Postsecondary education is in flux. Recent global, technological, and economic disruptions have impacted long-standing systems, processes and practices that shape tertiary education. Undergraduate engineering programs, many of which continue to use traditional instructor-controlled, content-focused approaches, are struggling with freely available "knowledge", student engagement, and diminishing employment opportunities for their students and graduates. This conceptual paper explores three potential futures that undergraduate engineering may experience in the upcoming decade. The ‘continuity’ scenario highlights the simulated learning and perceived efficiency that comes with generative AI. The ‘chaos and collapse’ scenario foresees cognitive atrophy and the erosion of trust between faculty and students. The ‘transformation’ scenario explores a redesigned system where human judgment is key in a system where humans and machine intelligence work together to perceive, decide, create and act. It then suggests ways forward for engineering educators and administrators as they shape a sustainable future for their programs.

Post secondary education experienced two major disruptions in the past five years that forced us to change the way we do our jobs. First the pandemic shifted us to remote delivery, and then generative AI was released to the public. Many academic institutions provided some form of guidance on how to handle these challenges in hopes that the teaching and learning processes would not be significantly impacted. Both disruptions forced educators to rethink the evaluation and assessment practices used within our programs, as noted in a recent policy review that identified the need to adopt ‘multifaceted evaluation strategies’. It is unclear, however, how, or if, the engineering education community responded to this need. This qualitative systematic review answers ‘What assessment and evaluation strategies are reported in the engineering education and assessment and evaluation literature from 2020 (beginning of the pandemic) until the end of 2024 (two years of generative AI availability)?’ Examined through the lens of the Macro-Meso-Micro (3M) framework for educational change, analysis of 35 conference and journal papers indicate a shift in assessment strategies, techniques, and methods from a focus on content to learning, a move to more continuous and formative assessment, and a choice of assessment practices that meet the evaluation and assessment needs of multiple levels of the 3M framework

Feedback is an expected and essential part of academic work; however, giving and receiving feedback often causes angst and distress, an aspect not often addressed. To foster conversations about feedback for teaching development, we developed an interactive event designed to explore and practice giving and receiving feedback. A mixed-methods pre-post-test design was implemented to examine and measure levels of distress when thinking about receiving feedback on teaching using (1) a distress thermometer, and (2) open-ended questions. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, means analysis, and thematic analysis of open text responses. Findings include an overall decrease in mean distress scores following the event and a shift in mindset between pre- and post-tests from fearing feedback to seeing feedback as an opportunity for growth and development. Higher education institutions are encouraged to provide opportunities to foster conversations about feedback and how it can be embraced to inform future teaching growth and development.

In this paper, we propose an approach to facilitate the identification of threshold concepts in undergraduate engineering curricula. The approach is based on the framework of transactional curriculum inquiry where educators work with a group of stakeholders (students, curriculum designers, industry practitioners) to identify threshold concepts. Our proposed approach involves developing a participatory simulation using agent-based modeling that will serve as a digital forum for the exploration of threshold concepts in engineering courses.

CONTEXTEngineering educators could benefit from a faculty development model that meets them where they are, in both their discipline and their journey as educators.It is often difficult to get academics to talk about their teaching as it relates to educational research, and research shows that those in engineering programs, even with a pandemic-imposed accommodation to delivery, participate in fewer educational development opportunities than their colleagues in other disciplines.This reluctance to develop as educators may help explain why student and faculty surveys of student engagement rank engineering educators lowest in the categories of effective teaching practices and providing a supportive learning environment. PURPOSE OR GOALThis work presents the LENS (Learning Environments Nurture Success) model of engineering faculty development.The six "lenses" represented in the LENS model align with the evidence-based characteristics of an effective learning environment for engineering students: (1) academic rigour, (2) focus on learning, (3) instructional support, (4) quality of teaching, (5) student-faculty relationships, and (6) student engagement. APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODSThe LENS model is based on a conceptual framework that draws on five key areas: (1) student success in engineering programs, (2) change and innovation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teaching, (3) threshold concepts associated with post-secondary teaching, (4) an educator's journey from novice to expert teacher, and (5) the findings of myriad studies in research-based instructional strategies (RBIS), discipline-based education research (DBER) in STEM programs, and engineering education research (EER).Each of these research areas shares a social constructivist viewpoint with a vision of students who are engaged, successful, and value their learning.ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES Following a literature review, each lens is defined, identifies commonly used instructional strategies, and suggests evidence-based strategies that can be implemented to enhance one's teaching practice.The breakdown provides level-appropriate recommendations for faculty at three stages of development: first-order change for those wanting to do things better, second-order change for those choosing to do better things, and third-order or epistemic change for those primed to make a transformational shift in their teaching. CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARYThe LENS model contributes to the body of scholarly work associated with engineering faculty development by (1) offering a practical framework that supports educational development and planning for all forms of delivery (face-to-face, remote, blended, or hybrid) that can be used independently, in consultation with an Educational Developer, or in collaboration with colleagues, (2) threading educator-related threshold concepts associated with learning, pedagogy, and assessment through each of the six lenses, and (3) linking interdisciplinary research focused on facilitating the success of engineering students.

