Browsing by Author "McNair, Lisa D."

Now showing 1 - 14 of 14
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    Adaptive Life-Long Learning for an Inclusive Knowledge Economy
    Arnold, Amy; Lindsey, Andrew; McCoy, Andrew P.; Khademian, Anne M.; Lockee, Barbara B.; Adams, Carol; Amelink, Catherine T.; Blankenship, Chip; Glover, Christopher; Harris, Chrystal; Hoyle, Clayton; Potts, Colin; Pike, Dale; Whittaker, Dale; Kjellsson, Daniel; Hare, David; Tegarden, David P.; Tinapple, David; Ucko, David; Nahapetian, Eta; Hou, Feng; Holmes, Glen A.; Keyel, Jared; Garrett, Jeff; Joo, Jenna; McPhee, Joel; Boyer, John D.; Flato, John; Lister, Jonothan; Haldane, Joseph; Greenwood, Julie; Sanders, Karen Eley; Bruce, Karla; Lindsey, Kate; Carlson, Kimberly; Wingfeld, Kristin; Hamilton, Laura; McNair, Lisa D.; Kamlet, Mark; Semmel, Marsha; Holt, Matthew; Richey, Michael; Kumar, Mukul; Spivy, Nene; Cardwell, Owen; Holloway, Rachel L.; Swearer, Randy; Hall, Ralph P.; Clark-Stallkamp, Rebecca; Mazer, Robert; Smith, Robert; Reynolds, Roger; Bess, Diego Scott; Weimer, Scott; Sagheb, Shahabedin; Garmise, Sheri; Ashburn, Sherrell; Johnson, Sylvester; Cardone, Taran; Nicewonger, Todd; Martin, Tom; Quick, Tom; Rikakis, Thanassis; Skuzinski, Thomas; Contomanolis, Manny (Calhoun Center for Higher Education Innovation, 2020-08-24)
    This report addresses the globalized knowledge economy in the 21st century; not only as it exists today, but the knowledge economy needed to meet the demands of tomorrow. This report proposes that in order for our knowledge economy to grow and be sustainable, it must be inclusive in ways that enable it to adapt to—and incorporate within it—the personal and professional growth of a large and diverse body of lifelong learners. In this introduction, we first define what we mean by inclusive knowledge and explain how our proposed definition expands some of the traditional understandings. We then show that an expansive and dynamic conceptualization of knowledge increases inclusion and promotes lifelong adaptive learning as a mindset and a practice.
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    A Case Study of an Interdisciplinary Design Course for Pervasive Computing
    Coupey, Eloise; McNair, Lisa D. (IEEE, 2010)
    This paper provides a case study of an interdisciplinary design project course for pervasive computing products. As a team of faculty from computer engineering, industrial design, and marketing, we have run several interdisciplinary design projects with teams of undergraduates from those disciplines. Our paper will detail our process for each of these projects and how that process has evolved with each offering of the course.
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    Comparative Dimensions of Disciplinary Culture
    Martin, Thomas L.; McNair, Lisa D.; Paretti, Marie C. (ASEE, 2015)
    Despite calls to promote creativity as “an indispensable quality for engineering” [1], the U.S. engineering educational system has been slow to develop pedagogies that successfully promote innovative behaviors. Engineers need more creativity and interdisciplinary fluency, but engineering instructors often struggle to provide such skills without sacrificing discipline-specific problem-solving skills. At the same time, engineering programs continue to struggle with attracting and retaining members of underrepresented populations—populations whose diversity could greatly contribute to innovation. Interestingly, the lack of diversity in engineering is often attributed to cultural traits of the field, which is often characterized as masculine, individualistic, and function-oriented. To address these issues, we have undertaken a 3-year study to investigate patterns of cultural traits in students across disciplines, and to build an actionable theory of engineering culture that can support pedagogies of inclusive and collaborative innovation as well as strategies for recruiting and retention efforts. In this paper, we present preliminary results from our survey in order to define how Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture map to 14 majors in a research university. Specifically, we are applying Hofstede’s original four dimensions of national business cultures (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity) [2] to academic disciplines to explain how students develop skills to operate within and across disciplinary boundaries. To do so, we are addressing the following research questions: 1. How do Hofstede’s dimensions of national cultures map to academic disciplines? 2. Do different majors have different disciplinary cultures according to Hofstede’s dimensions? This research purpose is to understand how students in different disciplines behave and perceive their majors. The information presented builds up on a pilot study where we applied Hofstede’s instrument with no major findings. However, we improved the survey based on the responses and expanded it outside engineering majors.
