Abstract
Note: This abstract is being submitted to the CHED for a proposed panel session jointlysponsored by the CHED and the Materials Division. The panel session proposal wassubmitted separately. A Virtual Community of Practice to Introduce Evidence-based Pedagogy in Chemical Engineering and Materials CoursesThis paper describes a model for a virtual community of practice (VCP) tosupport faculty efforts to adopt research-based instructional strategies inChemical and Materials Engineering courses. The VCP was built on publishedrecommendations for successful faculty development programs. The VCPprogram began with a 10 week virtual training period for five pairs of VCPleaders, during which they acquired the skills and knowledge needed to lead thefaculty VCP. The faculty VCPs focused on one of five technical disciplines andwere led by a pair of leaders having expertise in a specific technical focus areaas well as in engineering pedagogy. The participants were were full-time facultymembers with a range of teaching experience and pedagogical expertise,ranging from novice to expert. Workshops were held using Internet conferencingsoftware: the first 8 weekly workshops provided training in research-basedpedagogy, and the second 8 biweekly workshops supported faculty efforts toimplement chosen strategies in their courses. Significant improvement wasmeasured via pre/post survey in the areas of familiarity and use of research-based pedagogy, as well as in perceived student motivation.The second part of the paper focuses on the experiences and perspectives of thefaculty participants as they implemented a variety of instructional methods in theircourses during the VCP. We describe their approaches and results usingdifferent methods such as flipping the classroom, using game-based pedagogy inclass, promoting positive interdependence in cooperative-learning teams, peerinstruction, small group discussion, Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning,and using Bloom’s Taxonomy to structure a course.