Principal Investigator: Amelito Enriquez
CoPrincipal Investigator(s): Thomas Rebold, Nick Langhoff, Brandon Price, Erik Dunmire, Tracy Huang
Organization: San Mateo County Community College District
Abstract:
Creating Alternative Learning Strategies for Transfer Engineering Programs (CALSTEP) is a collaborative project that aims to strengthen community college engineering programs. The project is developing core engineering laboratory courses that are delivered either completely online, or with limited face-to-face interactions. These laboratory courses, together with the online lecture courses developed through a previously funded NSF project, will enable community college students from colleges with limited engineering course offerings to complete the required lower-division engineering courses needed for transfer. CALSTEP is also developing alternative models of flipped classroom instruction to improve student success and enhance student access to engineering courses that otherwise could not be supported in traditional delivery modes due to low enrollment. The project will also train engineering faculty in effectively using the curriculum, and facilitate the continued improvement of the curriculum through a consortium of over twenty community college engineering programs in California.
The project will result in the development of a comprehensive set of lower-division engineering curriculum materials that are consistent with system-wide vetted course descriptors, opportunities to further understand and contribute to the growing body of research on the potential of technology in improving STEM education, and investigation of alternative models of instruction. The project will contribute to increasing student access to engineering education; increasing the number of economically/educationally disadvantaged students, and students from underrepresented groups who pursue an engineering career; reducing the time and money that transfer students spend in four-year institutions to complete their degrees; and increasing the diversity of the future engineering workforce.
