2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) design capstone instructors and course
developers at XXX University conducted a longitudinal study to investigate the efficacy of Evidence-Based Instructional Practices (EBIPs) for supporting students' learning and success. Results of the literature review portion of the study identified the following key programmatic influencers for transformative learning: critical awareness of culture, professional identity development, participation in communities of mentoring and learning, holistic skill integration through reflection, and development of professional integrity through affective awareness. Emancipatory Action Research (EAR) methodology and a mixed-methods approach were used in the intervention phase of the study to measure the effects of these influencers when integrated into an ECE Capstone Design engineering program. Auto-ethnographic qualitative teaching narratives, a two-term ECE Junior Design course sequence, and a disciplinary Communities of Practice program were all implemented as interventions. The two programmatic interventions were offered beginning in the 2017-2018 academic year (Junior Design) and in the 2018-2019 academic year (Communities of Practice). Surveys were administered to senior students in the spring of 2018 and the spring of 2019. The 2018 group served as a control group, as they had no access to the interventions. Students in the 2019 group who had chosen not participated in the interventions were added to the control group as well. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the survey data are presented in this report. Researchers found that both interventions did have significant impacts on students’ progression through a process of transformative learning. Participants were more likely than the control group to reach a “crossroads of questioning” where their identities and skill sets as engineers underwent critical examination. Additional study of transformative learning interventions that apply the key influencers is recommended broadly to deepen understanding of program efficacy in the future, and more analysis of the present data set is also planned to investigate programmatic effects for distinct segments of the student population, including women and URM students.