Transforming Pockets of Innovation into Institutional Structures for Learning

About This Grant

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Implementation and Evaluation Project (IEP) aims to develop and document more effective ways to disseminate research-informed programs and practices aimed at instruction and student learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Building new bridges among the islands of innovation that exist in any college campus is key to improving student success and thus a larger, more proficient STEM workforce. Obstacles to broader adoption of these promising practices include a lack of awareness of the practices and the benefits they produce for both students and faculty, lack of support for faculty as they adapt the practices to fit the unique circumstances of their different academic departments, and a lack of time and resources to support these efforts. This project will test ways to overcome these obstacles by expanding two existing successful initiatives across additional CU Denver academic units. Our project goals are (1) to expand the Learning Assistants (LA) program for courses in which a large percentage of students earn Ds or Fs or withdraw before the end of the semester. We will adapt the LA program to address challenges that engineering students frequently encounter, and three courses will be identified by a systematic review of recent grades, current and projected enrollment, and expertise of the assigned instructors. (2) Expand our faculty Pedagogy Academy and customize it for engineering instructors, enabling them to incorporate active learning strategies that are proven to boost student comprehension and grades, especially in STEM courses. Three faculty from each of our five engineering departments (15 in total) will participate in this revised Pedagogy Academy. (3) Generate knowledge from these scaling and adaptation efforts and disseminate lessons learned across campus and with other higher education institutions. Evaluation activities will include pre- and post-surveys with students and faculty participating in the programs, focus groups, and tracking course grades, graduation rates, and the number entering the engineering workforce after graduation. Knowledge sharing activities will include publication in academic journals, conference presentations, and networking at the local, state and national levels. This project is funded by the HSI Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, and increase capacity to engage in the development and implementation of innovations to improve STEM teaching and learning at HSIs. 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.