Assessment Of The Vanth Engineering Research Center On Graduate Students

The Vanderbilt-Northwestern-Texas-Harvard/MIT (VaNTH) Engineering Research Center, started in 1999, has focused on improving bioengineering education through the applications of learning science, learning technology, and assessment and evaluation within the domain of bioengineering. The work led to the development of novel approaches to instruction based upon the “How People Learn” (HPL) framework using the technology of the STAR Legacy Cycle. Graduate students worked with faculty within VaNTH to use the “How People Learn” framework elements to develop teaching modules that produced greater learning with understanding about bioengineering than traditional strategies. This paper discusses results of the exploratory quantitative survey on the impact of the VaNTH experience on participating graduate students. The results evaluate whether participants’ familiarity with the HPL framework changes with participation in the VaNTH ERC. Furthermore, self-reports about their participation in the VaNTH ERC provides insight into what graduate students identified as take away lessons for their careers. Finally, sharing their views on the concept of effective instruction generate demonstrates whether thinking about learning and teaching impacts their understanding of the process. This paper will equally focus on how to tie the results of the exploratory study to the emergent explanatory protocol designed to understand more fully the experience of graduate student participants while working with the VaNTH ERC.