At the 2018 American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference, I published a paper about an innovative assignment that I created to help students connect theories from class to real-life applications. The full paper can be accessed from the ASEE website.
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Four years ago, I committed to several writing goals for November also known as academic writing month (#AcWriMo). That was one of my most productive months of writing. I wrote over 13,000 words and had over 60 hours of productive time collecting or analyzing data.
This year, I also have a lot to write including two conference papers, a grant proposal, a journal paper to polish, and new blogs for my website. So, I’m once again committing to academic writing month. My daily writing and research goals for 2018 are:
- Write at least 500 words,
- Read at least one source for a literature review, and
- Complete at least one hour of additional productive research time (e.g. data processing, planning, training, project organization).
I have one additional month-long goal this year; to figure out how to sustain the above research productivity beyond November. The daily goals meet the criteria for S.M.A.R.T. goals. They are all specific and measurable. Once a day makes them time-bound and they are relevant given the writing projects I have for this month. All three goals are likely achievable because the first and last goals are the same as 2014 and the second goal is a required part of the writing projects. The additional month-long goal is specific, measurable, and time-bound. I know it is relevant to completing my research goals to earn promotion and tenure. However, I also know it is a stretch goal which means achievable is not going to be an easy task. Given it is relevant to achieving my research goals and being a successful academic, I am committed to trying.
As I did in 2014, I am going to track and share my progress on my daily goals. This year I will be adding a reflection and adaptation step to help work toward the sustainable daily research and writing goal.
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At the 2017 Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference, I published the results of a comparison of lab kits using the control systems laboratory framework (CSLF) that I published earlier this year in the IEEE Transactions on Education. The paper also includes a suggested process for using the CSLF in new laboratory development (see photo above). The full paper can be accessed in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.
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Read more: Applying a common framework to develop undergraduate control systems laboratory kits
At the 2017 Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference, I published a paper about teaching assistants (TAs). The observations about the influence of TAs in the laboratory emerged from the laboratory equipment study that I conducted during my dissertation. Based on student comments during the original study, the TAs had an impact on the learning environment in the laboratory. The full paper can be accessed in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.
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Read more: The influence of teaching assistants in an undergraduate engineering laboratory course