This evidence-based research paper explores engineering faculty’s instructional profiles emerging from COPUS observations based on the work of Stains et al. (2018). Multiple peer-observations of instructors teaching undergraduate classes within a College of Engineering at a large, Midwestern research-intensive institution were conducted. Faculty and graduate student paired teams conducted the observations. Upon completion of the classroom observations, researchers conducted exist interviews during which the results of the TPI, COPUS, and instructional profiles were shared with faculty. Follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted with instructors to explore their experiences with the COPUS protocol, ascertain their perceptions of a new teaching evaluation system, and to gain insight into the instructional profiles of engineering faculty. Our analysis holds important and timely implications for how engineering courses are structured, evaluated, and viewed by faculty and administrators.
Tareq Daher earned his Bachelors in Computer Science from Mutah University in Jordan. He pursued a Master’s of Instructional Technology at the University of Nebraska –Lincoln while working as the coordinator for the Student Technology Program on the UNL campus. Currently, Dr. Daher works as the Director for the Engineering and Computing Education Core at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Dr. Daher collaborates with engineering faculty to document and research the integration of innovative instructional strategies and technologies in their classrooms and designs and delivers professional development programs for faculty in the college.
Jody Koenig Kellas (Ph.D., University of Washington, 2002) is a Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in the area of interpersonal, family, and health communication. She is trained in both quantitative and qualitative methods and has published over 50 articles and book chapters, as well as an edited book on storytelling in the family. She has overseen more than a dozen research projects and is a leader in the communication field on narratives and storytelling in the family. The goal of her research program and research lab – Narrative Nebraska – is to study the ways in which narratives and storytelling can be translated to help individuals and families understand, negotiate, and improve communication and coping within and outside of healthcare contexts. She is also co-director of UNL’s Peer Review of Teaching Project – an interdisciplinary, faculty-led, campus-wide professional development project dedicated to helping faculty demonstrate the scholarly work of teaching and learning.
Wayne A. Babchuk is an Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Educational Psychology (Quantitative, Qualitative, and Psychometrics Program), the Department of Anthropology, and the Department of Sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).. He also serves as Dean's Fellow of the College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Academy at UNL and as a Research Associate for the Kalahari Peoples Fund of southern Africa. As a research methodologist, he teaches and conducts research on the history, epistemology, application, and instruction of qualitative research across disciplines, research ethics, grounded theory, ethnography, grounded ethnography, and mixed methods. He is also involved in several other research tracks including faculty teaching and evaluation strategies, interdisciplinary collaboration, teaching applied anthropology, Kalahari San land and resource rights, research to practice links in minority health care, and student and instructor perceptions of the impact of social media on student success. With a broad and diverse background in both education and the social sciences, he strives to bring a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to all aspects of teaching, research, and service.
Dr. Lance C. Pérez received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He is currently the Omar H. Heins Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he directs the Perceptual Systems Research Group. His research interests include information, video and signal processing, engineered healthcare and engineering education. He was appointed Dean of the College of Engineering in May 2018.
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