Many engineering educators recognize and emphasize the key concepts and skills that are considerably more difficult and that hinder their learners' progress through their undergraduate studies.Many of these topics are considered threshold concepts and make the difference in a student's ability to do engineering things versus being an engineer.What many engineering educators don't recognize is that they too encounter threshold concepts that hinder their own journey to becoming effective educators. PURPOSE OR GOALUnfortunately, there is no analysis of studies of threshold concepts that identify those associated with teaching in either undergraduate engineering programs or post-secondary education in general.This study seeks to answer two questions about teaching-related threshold concepts: (1) what threshold concepts are identified as part of an educator's growth?and ( 2) what threshold concepts may cause a transformation in the way engineering educators carry out their day-to-day practices? APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODSThis paper reports the findings of a qualitative evidence synthesis (qualitative systematic review) of 20 journal articles and conference papers that study threshold concepts related to teaching in the post-secondary system.An initial search for studies of any design that examined threshold concepts related to teaching practice identified 1011 potential papers, 82 of which met the criteria for initial review.A deeper secondary review narrowed the list to 20 papers. ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMESFinal review identified 14 threshold concepts associated with post-secondary educators' professional growth ranging from care and authenticity to course-related threshold concepts.These 14 threshold concepts were mapped to categories of Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering (STEM) educator practices and conceptions.Four clusters were identified in which mastery of the threshold concept could facilitate a change in day-today practice of engineering educators: teaching / pedagogy, learning, assessment, and teaching with technology. CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARYThis study fills a gap in the literature by identifying teaching-related threshold concepts that may hinder the instructional development of engineering educators.It is hoped that these results will encourage engineering educators, and those responsible for their educational development, to recognize and support professional growth related to these potential thresholds.

Engineering remains one of the most traditional and didactic disciplines in higher education. There is low adoption of research-based instructional practices with many educators believing adherence to tried-and-true methods in undergraduate engineering programs outweigh the benefits any change to more active learning could bring. Surveys of student engagement consistently rank the effectiveness of the undergraduate engineering experience lowest among the disciplines, with classroom observations confirming that engineering educators score significantly lower in delivery, teaching, lesson elements, and diversity. This quantitative study sets out to determine in which, if any, specific areas engineering educators score differently than their colleagues in other disciplines. Using Draeger and his team’s model of academic rigour as a framework, this study examines institutional data collected during three years of mandatory teaching observations of new full-time and randomly selected part time educators. The analysis shows that four key areas differentiate the teaching practices of engineering educators from their colleagues in other disciplines: (1) welcoming students, (2) explaining the lesson’s agenda, (3) the organization, pace, and planning of classes, and (4) the way material is presented to students. It is proposed that the undergraduate engineering experience can be improved by making changes to lesson structure, and enhanced by including opportunities for meaningful active learning.

In this paper, we share our experiences applying agent-based modelling (ABM) to engineeringeducation problems. ABM is a well-established modelling approach that has been successfully applied to a range of natural science, engineering science, and social science problems. However, its application to the scholarship of teaching and learning is in the early stages. The examples in this paper focus on two general areas: (1) teaching and learning, and (2) academic administration. We follow an established ABM framework to describe how each model was approached and how the models differ from each other. Our experience has been that ABM offers a promising tool for engineering education researchers, particularly as an early “prototyping” tool when designing an engineering education study.

