Engaged student learning - Exploration and Design: Small group learning in engineering systems and control education

协作学习是基于知识是一种社会建构的观点。研究表明，积极和社会的教育经历会导致更深入的学习，更高层次的思考和对不同观点的理解的增加。工程系统和控制教育项目中的小组学习通过小组学习活动和相关教学材料的开发，解决了工程教师采用协作学习方法的障碍。学习活动将由来自不同高等教育机构的教师共同开发。 该项目的智力价值有三个方面：它开发了小组课堂活动，使学生能够形象化抽象概念;它进行了横截面案例研究，并为几所学院和大学提供了相关数据，使我们能够研究工程课堂小组学习的教育成果;它确定并解决了教师面临的问题，即改革课堂教学法所需的资源和时间有限。该项目将开发和传播课堂教学活动，通过研讨会，教师参与者对许多不同学院和大学课程的活动进行评估，评估结果，并计划通过工程课程更广泛地传播方法，以补充教学指导。 研讨会的参与者是工程教师代表学院和大学的本科课程服务，包括传统的学生，非传统的学生（有家庭和工作的大学生），代表性不足的少数民族，妇女，或学生谁计划进入军队服役的混合。 因此，这些活动和成果将通过这些学院提供的工程教育影响大量的学生。通过项目活动编写的材料将作为开放源文件、设计、说明、录像和课程计划传播，以便在课堂上利用小组活动产生超出参与者所在机构的影响。

Collaborative learning is based on the view that knowledge is a social construct. Research shows that educational experiences that are active and social lead to deeper learning, higher level thinking and an increase in understanding of diverse perspectives. The Small Group Learning in Engineering Systems and Control Education project addresses barriers to the adoption of collaborative learning methods by engineering instructors through the development of small group learning activities and associated instructional materials. The learning activities will be developed collectively by a faculty from diverse institutions of higher education. The intellectual merit of this project is threefold: it develops small-group classroom activities that enable students to visualize abstract concepts; it conducts a cross-sectional case study and provides associated data for several colleges and universities that allows us to study educational outcomes of small-group learning in the engineering classroom; and it identifies and addresses the problems that instructors face regarding limited resources and time required to revamp classroom pedagogy. The project will develop and disseminate classroom instructional activities that complement didactic instruction through workshops, evaluation of activities over course offerings across many different colleges and universities by faculty participants, assessing outcomes, and planning for broader dissemination of approaches through the engineering curriculum. Workshop participants are engineering faculty representing colleges and universities whose undergraduate programs serve and include a mix of traditional students, non-traditional students (older students with families and jobs), underrepresented minorities, women, or students who plan to enter military service. As such, the activities and outcomes will impact a large cross-section of students through the engineering education offered by these colleges. Materials developed through project activities will be disseminated as open-source documents, designs, instructions, videos, and lesson plans for using small group activities within the classroom to generate impact beyond the participants' institutions.