RAPID: Using SenseMaker to Investigate Complex Dynamics in Social Systems to Inform Agile, Real-Time Policy-Responses in Times of Crisis

COVID-19大流行对美国日常生活的几乎所有方面都产生了突然而重大的影响。在高等教育方面，大学教师和学生在遵守日益严格的避难条例、应对全球健康危机带来的压力和悲伤的同时，时间有限，无法适应在线学习的新常态。该项目将调查疫情如何影响STEM教育中的教职员工和学生，特别关注工程学。随着危机的发展，现在有机会收集这些数据，这凸显了快速供资的必要性。研究小组将使用一个名为SenseMaker的在线数据收集平台，从教职员工和学生那里收集短篇故事，描述他们如何经历COVID-19危机以及如何向在线学习过渡。这些故事将用于帮助管理员实时响应挑战。该研究的数据也将作为未来工作的基础，未来工作将侧重于STEM高等教育的哪些组织和文化方面可以帮助大学更好地为未来的颠覆做好准备。这个RAPID项目将是SenseMaker方法第一次被用于调查大学项目如何应对危机时期。SenseMaker之前被用于调查其他危机背景下的社区经验，例如不同的利益相关者群体如何适应波多黎各飓风玛丽亚造成的破坏（见NSF奖：1832678）。该项目将使用一种新颖的研究方法SenseMaker来捕捉工程学院在应对COVID-19危机时出现的系统级动态。将调查三个研究问题：i)工程学院的学生、教师和工作人员如何经历COVID-19危机以及相关的向在线学习的过渡？ii)对于工程学院、员工和学生来说，繁荣的哪些方面（如自主性、灵活性、问责制等）尤为突出？iii)根据SenseMaker的调查结果，可以采取哪些行动来实时响应，以改善工程学院的教学和学习体验，以及学生、教师和员工的总体福祉？这个RAPID项目将持续到回到面对面课程后的1个月。数据将需要持续收集参与者经历的微观叙述（定性数据）和对一系列调查问题的回答，这些问题将促使参与者理解他们的经历（定量数据）。这些数据将被分析为模式，以通知立即采取行动，以改善工程学院教职员工和学生的体验。这些数据还将为未来的工作提供信息，这些工作将侧重于有助于建立弹性教育生态系统的组织结构和文化。该项目的成果将包括：a)实时微叙事的丰富数据集，记录工程学院的教职员工和学生如何经历COVID-19危机以及相关的在线学习过渡；b)理论基础，经过测试和验证的方法方法和工具，可以在全国STEM项目的危机时期部署，以收集教师，员工和学生体验的实时数据；c)初步了解组织结构和文化对弹性教育生态系统的贡献，以及如何在危机时期之外培养这些结构和文化，以更好地为未来的中断做好STEM项目的准备。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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 had a sudden and significant impact on almost all aspects of daily life in the United States. In higher education, college teachers and students have had limited time to adapt to the new normal of online learning, while observing increasingly stringent shelter in place ordinances and coping with the stress and grief that comes with a worldwide health crisis. This project will investigate how the pandemic has impacted faculty, staff, and students in STEM education, with a particular focus on engineering. The opportunity to collect this data right now, as the crisis unfolds, underscores the need for RAPID funding. The research team will use an online data collection platform, called SenseMaker, to collect short stories from faculty, staff, and students that describe how they are experiencing the COVID-19 crisis and transition to online learning. These stories will be used to help administrators respond to challenges in real time. Data from the study will also be used as the basis for future work, which will focus on what organizational and cultural aspects of STEM higher education can help universities better prepare for future disruptions. This RAPID project will be the first time that the SenseMaker approach has been used to investigate how university programs cope in times of crisis. SenseMaker has previously been used to investigate community experiences in other crisis contexts, such as how different stakeholder groups adapted to the damage caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico (see NSF award: 1832678). This project will use a novel research method, SenseMaker, to capture systems-level dynamics in a College of Engineering as they emerge in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Three research questions will be investigated: i) How are students, faculty, and staff in a College of Engineering experiencing the COVID-19 crisis and associated transition to online learning? ii) What aspects of thriving (e.g., autonomy, flexibility, accountability etc.) are particularly salient to engineering faculty, staff, and student experiences? And iii) What actions can be taken to respond, in real-time, based on the SenseMaker findings, to improve the teaching and learning experiences, and general well-being of students, faculty, and staff in a college of engineering? This RAPID project will continue until 1-month after the return to face-to-face classes. Data will entail the continuous collection of micro-narratives of participants’ experiences (qualitative data) and responses to a series of survey questions that will prompt participants to make sense of their experiences (quantitative data). These data will be analyzed for patterns to inform immediate actions to improve the experiences of faculty, staff, and students in a college of engineering. These data will also inform future work that will focus on the organizational structures and cultures that contribute to resilient educational ecosystems. The outcomes of this project will include: a) a rich data set of real-time micro-narratives that capture how faculty, staff, and students in a college of engineering experienced the COVID-19 crisis and associated transition to online learning; b) a theoretically-grounded, tested, and validated methodological approach and instrument that can be deployed in times of crisis in STEM programs across the nation to collect real-time data on faculty, staff, and student experiences; and c) a preliminary understanding of what organizational structures and cultures contribute to resilient educational ecosystems and how these structures and cultures can be fostered outside of times of crisis to better prepare STEM programs for future disruptions.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.