Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Get Enlightened! A Few Notes from ELD Lightning Talks

At University of Michigan, engineering librarians partner with health and business librarians to train students on research tools. This allows them to make contacts across campus and develop a joint libguide. Assessment data showed students learning resources they needed to complete multidisciplinary project work. See their online research guide at http://guides.lib.umich.edu/heb.


Caroline Smith at U Las Vegas, Engineering & Architecture Library worked with faculty collaborators to develop a laboratory for educational media exploration. A 3D immersive environment will be created in one of their former study rooms. Students will be able to do software simulations in this space. Positive response from students already about this space. The room will double as a group study space.

Tom Volkening from Michigan State University experienced a sudden renovation project, so surveyed ASEE ELD and 13 of 15 libraries who responded retained the print engineering index. Most libraries put these indexes into off-site storage. MSU are  withdrawing 150 feet of print indexes due to redundancy with online subscription sources.

Eugene Barsky from University of British Columbia shared his info about mining life cycle in this region and symposia. They digitized and provided them free online via the UBC institutional repository. Usage is higher than expected, 5,000 per year. Next step is to work on other conference materials, such as Tailing and Mining Waste.

Jay Bhatt, Drexel, discussed his work with graduate students and teaching information skills. They found first year graduate students were not aware of the research databases within their field of study. Bhatt is working with 12 students, from under-represented populations to bridge them to Ph.D. They created series of six lectures ranging from literature review, current awareness, to citation management.  Delivering in-person through active learning. Assessment includes 2-3 page paper with references using citation management tools. They gave presentations and librarians provided feedback (see Bhatt’s SLA 2011 Poster presentation). Check out the Drexel online tutorials as well.

Amy Van Epps, Purdue University created a workshop “best practices in ethical writing” geared towards graduate students within a teaching course. Van Epps used Wiggins & McTighe's Understanding by Design as basis with “end in mind." Students created concept map with all of the pieces they wanted to teach then asked them to label need to know, good to know, or get familiar with to aid them to prioritize educational content. She tied in “plagiarism” education within this course, and help “ensure understanding” by differentiating between paraphrased, quoted sources.

David  Hubbard from Texas A&M University Libraries offers weekly office hours in the Chemistry building. He offers weekly topics often based on student/faculty questions, sometimes new features/updates, and sharing his own experiences with effective database use. This outreach endeavor serves also as educational opportunity for himself, since he needs to come up with 16 weekly topics. This information is added to the ChemE Librarian Blog and Twitter as a supplement his outreach efforts, and are geared towards graduate students and faculty.

Karen Vagts from Tufts University discussed her collaboration between the library and career development center. Building relationships with career staff can benefit the students, and staff can cross-promote their services.

Bob Schwartzwalder from Stanford discussed digitization of maps, as they are seeing a growing interest in maps and geospatial information. This project is at the “fusion of library’s and IT.” A rare map collection will be digitzed using their new map digitization faculty and a suite of services will be offered. 3D maps with fly-through, 2D maps with ability to compare, resize, and view various thematic views, also, geo-referencing maps in Google Earth.

Karen Andrews at UC Davis, worked with a professor to create small modules using Camtasia to help students learn library resources, such as using Web of Science or Avoiding Plagiarism.

Tracey Primich from Vanderbilt U enthusiastically shared her plan of attack when working with “the dreaded freshmen seminar” for the library-required session.  She gave it a new twist by calling it "Visual Display of Quantitative Information" and uses Edward Tufte’s book. Each assignment required the use of library resources. Had fun teaching students to “lie with data.”  Leveraged Tufte’s opinionated text to foster discussion with students. High student ratings ensued. Allowed Primich to build more interactions with School of Engineering.

Daureen Nesdill, Data Curation Librarian at U of Utah shared her knowledge of ELN or Electronic Laboratory Notebooks, which have been used in industry but not adopted widely within higher education. “This is the lab bench of the future.” The people-side, ELN allows for provenance, validation (date, time stamps, e-signatures), and sharing data with colleagues. Researchers who oversees labs can use this data from the ELN to take a bigger picture look at the researcher happening in his/her lab.
Librarians role? Well, we are already helping with data management plans, institutional repositories, and so on. We need to move back a stage to assist researchers at the grant and data generation phase.

Debbie Morrow at Grand Valley State University has an ABET visit coming up, so library came into the picture with ABET3, lifelong learning. The library had developed IL Core Competencies and worked with curriculum coordinator of engineering 220 course to embed information skills.

Najwa Hanel, from University of Southern California discussed her work with a large population of international students and collaborations with other departments on campus to ensure that these students succeed.

Martin Wallace, University of Maine, offered a brief ACRL IL standards and STEM standards comparison. STEM 3 areas of emphasis:
1. Rapid pace of change within disciplines, need to maintain currency
2. STEM information pose challenges in identifying, evaluating, acquiring, and using information (varied formats, specialized software, etc)
3. Competencies extend beyond IL to software, simulations, etc. 

