Impact of Educational Research Mini-Grant Projects on Instructors and Students
This report highlights the influence of Educational Research Mini-Grant Projects on instructors' teaching satisfaction, students' engagement, and learning outcomes. The findings showcase the positive effects on both educators and learners in various academic departments.
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Educational Research Mini-Grant Report Compiled by the Center for Educational Research and Teaching Innovation (CERTI)
Mini-Grant Project Participants Twenty-six current Missouri S&T faculty did educational research mini-grant projects in their classrooms through CERTI over a five-year time span from 2011-2016. Of these, 18 agreed to do interviews and discuss 20 unique research projects. At the time of the funding, they were comprised of: 6 full professors 6 associate professors 6 assistant professors 1 lecturer 6 non-tenure track faculty 11 tenured or tenure-track faculty 11 projects were from the College of Arts, Sciences & Business and 9 were from the College of Engineering and Computing.
The participants, cont. 11 departments were represented; 1 project was multi-disciplinary Department Number of projects Department Number of projects Biological Sciences 3 Engineering Management & Systems Engineering 2 Business & Information Technology 2 English & Technical Communications 1 Chemical Engineering 2 Mathematics & Statistics 1 Chemistry 2 Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering 2 Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering 2 Physics 1 Economics 1 Multi-Disciplinary* 1 *The departments of engineering management and systems engineering; civil, architectural and environmental engineering; and mechanical and aerospace engineering collaborated.
How Instructors Were Affected By The Projects Increased satisfaction in teaching New Improvement in end of course evaluation scores New insights about how students learn collaborations developed Introduction to a new field of study (educational research) Papers, publications, presentations and grant proposals Unexpected outcomes .
How Students Were Affected by the Projects Increased engagement with instructors and peers Improved student learning
How Instructors Were Affected by the Project: Increased satisfaction in teaching the course I would say that my level of satisfaction before was about a 3 to 4; now it s from a 9 to 10. Yinfa Ma Students enjoy it, and I enjoy it because there was so much creativity and originality coming in with their projects -- Fiona Nah My satisfaction has gone way up because it is my goal for every student to get as much out of the course as they possibly can. -- Greg Story Doing active learning re-sets me. I always feel better when I have a chance to do those things in class. Eric Showalter I have good reflections on the course. That s why I m writing a book so more students can benefit. The book is a very strong justification of my satisfaction (with the project). Xiaoming He I am much more satisfied in teaching this way. The student experience is very different, much more effective. Dave Westenberg
How Instructors Were Affected by the Project: New Collaborations Developed Faculty developed collaborations with industry, publishers, other colleagues, students and staff as a result of their projects. With other colleagues With a professional society With undergraduates outside of the course With staff With publishers
How Instructors Were Affected by the Project: Improved End of Course Evaluations Scores Beth Cudney, associate professor, engineering management & systems engineering Jossalyn Larson, assistant teaching professor, English Nishant Kumar, associate teaching professor, mechanical engineering Evaluations rose from 3.1 and 3.2 to 3.7 and 3.8 Evaluations have gone up half a point since he started doing the mini-grant projects to 3.6-3.7 Evaluations jumped on average 1.1 points from mid-2 s to more than 3.5
How Instructors Were Affected by the Project: New Insights About How Students Learn and How to Teach Them More Effectively Katie Shannon: I think doing educational research impacts what I am doing in the classroom, so that I can assess what is working and what is not and help students as much as I can. Jossalyn Larson: I went from a liberal arts background to a STEM school. Students were different. The educational research helped me understand those differences and serve students better. Susan Murray: When I first taught, I assumed everyone had the same learning style as me. I realize now things that don t matter very much to me can matter very much to another person. Dave Westenberg: I think a lot more about the student perspective students don t need me in the same way (in the lab). I can trust them to figure things out. Greg Story: I learned so much I could find out for any given subject, what the student misconceptions were.
How Instructors Were Affected by the Project: Introduction to a New Field of Study For me it opened my eyes to the body of research that was available. It opened my eyes to other ways of thinking. I m a total convert. Kellie Grasman There were things that I wasn t even aware of and that I never would have been exposed to (without the grant program.) Beth Cudney It was really educational for me. I learned how to do an IRB and how to design an experiment in education, which is really different than doing stuff in a lab It was really helpful for me. Katie Shannon I never thought I was going to get into this. I ventured into a very foreign territory Now I am educating myself as much as I can. Daniel Forciniti
How Instructors Were Affected by the Project: Papers, Publications, Presentations and Grant Proposals NSF grants Two PIs pursued NSF educational research grants. eFellows grants/ed research internal grants Sixteen PIs pursued campus eFellow grants Three PIs did multiple campus educational research mini-grants Papers, publications and presentations Nine PIs produced one or more of the following: conference presentations, refereed journal papers, refereed conference papers, poster presentations, a textbook, material, and digital resources for a textbook.
How Instructors Were Affected by the Project: Unexpected Outcomes Video library of student study aids Six Sigma Green Belt certification Game Fair Professional development opportunities for faculty, especially non-tenure track Student communities inside and outside the classroom Peer to Peer Journal
How Students Were Affected by the Projects: Improved Student Learning Students who participated in the treatment group in Principles of Economics performed better on exams by one-half a letter grade on average. Dramatic improvements in test scores relative to homework scores have been seen in Modern Physics, even though tests have been made increasingly more difficult. Students scored 8-10 points higher on increasingly more difficult exams in Engineering Management 4710 after the course was redesigned. In a Research and Writing course, the average final grade increased by almost 8 points after the redesign; the standard deviation in grades went down dramatically.
How Students Were Affected by the Projects: Increased Engagement with Instructors and Peers The benefit that I wasn t expecting was allowing the students to get to know each other. Comments on the evaluations said that they made friends, felt more like they belonged. Katie Shannon Qualitative surveys from Principles of Economics showed more than 70% of students preferred the game project as an assignment to help them in their learning. At the end of the day, students say, Dr. Kumar, I found those practice problems really helpful in understanding the material, or The concept problems helped me in the FE exams. Nishant Kumar Because of the structure of the class, I feel that you know me better than any of my other professors. STEM student s comments to Jossalyn Larson in her Writing and Research course
