第一学期，超过500名工科学生参加了必修课的SL项目。已采取初步步骤开发和使用适当的评估工具。需要更多的教师招聘和培训，社区合作，课程修改，将教师和学生与社区联系起来的工作人员SL主任，教师的课程发布时间，SL移民，评估和结果传播，以推动SL倡议的全面实施。布兰迪斯大学经验丰富的高等教育研究人员将作为一个独立的评估小组。智力价值：将个人课程目标与服务为基础的实践项目联系起来，以满足社区（无论是本地还是国际）的实际需要，需要相当的创造力和智力严谨。没有一个本科学位项目每学期至少为每个学生开设一门必修课，更不用说整个学院的五个学位项目了，尽管研究表明，这样的项目在许多方面对学生、教师和社区都更有效。为这种广泛的方法开发评估工具是具有挑战性的，并且将特别关注教师和社区，因为文献中缺乏信息。这种系统方法对学生的兴趣、态度、保留和学习的影响应该是工程教育界真正感兴趣的。更广泛的影响：这项独特研究的实施阶段预计将对学生和教师（及其构成的多样性）、机构和社区产生重大影响。预计评估方案和工具将对许多机构有用。这项研究的结果应该适用于几乎所有的工程学院，并应推广到大学内的其他学院。

This department level reform project will revitalize an entire college of engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell through the energizing pedagogy of service-learning. Service-learning is the integration of academic subject matter with service to the community in credit-bearing courses, with key elements including reciprocity, reflection, coaching, community voice in projects. Service-learning (SL) has been shown to be effective in a large number of cognitive and affective measures, including critical thinking and tolerance for diversity, and leads to better knowledge of course subject matter, cooperative learning, recruitment of underrepresented groups in engineering, retention of students, and citizenship, as well as helping meet the wellknown ABET 2000 criteria (a)-(k). The thesis here is that SL spread throughout the core curriculum will be more effective than one intensive course, that a mixture of required and elective SL is more effective than either one or the other, and that SL could result in less coursework time than traditional programs satisfying ABET 2000 criteria. Therefore, service-learning will be integrated into a broad array of courses so that students will be exposed to SL in every semester in the core curriculum in each of the five engineering departments.This project builds on a long history of a variety of core courses with SL within different departments in engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, particularly through projects in assistive technology, and global sustainable infrastructure development. Thirty-six faculty members are implementing, or have committed to integrating, service-learning in 40 courses; in the first semester of the planning phase, over five hundred engineering students participated in SL projects in required courses. Initial steps have been taken towards developing and using appropriate assessment tools. More faculty recruitment and training, community partnering, course modification, a staff SL director to link faculty and students with the community, course release time for faculty, SL minigrants, assessment, anddissemination of results are needed to propel this SL initiative to full implementation. Experienced higher education researchers at Brandeis University will serve as an independent assessment team.Intellectual merit: To link individual course objectives with service-based hands-on projects which meet the real needs of a community, whether local or international, requires considerable creativity and intellectual rigor. No single undergraduate degree program is known to have SL in at least one required course for every student every semester, much less for five degree programs in a whole college, even though the research indicates such a program would be more effective for students, faculty, and community on a number of dimensions. Development of assessment tools for such a broad approach is challenging and will be focused particularly on faculty and community, where there is a dearth of information in the literature. The impact of such a systemic approach on student interest, attitudes, retention and learning should be of genuine interest to the engineering education community.Broader impact: The implementation phase of this unique study is expected to have significant impact on students and faculty (and the diversity of their makeup), the institution, and community on a variety of measures. The assessment protocol and instruments are expected to be useful for many institutions. The results from this study should apply to almost any college of engineering and should spread beyond into other colleges within universities.