Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Understanding Instructors Curriculum Planning Process for the Refinement and Dissemination of a Digital Platform to Share Transportation Education Materials

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/rx913t36j

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  • Background The National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded multiple research projects dedicated to the development of research and evidence based instructional strategies in an effort to improve the state of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in the US. These efforts have led to an abundance of research based curricular materials and instructional practices. While these efforts have been shown to positively affect student learning, there is little evidence that these materials and methods are shared between instructors. Purpose In order to better understand what is hindering the dissemination and adoption of research based curricular components, more insight is needed into the curriculum planning and sharing processes of engineering educators. This thesis is a collection of four chapters that describe efforts to understand and improve those planning and sharing practices. Methods Interviews were conducted with twenty-four transportation engineering instructors about their curriculum planning and sharing practices in order to better understand the decision making process as it relates to course planning, as well as to determine characteristics of curricular components that instructors implement in their classrooms. These results in conjunction with the results of two rounds of usability testing performed by potential users are being utilized to develop and refine a web based repository where engineering educators can easily access and share curricular materials and best practices. Results Instructors spoke most often about lecture components when asked about developing courses. Instructors often made changes to materials they already had, and did not directly implement materials they borrowed from others, but rather modified the materials to fit into their existing courses. Instructors had three main reasons for changing materials; incorporating active learning elements, including real world or contemporary materials, and providing greater clarity to students. The usability testing revealed inconsistencies with users' expectations of categorization of materials and concerns with security of materials, both of which have been addressed through changes to the system. Conclusions Those developing research based instructional strategies should focus on developing curricular components that are (1) easy for instructors to incorporate into their existing courses, (2) easily modifiable, (3) can be transferred from one subject to the next, and (4) can be incorporated into lectures. They should also focus on including active learning elements into instructional strategies. These combined efforts to design a web based repository with end users in mind can facilitate greater of sharing, adoption and dissemination of curricular materials and best practices within engineering education.  
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file details PetersAllieS2015.pdf 2017-08-17 Público Descargar