Despite recent research and initiatives, learner-centered instructional practices have not made their way into post-secondary Science, Technology,Engineering and Math (STEM) classrooms, even though there is clear evidence showing the benefits include increased grades, higher student engagement, and deeper learning. STEM educators rank the barriers associated with active learning higher than their colleagues in other disciplines, and identify the inability to cover all the content as a key factor in their decision to adhere to didactic practices. Insights and instructional strategies and methods garnered from teaching-related faculty development opportunities are often tried, but their use is not generally sustained unless a personal experiencedrives that change in practice. Unquestionably, COVID-19 has had an immediate, global impact on higher education. Educators have been forced to alter their teaching practices to accommodate the switch to remote learning. Most Teaching and Learning Centers offered myriad workshops to facilitate this change. This quantitative study set out to determine if COVID-19 precautions created the personal experience necessary to initiate a change in STEM teaching practices. Using educator-related threshold concepts as a framework, it analyzed institutional registration records to determine the type of faculty development opportunitieschosen by engineering educators, and the extent to which they participated in those related to learner-centered instructional practices for remote delivery.Analysis shows that engineering educators participated proportionally less than their colleagues in other disciplines, and there is an indication that the pandemic may facilitate an ongoing change in the teaching practices of engineering educators. Opportunities for enhancing faculty development practices for engineering educators are proposed.

BackgroundThe spread of SARS-CoV-2, originating in Wuhan, China, was classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. The governments of affected countries have implemented various measures to limit the spread of the virus. The starting point of this paper is the different government approaches, in terms of promulgating new legislative regulations to limit the virus diffusion and to contain negative effects on the populations. ObjectiveThis paper aims to study how the spread of SARS-CoV-2 is linked to government policies and to analyze how different policies have produced different results on public health. MethodsConsidering the official data provided by 4 countries (Italy, Germany, Sweden, and Brazil) and from the measures implemented by each government, we built an agent-based model to study the effects that these measures will have over time on different variables such as the total number of COVID-19 cases, intensive care unit (ICU) bed occupancy rates, and recovery and case-fatality rates. The model we implemented provides the possibility of modifying some starting variables, and it was thus possible to study the effects that some policies (eg, keeping the national borders closed or increasing the ICU beds) would have had on the spread of the infection. ResultsThe 4 considered countries have adopted different containment measures for COVID-19, and the forecasts provided by the model for the considered variables have given different results. Italy and Germany seem to be able to limit the spread of the infection and any eventual second wave, while Sweden and Brazil do not seem to have the situation under control. This situation is also reflected in the forecasts of pressure on the National Health Services, which see Sweden and Brazil with a high occupancy rate of ICU beds in the coming months, with a consequent high number of deaths. ConclusionsIn line with what we expected, the obtained results showed that the countries that have taken restrictive measures in terms of limiting the population mobility have managed more successfully than others to contain the spread of COVID-19. Moreover, the model demonstrated that herd immunity cannot be reached even in countries that have relied on a strategy without strict containment measures.

There is a perception in higher education that engineering educators teach differently than those in other disciplines. Surveys of student engagement consistently rank the undergraduate engineering experience lowest among ten disciplines, as do faculty surveys of student engagement. These results suggest there is opportunity and need to improve the engineering education experience. This research sets out to identify differences in the teaching practices of beginning engineering educators from those in other disciplines. Using the Dreyfus and Dreyfus model of skill acquisition as a framework, this study examines institutional data collected during four consecutive terms of mandatory teaching observations of new full-time and selected part-time instructors. Descriptive statistics found that the performance of novice educators in engineering-related disciplines did rank lowest overall compared to all other disciplines. This analysis also found that there is little difference in the teaching practices of novice engineering educators from those of their more experienced colleagues. Thematic analysis found that traditional engineering classroom practices such as lecture and worked examples are common, and could be enhanced by including opportunities for meaningful active learning. These results can inform both engineering educators and those responsible for their educational development about the common teaching practices of novice instructors and will be useful in shaping the professional development opportunities offered to engineering educators.

This paper is an extension of our CEEA-ACEG 2019 paper on the use of agent-based modelling for preliminary engineering education research design. The motivation for this work is to help researchers gain an understanding of the system being studied (e.g., classroom, program, etc.) before embarking on a full study. For this paper, we report on an extension of our agent-based model that allows cheating behaviour in the context of homework completion to be studied. Comparisons of our simulation results with observations from the literature on academic integrity support the use of this modelling approach.

