ERM Announcements, September 15, 2020

ERM Announcements for 9/15/2020

 

General Announcements

ERM ANNOUNCEMENT: Join us virtually for FIE – October 21-24, 2020
ERM ANNOUNCEMENT: Call for Abstracts for ASEE 2021
NSF ANNOUNCEMENT: RIEF Webinar – October 2, 2020
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: Recruiting Educators Interested in Co-designing and Implementing Reflection Activities after Exams
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Engineering and Public Policy Division (EDPP) call for abstracts for 2021 ASEE Conference
RESOURCES AVAILABLE: Multiple-choice test analyzer
CALL FOR PAPERS: Higher Education Themed Issue – Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering
RESEARCH STUDY: Survey on natural vocabulary in machine learning
SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT: Participate in the (virtual) Engineering Education Research Seminars at University of Michigan
SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT: CHEER UP Talk Series available online
PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT: University of Michigan Ph.D. and M.S. Programs Engineering Education Research PROSPECTIVE STUDENT OPEN HOUSE

Position Announcements

POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Program Director for Engineering Education in the ENG/Division of Engineering Education and Centers
POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Assistant Professor in Engineering Education Tufts School of Engineering (SoE)

 

General Announcements

ERM ANNOUNCEMENT: Join us virtually for FIE – October 21-24, 2020
The Frontiers in Education (FIE) conference will be held October 21-24 online. The program at a glance (https://www.fie2020.org/program/) is now available and is designed to accommodate as many time zones as possible. We hope this encourages you to attend and engage with conference attendees and attend various presentations throughout the conference as you are able. FIE will be using the online conference platform HopIn for a majority of the sessions, and workshops will be held on Wednesday via Zoom. Registration is currently open (https://www.fie2020.org/registration/). Please note that a new significantly reduced “Participants without paper/presentation” category has been added for attendees. We hope this allows you to join us and be part of FIE 2020! We look forward to “seeing” you in October!

 

ERM ANNOUNCEMENT: Call for Abstracts for ASEE 2021
Just a reminder that the call for abstracts for the ASEE conference is now available online! Please read the ERM call online at https://www.asee.org/uploads_public/conferences/session_owner/call_for_papers_file/0000/2361/2021_ASEE_ERM_Call_for_Abstracts.pdf. The deadline to submit an abstract is October 12. In addition, proposals for panels of invited speakers and workshops can be submitted by emailing Kerrie Douglas, the ERM Program Chair, at douglask@purdue.edu.

We hope to see all of you at ASEE 2021!

 

NSF ANNOUNCEMENT: RIEF Webinar – October 2, 2020
NSF will present a RIEF (Research Initiation in Engineering Formation, NSF 20-558 https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503603) webinar for prospective proposers on October 2, 2020. The presenter will give an overview of the program, and then respond to questions from the attendees. The webinar will be recorded. Please register using the link below so that we know how many people will attend. The webinar will reinforce expectations about the mentoring plan, as described in the solicitation.

Register for this RIEF webinar: https://nsf.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/vJItdu2qrj8uHPM50HREMYgT8i8SRrmunYY

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Contact: Ed Berger at eberger@nsf.gov

 

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: Recruiting Educators Interested in Co-designing and Implementing Reflection Activities after Exams
As part of an ongoing research project to understand how to best utilize reflection activities as a teaching and learning tool, we are looking for 4-5 engineering educators on the quarter system to work with us to explore exam wrappers. An exam wrapper is a reflection activity given after an exam to have students reflect on their exam performance, their exam preparation, connections between performance and preparation, and next steps. During the fall, we will have a series of co-design sessions to help each educator design an exam wrapper appropriate to their class. The goal is to implement the exam wrappers in the winter quarter in order to research knowledge gains and student reactions to reflection activities.

If you are interested, please fill out this interest form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDVT_V9NOkpKmH6D-vEOBq8ZhiCxYV4_Oal9QJtJkMB4yflQ/viewform) by 10/2. We plan to make decisions by 10/5.

Commitment:

Up to 10 hours per quarter as follows:
Fall Quarter: Attend 5 group meetings to co-design an exam wrapper unique to your class and an approach to collecting data on the exam wrapper implementation
Winter Quarter: Implement the exam wrapper at least once and collect data
Spring Quarter: Work with the team to analyze and prepare a manuscript
Benefits: Professional Development, Work with other educators, Learn more about reflection, Opportunity to publish

We have two upcoming info sessions if you would like to know more about the opportunity.

Zoom Info Session on 9/18 (Friday) 9am-10am
Zoom Info Session on 9/21 (Monday) 1pm-2pm
If we have more people interested than we have spots, we will give priority to individuals who are on a quarter system (to help us align with each other), believe in the power of reflection, teach large classes (i.e., 50+), and help us have a spread of class contexts (i.e., disciplines, topics, pedagogical approaches).

Please email kmejia@uw.edu with questions.

