Enhancing Student Performance and Persistence through a Wisdom Community

在改进的本科生STEM教育：拉美裔服务机构(HSI计划)的支持下，该项目旨在利用基于协作和互动学习标准和远程教育原则的创新教学设计模式，在新墨西哥州立大学(NMSU)创建智慧社区(WisCom)。作为一个拉美裔服务机构(HSI)，NMSU服务于大量的拉丁裔学生。由于靠近墨西哥，这些学生中有许多是墨西哥裔美国人，他们经历着社会经济障碍和教育不平等。有了这个项目，本科生将受益于形成一个支持网络，该网络将改善校园内的个人互动和校外的虚拟参与。开发电气和计算机工程领域的WisCom[欧洲经委会-WisCom]将涉及利用虚拟教育空间在学习和教学方面的创新，以促进在线同步和异步交流与协作。欧洲经委会-WisCom平台侧重于在线学习，在远程学习正在成为后CoVID教学格局中的一种永久固定的时刻，这一点很重要。该项目将促进新的实践和活动，这些实践和活动不仅可以在其他NMSU学科中复制和实施，还可以在其他学术环境中复制和实施，包括其他具有类似学生人口统计和特征的少数族裔服务机构(MSI)。NMSU的电气和计算机工程智慧社区的目标是确定和建立最佳实践、有效属性、建议和影响，使用在线媒体和混合现实(MR)空间支持STEM实践社区。研究范式为教育设计与发展研究。它包括分析需求和目标以及探索学习环境，以设计和构建一个实用的欧洲经委会-WisCom学习管理系统(LMS)原型。还将对欧洲经委会-WisCom的设计特点及其对欧洲经委会学生学习成绩的影响进行评价和思考。研究设计包括一种混合方法，用于在MR平台投入使用后对其效果进行评估。设想的MR平台将最大化四个结果：社区、身份形成、批判性思维和学术表现。传播包括开发一个网站，以促进可在其他学术环境中复制的做法和活动，包括其他MSI和HSI。HSI计划旨在加强本科生STEM教育，扩大STEM的参与，并建设HSIS的能力。考虑到HSIS的不同性质和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法来激励机构和社区的变革，并促进基础研究：(I)参与学生的学习，(Ii)关于如何有效地多样化和增加对STEM的参与，以及(Iii)提高STEM本科教育企业对如何建设机构能力以在HSI进行持久变革的理解。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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this project aims to create a Wisdom Community (WisCom) at New Mexico State University (NMSU) using an innovative instructional design model based on collaborative and interactive learning standards and distance education principles. As a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) NMSU serves a large Latinx student population. Due to the proximity with Mexico, many of these students are Mexican Americans who experience socio-economic barriers and educational inequalities. With this project, undergraduate students will benefit from forming a support network that will improve on-campus personal interactions and off-campus virtual- engagement. The development of the WisCom in Electrical and Computer Engineering [ECE-WisCom] will involve innovation in learning and teaching using a virtual educational space to facilitate online synchronous and asynchronous communication and collaboration. The ECE-WisCom platform focuses on online learning, which is important at a time when remote learning is becoming a permanent fixture in the post-COVID pedagogical landscape. The project will facilitate novel practices and activities that could be replicated and implemented not only in other NMSU disciplines, but also in other academic settings, including other minority serving institutions (MSIs) with similar student demographics and characteristics.The Electrical and Computer Engineering Wisdom Community at NMSU’s goal is to identify and establish best practices, impactful attributes, recommendations, and implications for using online media and Mixed Reality (MR) spaces to support STEM communities of practice. The research paradigm is educational design and development research. It includes an analysis of needs and goals and exploration of the learning context to design and construct a functional ECE-WisCom Learning Management System (LMS) prototype. An evaluation and reflection upon the design features of the ECE-WisCom and its effects on ECE students’ academic performance will be conducted as well. The research design consists of a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the efficacy of the MR platform once it is in use. The envisioned MR platform will maximize four outcomes: community, identity formation, critical thinking, and academic performance. The dissemination includes the development of a website to facilitate practices and activities that can be replicated in other academic settings, including other MSIs and HSIs. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research: (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves the STEM undergraduate education enterprise's understanding of how to build institutional capacity to undertake lasting change at HSIs that are supported by this program.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.