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    Houselessness: Myth vs. Data
    Nicewonger, Todd; Fritz, Stacey; McNair, Lisa D. (The Arctic Institute, 2022-06-07)
    This brief draws on an ongoing remote ethnographic study examining how varying modes of housing insecurity are experienced by Alaskans. This includes: • an introduction to the term “houselessness,” which describes shifting modes of housing insecurity caused by socio-economic changes and unanticipated life events, but also housing shortages, difficulties acquiring land and permission for building new housing, and (especially for some Indigenous groups) the foreign nature of home financing. • reflections on the precarious living situations that Alaskans from rural communities’ experience across their lifetimes. • the need for further qualitative research that interrogates how assumptions about houselessness are experienced by Alaskans in different contexts, not least because the term houselessness is a proactive attempt to delimit narrowly defined and demeaning terms such as homelessness.
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    Innovation Pathways Minor
    Fralin, Scott; McNair, Lisa D.; Junkunc, Marc; Baum, Liesl M.; Zacharias, Kari (Virginia Tech, 2016-03-25)
    Informative exhibit featuring courses from the Innovation Pathways minor. The Innovation Minor is a step towards an interdisciplinary learning experience where students can study innovation and ideation techniques and be immersed into the entrepreneurial process through courses in multiple colleges and disciplines – mirroring the experiences they will be facing in the industrial sector. The courses featured in this exhibit, Innovation: Collaboration, Culture, Context, CREATE!, and Startup: Managing Technology Commercialization, are the core of the Innovation minor.
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    An intersectional analysis of the English-competency experiences of international teaching assistants
    Agrawal, Ashish; McNair, Lisa D. (STAR Scholars Network, 2021-12-07)
    International graduate students serving as teaching assistants constitute a major component of the teaching of undergraduate students at U.S. universities, particularly in engineering. Prior literature on these international teaching assistants (ITAs) generally characterizes their linguistic experiences as challenges. This characterization can be attributed to an institutional environment that is reluctant to accommodate diverse ways of speaking English. This study applies an intersectionality framework to explore the variations in ITAs’ English-language experiences and the influence of the academic context on these experiences using semi-structured interviews and weekly reflections collected from seven engineering ITAs over a semester. Results of data analysis suggest that ITAs’ English proficiency varies based on their prior exposure to English in their home countries, and their English competence improves through their teaching experiences in the United States. Participants’ experiences also highlight a perceived expectation to not only use English while teaching but also to adapt to American English.
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    A Longitudinal Study of the Dimensions of Disciplinary Culture to Enhance Innovation and Retention among Engineering Students
    Murzi, Homero; Martin, Thomas L.; McNair, Lisa D.; Paretti, Marie C. (2016-06)
    The U.S. engineering educational system has been generally slow in developing pedagogies that successfully promote innovative behaviors. Although numerous sources recognize the growing scope and complexity of challenges that lie ahead in the 21st century, engineering is struggling to balance its goals between the high-risk pursuit of innovation and the traditional problem-solving approach of producing functional, reliable applications. In short, engineering needs more creativity and interdisciplinary fluency, but not at the expense of its discipline-specific problem-solving skills. At the same time, engineering programs continue to struggle with attracting and retaining members of underrepresented populations—whose diversity could greatly contribute to innovation. Interestingly, this lack of diversity is often attributed to cultural traits of the field—often characterized as masculine, individualistic and function-oriented. Notably, students in fields that emphasize functionality (e.g. engineering) rather than creativity (e.g. industrial design) express higher levels of uncertainty avoidance. Together, these cultural dimensions of engineering continue to limit innovative practices, such as interdisciplinary collaboration, design thinking, and diversity of perspectives. The purpose of this study is to investigate patterns of cultural traits in students across disciplines, with the goal of building an actionable theory of engineering culture that can support pedagogies of inclusive and collaborative innovation. Specifically, we are using Hofstede’s theory of dimensions of national culture to understand engineering disciplinary culture. We are using an instrument to evaluate the original four dimensions of national culture (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity) to see if the dimensions map to academic disciplines to explain how students develop skills to operate within and across disciplinary boundaries. Furthermore, we are exploring the relationships between these dimensions of disciplinary culture and student recruitment and retention, particularly for underrepresented groups. We are in the third year of a mixed methods study. During year 1, 1043 students from all the disciplines at one institution were surveyed. In year 2, 1199 undergraduate students across 6 institutions were surveyed, and 5 students in electrical and computer engineering were interviewed. During year 3, the survey will go out during the spring semester 2016, and 24 students will be interviewed. Quantitative results describe how undergraduate students in different disciplines understand their culture in terms of Hofstede’s dimensions. However, although we were able to confirm the validity of the instrument with the quantitative data collected, there have not been statistically significant differences between the majors studied, suggesting that the instrument used was to measure the dimensions of culture at the national level rather than at the academic level. In order to continue exploring whether Hofstede’s national cultures map to disciplinary cultures in universities, we are collecting qualitative data (informed by the quantitative results) to obtain in-depth information of how students understand and perceive their disciplines in terms of Hofstede’s dimensions. Results from our research will provide valuable information to understand disciplinary cultures in engineering majors, and contribute to better understanding how to improve engineering culture to make engineers more innovative, to make engineering classrooms more welcoming and inclusive, and to make better decisions regarding curriculum development in engineering.