 

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Engineering and Public Policy Division (EDPP) call for abstracts for 2021 ASEE Conference
The ASEE-Engineering and Public Policy Division (EPPD) invites abstracts for papers, proposals for full sessions, panel discussions and other session formats for the 2021 annual conference, to be held (hopefully!) in Long Beach California, June 27-30, 2021. The mission of the EPPD is twofold: (1) to promote public policy curricula in engineering education through the development of courses, modules, programs, and case studies. This includes teaching subjects such as public policy, how policy affects the practice of engineering and vice versa, and how teaching students about public policy affects their careers; and (2) to promote dialog on policy issues affecting engineering education and engineering research at institutions. We welcome submissions related to any of the diverse areas of public policy that impact engineering education. The call for papers is online (https://www.asee.org/annual-conference/2021/paper-management/call-for-papers#cfp_2364) and EPP would like to co-sponsor events and to nudge folks who may have policy work to share. Our division membership is heavy on top administration who understandably aren’t doing research or teaching, but we welcome your stories about policy issues on your campuses.

Contact: Beth Cady at ecady@nae.edu

 

RESOURCES AVAILABLE: Multiple-choice test analyzer
How many instructors revise their multiple-choice tests based on their students’ responses? If one wishes to make a better multiple-choice test, a statistical analysis of these responses could be helpful. We have developed a freely available web-based program to analyze a multiple-choice test, and it requires no programming experience – just your student response data and the answer key in two excel spreadsheets. The program outputs a pdf file that goes beyond the usual scoring but includes many other metrics, which would help the instructor to revise the test for improving its reliability. The outputs include difficulty index, discrimination index, Cronbach alpha, item response theory, and distractor analysis. It also outputs if a question should be kept or removed based on four different criteria. The source code is open-access, and we invite others to improve it.

The description is given here at https://www.garrickadenbuie.com/project/mc-test-analysis/

The program can be accessed at https://apps.garrickadenbuie.com/mctestanalysis/

How to make the input excel files is at http://www.eng.usf.edu/~kaw/MCTestAnalysis/MCTestAnalysis_input.pdf

An example of a hypothetical output report is here at https://www.garrickadenbuie.com/project/2017-07-06-mc-test-analysis_files/MCTestAnalysis_Example-Report.pdf

The source code for developers is at https://github.com/gadenbuie/mctestanalysis

Contact: Autar Kaw at kaw@usf.edu

 

CALL FOR PAPERS: Higher Education Themed Issue – Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering
The Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering (JWM) is pleased to announce a Themed Issue on Reimagining STEM Higher Education Research with Guest Editors Drs. Walter Lee and Sarah Rodriguez. We invite those working in this area to submit original papers that focus on social and political identities (e.g., race, gender, class, sexual orientation, disability) that are structurally linked to systems of oppression. Articles should focus on one or more aspects of the STEM higher education system (e.g., policy, structure, pedagogy, course content, ecology) and may address any combination of undergraduate students, graduate students, post-docs, and/or faculty in a range of higher education contexts (e.g., community colleges, minority-serving institutions, rural).

We will accept the following types of papers: (1) Position Papers presenting an arguable opinion, plan of action, or agenda; (2) Methods Papers interrogating methodologies, approaches, or techniques; and (3) Theory Papers interrogating frameworks, conceptual models, or paradigms. Questions to consider include: How might we better use theories to promote equity in STEM higher education? What research methods are best suited for generating the sorts of insights needed to promote equity in STEM higher education? How might we reconceptualize how we design a STEM curriculum? What lines of inquiry should be prioritized by social scientists and education researchers focused on equity in STEM higher education? If you are uncertain about the suitability of an idea, please ask one of the guest editors.

The due date for abstracts is October 9th, 2020. Please see the Call for Papers for additional information: https://tinyurl.com/JWMThemedIssue

Walter C. Lee (walterl@vt.edu) and Sarah L. Rodriguez (Sarah.Rodriguez@tamuc.edu)

Guest Editors, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering (JWM)

 

RESEARCH STUDY: Survey on natural vocabulary in machine learning
Calling all those interested in improving tags and engineers’ search for machine learning/data mining research materials!

Please consider participating in a survey geared toward gathering the natural vocabulary used for finding ML concepts. The data will be used to create a mapping between subject tags and user’s natural language for these concepts, in the hopes of improving search and to educate researchers on different search terms for ML techniques.

Please consider taking and sharing the (20 min.) survey. As a thank you for participating, your email (if you choose to provide one) will be entered into a drawing for a $100 Amazon gift card. Also, all who participate may receive a copy of the concept mappings from this research.

https://pitt.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9RkgBB3E68iZlZj.

 

SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT: Participate in the (virtual) Engineering Education Research Seminars at University of Michigan
The University of Michigan Engineering Education Research Program is excited to be able to invite you to our 2020-2021 EER Seminar Series. Building on anti-racist momentum from the summer, we’ve decided to use our EER seminar platform to both amplify the work of Black and other minoritized scholars and to showcase research about the experiences of minoritized engineering students and/or engineers. Because of COVID uncertainty, we’ve planned for all of the seminars (through spring 2021) to take place virtually, via Zoom.

