Entering the First Year of a Multidisciplinary, Hands-on, Competency-based Learning Experience: Hopes and Concerns of Students, Parents, and Faculty

Abstract

Marisa Exter is an Assistant Professor of Learning Design and Technology in the College of Education at Purdue University. Dr. Exter's research aims to provide recommendations to improve or enhance university-level design and technology programs (such as Instructional Design, Computer Science, and Engineering). Some of her previous research has focused on software designers' formal and non-formal educational experiences and use of precedent materials, and experienced instructional designers' beliefs about design character. These studies have highlighted the importance of cross-disciplinary skills and student engagement in large-scale, real-world projects.Dr. Exter currently leads an effort to evaluate a new multidisciplinary degree program which provides both liberal arts and technical content through competency-based experiential learning. Iryna Ashby, Purdue UniversityIryna Ashby is a Ph.D student in the Learning Design and Technology Program at Purdue University with the research interests focused on program evaluation. She is also part of the program evaluation team for the Purdue Polytechnic Institute -a new initiate at Purdue College of Technology aimed to redesign undergraduate student experiences through offering a combination of deep liberal arts experiences with student-driven, hands-on project-based learning. Dr. Mark Shaurette, Purdue University, West LafayetteMark Shaurette has a MS in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD in Technology from Purdue University. He is currently an associate professor at Purdue University, was a 2012 Fulbright Scholar in Ireland, and has work experience that includes 30+ years of senior construction management practice as well as work as a research engineer for the National Association of Home Builders Research Foundation. He is active in research, education, and community outreach in the areas of building retrofit for energy conservation, sustainable construction practices, management of the demolition process, material reuse and recycling, as well as instructional design in technology education. Abstract When first year students enter a new program that fundamentally differs from their past educational experiences, new types of pressures may impact both students and their families. To identify some of the pressures that should be anticipated when introducing a new program, this exploratory case study focused on the hopes, concerns, and fears of the first cohort of students enrolled in the first semester of a pilot program at the Purdue Polytechnic Institute -a new multidisciplinary, hands-on, competency-based program. Since students do not act in isolation, additional considerations are given to expectations and concerns of their parents, and faculty response to those concerns. Students and parents were surveyed, and in-depth interviews were conducted with both students and faculty. Qualitative and quantitative analyses found that while the majority of students and parents were excited about the hands-on, student-centered approach...

Frontier: Discipline-Based Education Research to Advance Authentic Learning in Agricultural and Biological Engineering

“…Credentialing, as discussed earlier for the Swinburne model of practice-based education, is a form of competency-based assessment. This strategy was also taken up by Purdue University's Polytechnique Institute to rethink traditional course boundaries, sequencing, and grades (Exter et al, 2015(Exter et al, , 2019. While program-level adoption of new grading strategies is happening in fit and starts, it could eventually transform engineering education.…”

An international investigation into student concerns regarding transition into higher education computing

“…Exter [17] studied the hopes and concerns of new students, parents, and faculty involved with a novel engineering program. Aspects being seen as significant include social/relational, relationship with peers, academic engagement and performance, gender and racial background.…”