IEECI: Encouraging Diversity in Engineering through a Virtual Engineering Sciences Learning Lab

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该工程教育研究奖授予洛约拉玛丽蒙特大学，将雇用研究人员创建和评估一个称为虚拟工程科学学习实验室（VESLL）的在线互动学习环境。流行的第二人生幻想世界的资源将被用来为工程专业的学生创造一个网络学习环境，重点是特定学科的内容和跨学科的专业技能。虚拟学习环境将提供可视化和模拟能力、协作解决问题、访问远程资源以及对学生的即时反馈等优势。VESLL的评估将提供一个有价值的更深入的理解，即流行的虚拟环境如何有效地作为工程专业学生的学习环境。使用虚拟学习环境可以增加对工程的兴趣，并为工程学生提供更多的资源，使他们更好地为工程工作做好准备。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)This engineering education research award to Loyola Marymount University will employ researchers to create and assess an on-line interactive learning environment called the Virtual Engineering Sciences Learning Lab (VESLL). The resources of the popular Second Life fantasy world will be used to create a cyberlearning environment for engineering students with focus on both discipline specific content and interdisciplinary professional skills. The virtual learning environment will offer benefits of visualization and simulation capabilities, collaborative problem solving, access to remote resources, and immediate feedback to students. The assessments of VESLL will provide a valuable deeper understanding of how effective popular virtual environments can be as learning environments for engineering students. The use of virtual learning environments can increase interest in engineering and provide more resources to engineering students to better prepare them for engineering jobs.