We have an incredible lineup (see below)! The seminars are all scheduled for Wednesdays, at 3:30 – 4:30pm EST, and most events are open to the interested public (though you must register to attend). More information, as well as registration details, will be available on https://eer.engin.umich.edu/events-seminars/ a few weeks before each talk, and you may sign up to receive email reminders and registration links for the seminars using this interest form: (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScVyS9joC9iHcoVLtvWuo939wn1ekHlVhBHZgBmVdIhpQ7TRA/viewform).

2020-2021 EER Seminar Series

· 9/9/20 Monique Ross, Florida International University

· 9/23/20 Stephanie Masta & Alice Pawley, Purdue University

· 10/7/20 Walter Lee, Virginia Tech

· 10/28/20 Rosemary Perez, University of Michigan

· 11/18/20 James Holly, Jr, Wayne State University

· 1/27/21 Danny Caballero, Michigan State University

· 2/17/21 Kelly Cross, University of Nevada – Reno

· 3/10/21 Adam Kirn, University of Nevada – Reno

· 3/24/21 Inês DeReito, University College London

· 4/14/21 Laura Hirshfield, University of Michigan

We look forward to seeing you soon!

The University of Michigan Engineering Education Program

 

SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT: CHEER UP Talk Series available online
This summer, almost 400 people registered and participated in the Cambridge Handbook of Engineering Education Research: Updated Perspectives (CHEER UP) talk series. Thank you to all of the participants from around the world and to the authors who made time for the sessions. The hope is to continue the series later this year or next summer. Videos of all the sessions from summer 2020 are now available online at https://bit.do/cheerupvideos

For more information, contact Aditya Johri at George Mason University at johri@gmu.edu.

 

PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT: University of Michigan Ph.D. and M.S. Programs Engineering Education Research PROSPECTIVE STUDENT OPEN HOUSE
We are excited to invite all interested students to attend an open house to learn about the UM’s graduate program in Engineering Education Research (EER). UM’s EER program represents a unique, interdisciplinary model: several tenure-line EER faculty are embedded within the traditional engineering departments, while EER graduate students are part of a college-wide program. This allows the EER faculty and their research to be well-integrated with the traditional engineering disciplines, and it provides students a better opportunity to engage in innovative research and make scholarly contributions to the engineering education community. An EER graduate degree will provide students with career opportunities in academia, nonprofit organizations, and industry. More information about the program is available at our EER website (https://eer.engin.umich.edu/).

We will be hosting a Virtual EER Prospective Student Open House on Thursday and Friday, 10/08/20 and 10/09/20 via Zoom (zoom link will be emailed prior to the meeting). Students from all institutions are invited to attend. Participants will hear about the program, meet faculty and graduate students, tour (virtually) the beautiful University of Michigan campus, and learn about career opportunities as a UM graduate in this field. Note that applicants to the EER graduate program must have Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in a traditional engineering discipline.

Please register to attend at this open house registration site (https://umich.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6o3uvit5UsOu52R), and please forward this link to any friends who may be interested. Email us for more information at eerprogram@umich.edu.

Can’t make it to the open house but are interested in applying? Visit the EER website (https://eer.engin.umich.edu/) to learn more about the graduate program. We hope you will consider UM as you decide to pursue your graduate studies in engineering education.

 

 

Position Announcements

 

POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Program Director for Engineering Education in the ENG/Division of Engineering Education and Centers
Reminder: NSF is seeking applicants for the Program Director position for engineering education research in the EEC division. The PD is responsible for RFE, RIEF, RED, CAREER and many other associated research programs. See the recent Dear Colleague Letter at https://beta.nsf.gov/careers/openings/eng/eec/eec-2020-1215 for more information. To explore this opportunity in more detail, contact Ed Berger (eberger@nsf.gov).

 

POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Assistant Professor in Engineering Education Tufts School of Engineering (SoE)
Tufts SoE invites applications for an Assistant Professor in Engineering Education Research, for a primary appointment in any of its six departments – Computer Science department; or Biomedical, Chemical and Biological, Civil and Environmental, Electrical and Computer, or Mechanical Engineering departments. The position also will be affiliated with the Institute for Research on Learning and Instruction (IRLI) (http://sites.tufts.edu/irli/).

Along with IRLI, this position is designed to support discipline-based education research, at levels including undergraduate. Required qualifications include graduate-level preparation in a STEM field; an earned doctorate in that field, the learning sciences, or a related area; and a promising research trajectory. Responsibilities include the pursuit of a program of scholarly research in STEM Education; teaching undergraduate courses in their disciplinary field (Engineering or Computer Science); teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in the learning sciences; and advising students. We are especially interested in receiving applications from those having a research focus on the impacts of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in engineering education.

Application materials should be submitted online to http://apply.interfolio.com/66334. Candidates are encouraged to demonstrate throughout their application their attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion as these topics relate to teaching, research, and engagement within the academic environment.

Review of applications will begin December 1, 2020 and will continue until the position is filled. Please contact the search chair, Chris Swan at chris.swan@tufts.edu for more information.