BCSER: Exploring Faculty Perception and Self-efficacy in Lab-intensive Online Courses

这一能力建设项目旨在通过强化培训来发展研究人员作为STEM教育研究人员的知识和技能，然后设计和实施一项研究，调查在网上教授实验室密集型STEM课程的工程学教员的认知和自我效能。多方面的专业发展计划包括教育研究的课程工作、研讨会和由教育研究团队提供的指导。这项研究旨在使用混合方法。数据将通过对140名工程指导员的调查以及对其中5名受访者的采访来收集。这一研究成果将增加关于教师在网络教学中的感知和自我效能感的知识。它还将提供对可能阻碍工程和工程技术课程增长的因素的洞察。对美国数千个大专课程的调查表明，实验室密集型课程的在线实施率明显较低。然而，对导致这一趋势的因素的研究一直很有限。本研究将采用序贯解释性混合方法，探讨在实验室密集的网络课程教学中，影响教师知觉与自我效能的潜在因素。研究的第一阶段将就这两个结构对140名教职员工进行调查。第二阶段将采用便利和最大差异抽样策略，有目的地选择五名教师参加半结构化后续访谈，以进一步探索调查结果。研究人员将通过密集的专业发展来发展他在STEM教育研究方面的知识和技能，并将通过设计和进行上述研究的经验来磨练这些知识和技能。该项目得到了EHR核心研究(ECR)计划的STEM教育研究竞赛ECR能力建设的支持。ECR资助基础STEM教育研究项目，重点关注STEM学习和学习环境、扩大STEM领域的参与以及STEM专业劳动力发展。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This capacity-building project is designed to develop the investigator's knowledge and skills as a STEM education researcher through intensive training followed by the design and implementation of a study to investigate the perceptions and self-efficacy of engineering faculty members who teach lab-intensive STEM courses online. The multifaceted professional development plan comprises coursework in educational research, workshops, and mentoring by a team of education researchers. The research is designed to use a mixed methods approach. Data will be collected through a survey of 140 engineering instructors plus interviews of five of the survey respondents. The research findings will add to the body of knowledge on faculty members’ perception and self-efficacy in online teaching. It will also provide insight into factors that may be impeding the growth of engineering and engineering technology programs.Surveys of thousands of postsecondary programs in the United States indicate that lab-intensive programs show a significantly lower rate of online implementation. However, study of the factors contributing to this trend has been limited. Using a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach, this project will probe the underlying factors influencing faculty members’ perception and self-efficacy in teaching lab-intensive online courses. The first phase of the study will survey 140 faculty members on these two constructs. The second phase will employ convenience and maximum variations sampling strategies to purposefully select five faculty for participation in semi-structured follow-up interviews to further explore survey findings. The researcher will develop his knowledge and skills in STEM education research through intensive professional development and will hone these through the experience of designing and conducting the aforementioned study.This project is supported by the ECR Building Capacity in STEM Education Research competition of the EHR Core Research (ECR) program. ECR funds fundamental STEM education research projects that focus on STEM learning and learning environments,broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM professional workforce development.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.