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    MAKER: An Ethnography of Maker and Hacker Spaces Achieving Diverse Participation
    Riley, Donna M.; McNair, Lisa D.; Masters, Sheldon (ASEE, 2017-06)
    Some have hailed the emergence of maker spaces as an opportunity to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, engaging participants in open, creative, and supportive spaces for learning and applying practical STEM knowledge. Others have questioned the potential of these spaces, as many maker and hacker spaces seem to be enacting certain norms that are more conducive to participation of white, male, middle-class, able-bodied hobbyists. Nonetheless, there are spaces noted for participation of homeless makers, women, people of color, and people with different kinds of abilities. This project considers how diverse maker spaces are conceived, constructed and operated to actively involve groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM, and collectively identify practices that can inform the design and operation of campus and community maker or hacker spaces that presently struggle to achieve diversity. The research employs ethnographic methods and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to characterize spaces in terms of their physical and linguistic artifacts. Here we report results from preliminary research examining online and published artifacts from our cohort of diverse maker spaces in preparation for direct observations beginning in summer 2017. Research questions explored through this first phase of the project include: (1) What practices and artifacts do participants in diverse maker and hacker spaces employ to establish and maintain environments that are diverse and inclusive? (2) What does the discourse in diverse maker and hacker spaces reveal about how meaning and value are co-constructed around identity, creativity, and the culture of production / the production of culture in engineering? (3) What best practices emerge from diverse maker and hacker spaces, and how can these translate to design or transformation of existing maker spaces on campuses and in communities?
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    Project-Based Learning for a Second-Year ECE Design Course
    Schuman, Andrea (Virginia Tech, 2022-11-29)
    The second and third “middle year” curricula of typical undergraduate electrical and computer engineering (ECE) programs consist of technical courses that teach students the fundamentals of their field. Project-based learning that involves more authentic applications of knowledge is often absent from these courses. These years have notable attrition, but relevant design projects can motivate engineering students by reminding them what they enjoy about the field and showing them that their work can benefit society. In this paper, the author describes a project for a second-year ECE laboratory design course where students design a miniature autonomous tractor robot. This project was created to use skills across first- and second-year courses to make a challenging but achievable capstone aligned with Virginia Tech’s ECE curriculum revision that expands the range of disciplinary experiences for students. The foundational knowledge students will be required to integrate into their de- sign are a simple controls system, microcontroller programming, Bluetooth communication, and circuit design. This paper gives all project assignment materials and an example solution, which is detailed in the sub-system unit tests. The effectiveness of this project in terms of the quality of the materials, the alignment of skills to course goals, the appropriateness to the relevant student population, and encouraging student engagement were qualitatively assessed by pilot studies of usability and faculty assessment. The results verified that this project was designed well and is a good fit for the course. Other benefits of the project’s design are that its context and goals can be adapted between semesters to prevent cheating or to scale the difficulty for the students. The amount of support provided to students from the setup materials can be adapted based on student experience. The assessment of this project showed many options to extend the hardware, software, or theoretical difficulty if needed. When implemented, this project should lead to the integration of technical skills between courses, expose gaps in knowledge, and encourage students to engage with a relevant design context.
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    Self-Organizing Units in an Interdisciplinary Course for Pervasive Computing Design
    McNair, Lisa D.; Newswander, Chad; Coupey, Eloise; Dorsa, Edward A.; Martin, Tom; Paretti, Marie C. (ASEE, 2009-06)
    We conducted a case study of a design course that focused on bringing together students from engineering, industrial design, and marketing to use pervasive computing technologies to design, coordinate, and build a “smart” dorm room for disabled individuals. The class was loosely structured to encourage innovation, critical thinking and interdisciplinarity. In this environment, teams were created, disassembled, and re-created in a self-organizing fashion. With few norms, teams were expected to be interdisciplinary, form quickly, and work together by creatively integrating their disciplinary expertise. In observing this semester-long class, we found certain conditions that will enhance pedagogical tools designed to expedite team formation and improve collaborative practices in a classroom setting. Similar to open source software development, we found that groups can form randomly in a loosely coordinated environment that is both self-managing and self-directing if instructors create a strong normative foundation to the class. In this case study, we observed that the applied concept of self-organizing buffered with strong faculty input invests group members with a greater commitment to be productive, effective, and innovative.
