Talking about a Revolution: Overview of NSF RED Projects

A significant initiative in engineering education in the U.S. began in 2014 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) initiated the IUSE/PFE: REvolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments (IUSE/PFE: RED) program. The goals of IUSE/PFE: RED (hereinafter referred to as RED) are to “enable engineering and computer science departments to lead the nation by successfully achieving significant sustainable changes necessary to overcome longstanding issues in their undergraduate programs and educate inclusive communities of engineering and computer science students prepared to solve 21-century challenges.” In 2015, six RED projects were funded followed by seven more in 2016. In addition, NSF funded researchers at Rose-Hulman and the University of Washington (called Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments Participatory Action Research REDPAR) to facilitate communication and collaboration among the RED teams and to study the processes followed by RED teams. Overviews of funded RED projects and the collaborative projects across teams are included here. In the conference session, a former RED program officer will introduce the RED program. Then seven RED teams (ASU, Purdue, Oregon State, USD, Colorado State, Iowa State, and Boise State) and the REDPAR team will present highlights from their projects. Session attendees will then engage with RED team members in an interactive format to learn more about the projects, gain insight into how they might prepare their own future RED proposals, see how these projects are changing the landscape of engineering education across the U.S., and consider approaches for applying lessons to their own institutions to enact change. Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments (RED) A significant initiative in engineering education in the U.S. began in 2014 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) initiated the IUSE/PFE: REvolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments (IUSE/PFE: RED) program described in this work in progress. The goals of IUSE/PFE: RED (hereinafter referred to as RED) are to “enable engineering and computer science departments to lead the nation by successfully achieving significant sustainable changes necessary to overcome longstanding issues in their undergraduate programs and educate inclusive communities of engineering and computer science students prepared to solve 21century challenges.” The idea for RED emerged from a high-level review of Engineering Education investments at the NSF. Informed by both internal program evaluations of current and prior programs and external assessments in the engineering education literature [1, 2], the review revealed that while there had been significant progress made in diffusing engineering education innovations in first-year engineering and in capstone design, change had been much slower in the middle years of the curriculum. In particular, while certain workplace-relevant engineering skills such as communication, teamwork, design, ethics, and socio-political contexts of engineering work were by then well embedded in first-year and to varying extents in capstone experiences, these had yet to be threaded through core engineering courses. These core courses in the middle years are critical for retention of all student populations, including especially those entering as transfer students. Senior management felt strongly that department head commitment was critical to any change strategy affecting the middle years, and recent literature on change management highlighted the importance of organizational structure and reward systems both at and beyond the department level [3, 4, 5]. Thus the RED framework, in contrast to prior NSF investments in department-level reform, demanded nothing short of a revolution: built into the key program features were evaluation criteria that efforts be “radically, suddenly, or completely new; producing fundamental, structural change; or going outside of or beyond existing norms and principles” [6]. With an innovative department head or dean at the helm, change had to be rooted in engineering education research, a social science understanding of organizations, and a theoretical change framework that could move research to practice, with team composition reflecting this varied expertise. Faculty development efforts, incorporation of professional practice, and a plan for scalability that countered anticipated obstacles had to be baked in to the original vision and project plan. With NSF investing relatively large amounts of money in unique departmental experiments, it was critical to ensure that each team would serve as a model, propagating change to other institutions in similar and related disciplines. An additional group with expertise in academic change was sought to undertake a meta-study of the entire RED awardee cohort, facilitating communication across awardee teams, ferreting out patterns in change efforts, and identifying differences in change strategies, institutions, disciplines, and other factors that might influence the shape, direction, and rapidity of the revolution locally and nationally. As described by a current RED program officer, Elliot Douglas, the focus of RED projects is on cultural and organizational change. “Faculty often start by thinking about what educational activities they want to implement. But this approach will not be effective if the culture of the department doesn’t change. RED projects start with the cultural change they want to make, and then identify educational approaches to support that cultural change.”[7] Funded RED projects In 2015, the first cohort of six RED projects were funded at Arizona State University (ASU), Colorado State University (CSU), Oregon State University (OSU), Purdue University, University of North Carolina, Charlotte (UNCC) and the University of San Diego (USD). In 2016, the second cohort of seven more projects were funded at Boise State University, Iowa State University, Rowan University, University of Illinois, University of New Mexico, University of Texas at El Paso, and Virginia Tech. In addition, NSF funded researchers at Rose-Hulman and the University of Washington (called REvolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments Participatory Action Research REDPAR) to facilitate communication and collaboration among the RED teams and to study the processes followed by RED teams. All projects that were funded in the first two rounds of the RED program are listed in Table 1 including cohort, title, institution, and department. All are public universities except for USD. Brief summaries of some of these projects and references to other published work are included in the discussion below. Table 1 Funded RED Programs from Cohorts 1 and 2. Cohort Title Institution Department 1 Additive Innovation: An Educational Ecosystem of Making & Risk Taking Arizona State University Engineering 1 Revolutionizing Roles to Reimagine Integrated Systems of Engineering Formation Colorado State University Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) 1 Shifting Department Culture to Re-situate Learning and Instruction Oregon State University Chemical, Biological & Environmental Engineering 1 An Engineering Education Skunkworks to Spark Departmental Revolution Purdue University Mechanical Engineering (ME) 1 The Connected Learner: Design Patterns for Transforming Computing and Informatics Education University of North Carolina, Charlotte Computer Science (CS) 1 Developing Changemaking Engineers University of San Diego School of Engineering 2 Computer Science Professionals Hatchery Boise State University CS 2 Reinventing the Instructional and Departmental Enterprise to Advance the Professional Formation of Electrical and Computer Engineers Iowa State University ECE 2 Rethinking Engineering Diversity, Transforming Engineering Diversity Rowan University Civil & Environmental Engineering 2 Defining the Frontiers of Bioengineering Education at Illinois & Beyond University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign Bioengineering 2 Formation of Accomplished Chemical Engineers for Transforming Society University of New Mexico Chem & Bio Engineering 2 A Model of Change for Preparing a New Generation for Professional Practice in Computer Science University of Texas at El Paso CS 2 Radically Re-designing the Fan-in and Fan-out of an Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Virginia Tech ECE Cohort 1 At Arizona State University, the RED team is taking a systems approach to better understand the educational ecosystem and to support faculty to realize a mindset of additive innovation [8] and pedagogical risk-taking in their classrooms [9]. The team is taking a multi-pronged approach that includes understanding the engineering program’s current culture through experiencecentered narrative research [10], developing an instrument to assess pedagogical risk-taking, developing an understanding of making in the engineering classroom, and tracing impacts of the RED project on other institutions. The team has also developed a conceptual framework that leverages previous work in organizational change theory, higher education, and STEM teaching practices [4, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16] to screen potential faculty interventions to increase the likelihood of success. This framework has facilitated the emergence of faculty-driven affinity groups that will serve as one vehicle for increasing pedagogical risk-taking among faculty. This framework, and examples from our experiences applying the framework, will be presented in this session [17]. At Colorado State University (CSU) the RED team is redefining what it means to teach and learn in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). Approaching the degree from a holistic perspective, they no longer view the ECE program as a set of disparate courses taught by autonomous faculty in “silos,” but as an integrated system that fosters collaboration. They are, in effect, throwing