CoP

In the spring of 2021, I started looking for collaborators who were interested in research in undergraduate laboratories.  Through the power of professional networks, six of us began meeting to identify a project for the Strategic Instructional Innovation Program in the Academy for Excellence in Engineering Education (AE3) in the Grainger College of Engineering (GCoE) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  The first project we identified was to create a community of practice (CoP) of instructors of laboratory and design courses.  Since then, the community of practice has continued to grow and expand its impact.  

Read more about the Lab and Design CoP on their website.

Across higher education, there has been an increased emphasis on creating inclusive classroom experiences for students. However, these efforts have largely been focused on traditional lecture-based courses.  While some of the evidence-based practices of these initiatives apply to lab and design-based courses, there are several unique situations in these courses that would benefit from a different approach.  For example, lab-based courses generally have longer in-class periods that require extended focus; use unique tools, equipment and software; and are required to complete activities that are very different from traditional homework.  In design or project-based classes, much of the project work happens in unstructured time outside of the classroom where team dynamics cannot be observed by instructional staff.  In both lab and design-based courses, students interact with their peers and instructional staff in very different ways.  Broadly experiential learning (labs and projects) is an essential part of STEM education, therefore, if we aim to have a diverse group of students succeed in STEM, then we also need for them to be included and active participants in all aspects of their education.

In the spring of 2021, a group of faculty who taught lab and design courses came together to share lessons learned from remote classes.  We found that we could have benefited from a community of practice (CoP) to be able to share ideas and collaboratively solve issues in our courses as we continued to adapt to changes in higher education.  At the 2022 ASEE annual conference, we presented a paper that shared the process of forming the CoP and the first year of programming.  The full paper is available from ASEE.