In this paper, we provide an overview of an integrated mathematics curriculum that is a key element of an engineering articulation program (polytechnic to university). This integrated approach to teaching mathematics is a logical extension of the integrated curriculum models that have been gaining popularity for undergraduate engineering education since the 1960’s, and is well suited to the fast-paced nature of an engineering articulation program. We provide background on the engineering articulation program and the integrated mathematics curriculum, and provide reflections on the implementation of this approach.

The objective of this qualitative study is to determine the similarities and differences in the instructional practices that diverse groups of students perceive to enhance or detract from their undergraduate engineering learning experience. All full and part-time engineering students enrolled in one of Canada’s larger engineering programs were invited to complete an online survey based on the ‘Start, Stop, Continue’ method for requesting formative feedback. Thematic analysis was used to categorize and code the themes. The frequency and type of coded items received from diverse groupings of students were compared to identify any differences or similarities. Data items were examined using the four curricular components of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework. The emerging themes focused on the instructional methods and materials used in lecture-based, teacher-directed classrooms, and the support and learning experiences students feel would make them more successful. There were only minor differences in the responses from the diverse groups suggesting that the undergraduate engineering learning experience exhibits minimal explicit biases, intolerances, and prejudices. Ways that engineering educators can maximize the learning opportunities for undergraduate engineering students in their classroom are suggested.

The overarching principles of effective educational practice in higher education define the characteristics of an effective learning environment. Institutions of all sizes have demonstrated that it is possible to increase student success and add value to the learners' experiences by applying these principles. This qualitative study explores the alignment between the ideal learning environment, the actual undergraduate engineering experience as defined by engineering educators, and the learners' perspective. Building on the benchmarks of effective learning environments, students were asked to complete an online survey based on the Stop, Start, Continue method for acquiring formative feedback. Thematic analysis identified five themes: focus on learning, supported instruction, quality of teaching, student engagement, and other related items including academic rigour and strong relationships between students, instructors, and staff. Students indicate that their primary learning environment is teacher-directed and lecture-based. This is aligned with the current practices identified by engineering educators, but only partially in line with those of an effective learning environment. Coded items indicate that many students have sub-optimal motivational outlooks, but feel their ability to survive and thrive is improved when they are more involved in their learning and are supported in a more student-centred learning environment. They value instructors who provide clear and accurate resources, and who are supportive through actions both in and out of the classroom. Engineering educators can use these insights to better align their teaching practices with the principles and practices of effective learning.

In this paper, we explore the use of agentbased modelling for preliminary engineering education research design. The motivation for this work is to help researchers understand the behaviour of the system being studied (e.g., classroom, program, etc.) before embarking on the, often, long process of an engineering education research study. We provide an example model of the effect of homework difficulty on homework completion and study group formation to demonstrate this approach. The results indicate this approach holds considerable promise as a preliminary modelling tool that can help focus longer-term engineering education research studies.

A great deal of work has been done within the engineering community to identify the threshold concepts that students must master in order to transform from novice to practitioner.At the same time, engineering regulatory bodies have established a set of graduate attributes that help ensure graduating engineers are prepared to practice professional engineering.Students and recent graduates have identified that one area in which they felt lacking in skills and confidence was solving the complex and multi-faceted problems encountered in the engineering work place.This seems to indicate that students have not fully mastered one or more discipline-specific threshold concepts.This paper presents a framework engineering educators can use to identify, map, and monitor those concepts as key indicators used to track graduate attributes.

Although all accredited engineering programs in Canada are assessed by the same governing body, each institution has its own set of expectations regarding its distribution of effort, the types of research conducted by its faculty, and the way it delivers its curriculum. Individual departments and programs each have their own strengths and challenges, but collectively they share the responsibility of educating tomorrow’s engineers.This paper presents a summary of the results of a descriptive study examining three aspects of engineering education in Canada: the balance and types of research, teaching, and service that engineering educators are doing, the level to which engineering educators are engaging with engineering education research, and the look and feel of the learning environment that undergraduate engineering students experience in accredited engineering programs in Canada.

Projects are an ideal way to preparestudents for the practice of professional engineering andto allow faculty to assess graduate attributes. Until now,the assessment of engineering knowledge has beensufficient for determining qualification for professionalstatus, but recent changes now require consideration ofengineering practice as well. Unfortunately many projectsdo not account for these additional competencies. Thispaper presents a method of mapping project deliverablesto graduate attributes that ensures both technicalrelevance and coverage, and breadth of competencies.