Systems Engineer. Engineering Educator.

Rebecca M. Reck, Ph.D.

I strive to make instructional laboratories accessible and inclusive spaces for all students, allowing them to learn from hands-on STEM experiences, by creating resources for lab instructors that are informed by rigorous research in all aspects of laboratory course design.

Lab and Design Community of Practice

The Lab and Design Community of Practice was formed in the spring of 2021 with the goal of bringing lab and design instructors together from across the Grainger College of Engineering to address shared challenges.

Accessibility and Inclusion in Undergraduate Labs

Lab and design courses are an integral part of a STEM education, however, there are unique barriers to creating an inclusive space where all students can successfully achieve the learning objectives of the course. This project seeks to identify these barriers and reduce them with evidence-based practices.

Alternative Grading

Alternative grading shifts the focus of grades for each assignment from maximizing the number of points via partial credit to the student’s ability to demonstrate their achievement of the course learning objectives.

SPARK

Strategic Preparation for Academic Resilience and Know-how (SPARK) is an initiative to prepare STEM graduate students who identify as women for faculty careers. We are creating resources and workshops to fill a gap in preparation that isn’t readily available as part of many graduate programs or targeted for an audience of women.

Graduate School

  • On December 5, I presented a webinar for GradSWE on tips for successfully completing your dissertation.  The topics included project management, time management, and writing.

  • At the 2016 American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference, I published a tips and tricks paper about successfully completing a Ph.D.  In this paper, I summarized resources I found useful during my doctoral studies, some advice I was given, and lessons I learned along the way.  The full paper can be accessed from the ASEE website.

  • On May 10, 2016, I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Doctorate of Philosophy in Systems and Entrepreneurial Engineering.  It was not an easy task, but it was a necessary step to achieve my goal of becoming a professor so I pushed through.  Along the way, I identified a few key things that contributed to my success at Illinois:

    1. Advisor(s) have a huge impact on your progress
    2. Project and time management skills are important
    3. Stay focused on the end goal
    4. Find sometime time for yourself
  • On April 1, 2016, I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation in submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Systems and Entrepreneurial Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  My dissertation consisted of three different studies related to experiential learning.

  • At the 2016 SWE Region H conference, I presented at two different sessions.  The first session was about effectively using social media for SWE sections.  The tips in my presentation (embedded below) were based on my experience managing social media for three SWE communities (East Central Iowa section, GradSWE at Illinois committee, and the Women in Academia committee), plus guidance provided by SWE HQ through webinars and guides.  In the second session was about selecting an advisor in Graduate School.  I was one of four panelists with a variety of experiences with advisors in graduate school.