The Professional Engineering Pathways Study (PEPS) is funded by the Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) of the National Science Foundation. The purpose of PEPS is to build knowledge about engineering early career preparedness and decision-making. We have used a mixed-method approach to learn how engineering students at six partner institutions gather information about careers and then what approaches students use to make decisions about employment opportunities.
As the research phase of PEPS wraps up (we are now in a no cost extension 4th year of a 3-year project) we turn our attention to encouraging our results to be used to inform practice. Research projects often find this phase to be extremely challenging and we hope our lessons learned may offer a useful model to others.
In PEPS, we have taken a Community of Practice (CoP) approach to propagate the use of our research results among career professionals who can then immediately use the results to create or fine-tune their programs or to inform other areas of their practice to be more responsive to student needs. In this poster and paper, we will: (1) briefly define the phrase 'Community of Practice' or CoP (2) discuss how we operationalized CoP in our project, (3) outline the actions taken to form and then foster a CoP in PEPS, (4) discuss the value of the CoP to the participants, and (5) discuss implications for use of the CoP approach by other projects.
Ruth A. Streveler is a Professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Dr. Streveler has been the Principal Investigator or co-Principal Investigator of ten grants funded by the US National Science Foundation. She has published art
Gary Lichtenstein, Ed.D., is founder and principal of Quality Evaluation Designs, a firm specializing in education research and program evaluation.
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8607-5959
Arizona State University, Polytechnic Campus
[biography]
Samantha Brunhaver is an Assistant Professor of Engineering in the Fulton Schools of Engineering Polytechnic School. Dr. Brunhaver recently joined Arizona State after completing her M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. She also
Cheryl Carrico is owner of E4S, LLC. E4S, LLC conducts external evaluations, engineering education research, and industry consulting. Her current research focus relates to STEM career pathways and conceptual understanding of core engineering principles. She volunteers on several boards and is president of the Appalachian Council for Innovation. Her evaluation & assessment work includes grants, workshops, and others for a variety of disciplines (>$10M in value). She has worked with over 60 small to mid size businesses to help them grow organically and commercialize products. She has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Masters in Engineering and Business Administration, and a Ph. D. in Engineering Education.
Helen L. Chen is a Research Scientist in the Designing Education Lab in Mechanical Engineering and co-founder of the Integrative Learning Portfolio Lab in Career Education at Stanford University. She earned her undergraduate degree from UCLA and her PhD in Communication with a minor in Psychology from Stanford. Her scholarship is focused on engineering and entrepreneurship education, portfolio pedagogy, reflective practices, non-degree credentials, and reimagining how learners represent themselves through their professional online presence.
Dr. Holly Matusovich is the Associate Dean for Graduate and Professional Studies in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech and a Professor in the Department of Engineering Education where she has also served in key leadership positions. Dr. Matusovich is recognized for her research and leadership related to graduate student mentoring and faculty development. She won the Hokie Supervisor Spotlight Award in 2014, received the College of Engineering Graduate Student Mentor Award in 2018, and was inducted into the Virginia Tech Academy of Faculty Leadership in 2020. Dr. Matusovich has been a PI/Co-PI on 19 funded research projects including the NSF CAREER Award, with her share of funding being nearly $3 million. She has co-authored 2 book chapters, 34 journal publications, and more than 80 conference papers. She is recognized for her research and teaching, including Dean’s Awards for Outstanding New Faculty, Outstanding Teacher Award, and a Faculty Fellow. Dr. Matusovich has served the Educational Research and Methods (ERM) division of ASEE in many capacities over the past 10+ years including serving as Chair from 2017-2019. Dr. Matusovich is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Advances in Engineering Education and she serves on the ASEE committee for Scholarly Publications.
Sheri D. Sheppard, Ph.D., P.E., is professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Besides teaching both undergraduate and graduate design and education related classes at Stanford University, she conducts research on engineering education and
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