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    Situativity Approaches for Improving Interdisciplinary Team Processes
    Kim, Kahyun; McNair, Lisa D.; Coupey, Eloise; Martin, Tom; Dorsa, Edward A.; Kemnitzer, Ron (ASEE, 2010)
    Interdisciplinary teaming requires not only multiple levels of expertise but also social competencies gained through interactive contexts. In the classroom, a situativity approach that encourages student engagement can help students learn to value differing perspectives. To foster students’ interdisciplinary collaborative skills, an interdisciplinary capstone design class that brings students and faculty from electrical and computer engineering, industrial design, and marketing was developed and twelve fourth-year students participated (four from each discipline). The students were tasked with designing a next generation firefighter helmet that incorporates innovative computing technology. Various interventions such as learning modules and teaming exercises were implemented throughout the class to help students learn how to communicate across disciplines. Direct observation, interviews, questionnaires, and assessment of course assignments indicated both benefits and limitations of the class. Implications and future directions are also discussed.
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    Spectrum of Modularity: An Alaskan Case Study of Modular Housing Types
    Nicewonger, Todd; Fritz, Stacey; McNair, Lisa D.; Tinsley, Ryan; Armstrong, Taj (2023-08-16)
    To communicate and utilize research of different options for Alaskan housing, a framework for comparison is necessary. The design work in this document attempts to unify our language and model for approaching modularity in housing by using a set of visual guides to compare variables and characteristics of different housing styles.
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    Teaching Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Learning Barriers and Classroom Strategies
    Richter, David M.; Paretti, Marie C.; McNair, Lisa D. (ASEE, 2009)
    Educators have known for some time that simply putting students in teams is not sufficient to teach teamwork; instead, students need explicit instruction and guidance in teaming to work effectively. A similar principle applies to interdisciplinary teamwork: putting students in interdisciplinary teams – an increasingly common practice in engineering education – is not sufficient to teach interdisciplinary collaboration. Nor are traditional teaming skills alone enough to enable students to work effectively across interdisciplinary boundaries. This paper addresses this gap in teaching practices by first briefly identifying barriers to students successfully engaging in interdisciplinary collaboration and defining corresponding measurable learning outcomes. It then focuses in detail on teaching practices designed to help students achieve the learning outcomes. These findings have been developed from a multi-case study of interdisciplinary collaboration in a green engineering program that draws students from multiple engineering disciplines as well as business, industrial design, and related fields.
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    Work in progress: Creating a climate of increased motivation and persistence for electrical and computer engineering students: A project-based learning approach to integrated labs
    Ball, Arthur; Baum, Liesl M.; McNair, Lisa D. (2019-06-15)
    This work in progress studies the impact on students and faculty and their perceived value of integrating project-based labs with lectures on student learning in a sophomore-level electrical and computer engineering course. Historically, engineering courses have been structured with a division between the theoretical lecture and the applied lab, preventing students from making clear connections between the two. Today's students do not find this legacy approach effective [1], [2]. In order to enhance student learning and concept retention in a large electrical and computer engineering program, a faculty team is redesigning the sophomore year experience using a project-based learning approach. This study describes the work of one instructor teaching a freshman-level course as part of the experience of exploring the full integration of labs and lectures that incorporate industry-level, real-world problems. The questions we seek to address are: How does integration of project-based lab and lecture contribute to students' perceptions of value, motivation and success? How does integration of project-based lab and lecture contribute to instructors' perceptions of value and motivation to modernize instruction? In this paper we discuss the historical approach to the design of the course, which we discovered was from the early 1980s, the time of the last major curriculum revision. In addition, using the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation together with course data, we present baseline data from current students and instructors in regards to overall performance. Finally, using the MUSIC Model and course data from instructors and students in the revised course, we report some insight on perceived value and performance in order to make comparisons between the old and revised curriculum. Additional data sources were pulled from student feedback as well as analytic memos from the instructor. For the purpose of this paper, the combination and cross-analysis of this data resulted in a set of lessons learned and recommendations for faculty looking to adjust the design of their course to be more integrative. For the broader purpose of this grant project, this data will be used to influence the trajectory of the course and refine methods for more thorough integration of the labs. While our original expectation was that the integration of project-based labs would increase student success, as measured by course grade distribution as well as self-reported perceptions through the use of the MUSIC survey, we actually found little to no change in these measures. In addition, we anticipated the results from the research would reveal that having students participate in industry-level, real-world scenarios would contribute to increased authenticity students assign to the course content, also to which we found little to no change. Even though our original presumptions were unfounded in these two specific quantitative measurements, there are several other factors that have arisen that allow us to nevertheless make meaningful recommendations to other electrical and computer engineering instructors, as well as department administration, as we continue to modernize the student experience.