Why is this important? Mapping with ABET and helps us focus on these more specialized standards for assessment.

Julia Gelfand from UC Irvine discussed her numerous outreach venues and librarians' transitions to new roles. They support engineering societies on campus, connect with student groups and associations, engage students during National Engineering Week. They are now working with Engineers without Borders on campus. She leads journal reading groups for alumni. The “payoff not only in dollars but commitment.” Ask what you can do to extend your own library services.

Photo Gallery

The photos I took throughout the day yesterday are posted here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ieee_client_services/sets/  If there is a photo you don't like, just email me the number and it will be removed.  Conversely, if you want a high-res copy, let me know the same. 

Kris Fitzpatrick
k.fitzpatrick@ieee.org

Monday, June 27, 2011

Engineering Education Innovation ASEE 2011 Main Plenary

To sum up, make it active, incorporate collaborative learning, problem-based learning, formative assessment and reflection, possibly even "look ahead homework" instead of just readings and guess what? Students learn more!

Resources to check out:

• Jamieson & Lohmann (2009) – Creating a Culture for Scholarly & Systematic Innovation (see part 1 report) and their Innovation Cycle of Education Practice and Research , final report will be presented Wed. 10:30am
CLEERhub Collaboratory for Engineering Education Research

Active/Collaborative Learning
Michael Prince – Bucknell
Active Learning Continuum – instructor vs. student centered
Student centered learning includes structured team activities, problem-based learning.

Does is work? Research using “pause” procedure to enhance lecture recall found that with the pause students could recall 108 correct facts vs. 80 without the pause. Less can be more. Another study shows that active learning is twice as effective as lecturing. See Hake 1988 article in American Journal of Physics which  shows students learn twice as much when instructors used active learning techniques. Often variation in student questioning can help students learn. For instance, instead of picking one students to respond, ask all to reflect for 60 seconds. When working with teams, Prince gave us a scenario to reflect upon the problems with a team-based assignment. Collaborative learning (CL) using structure to improve teamwork. Regular self-assessment, positive interdependence with individual accountability. Give students complex activities where they need each other to complete the learning activities. Springer, et al (1999) Effects of Small Group Learning paper showed CL works.

Khairiyah Mohd Yusof from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia described Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Model is an inductive model of teaching and learning. Three critical elements of PBL include: instructors as designer/coach/facilitator, realistic problem, student as problem solver (Tan, 2003). Students show effective learning outcomes with PBL in the areas of knowledge retention, skills, positive attitude, among other metacognitive skills.

See Woods 1994 students cope with change and instructors need to explain and rationalize, as students go through a grieving process since PBL is so different that traditional learning. Suggests instructors move from informal collaborative learning to macro-level PBL.

First Year Engineering Design
Jacquelyn Sullivan discussed student-focused engineering design education. First year design began to infuse in early 1990s to provide students exposure to the real world of engineering. Helped students make leaps from science & math to engineering. Project-oriented education requires synthesis from many disciplines.
Early design experiences share confidence and allows them to experience mastery experiences (see Stevens, Hutchinson-Green). Learning happens between people, see research of Stevens. Suggests we reimagine engineering as socio-technical work.

Robin Adams and colleagues research focuses on entwinement, which is what design education is all about. Deborah Kilgore and others found female college students to be more ready for engineering design.

Self efficacy & the fuzzy stuff: Hutchinson-Green and colleagues found conference in ones abilities to perform tasks and achieve success in the engineering environment. Research links positive self-efficacy and persistence, achievement and interest. Highlights need for students to experience and confirm mastery within first year. At University of Colorado, Boulder they found when looking at six year graduate rates, women are 25% more likely to persist if they have first year design experience.

Engineering the Future
Arnold Pears, Uppsala University, CeTUSS (national center for pedagogical development in technology education in a societal and student oriented context)

Interdisciplinary projects

  • “authentic problems cross disciplines” - Sherra Kerns, Olin College
  • Integrative project work achievable model for many institutions.

Challenges:
• Bannerot 2010: establishment of these types of courses hard to establish

Successful Interdisciplinary Project:
- Integrates knowledge/skills from team
- Builds additional competence in project management, virtual teamwork, cultural and interdisciplinary teamwork
- Allows students to complete project lifecycle from conception  delivery
- Opportunity to learn professional skills with close mentorship in secure setting, at least twice during their education

Assessment of Conceptual Understanding
David L. Darmofal, MIT AEROASTRO
Conceptual Understanding– see Perkins 2006 for definition but basically “understanding principles governing domain.”

Ozdemir & Clark, 2007 – see for Organization of conceptual knowledge

Forms of Assessment Used:
- Concept Inventories: to assess understanding within physics, etc.
- Oral interviews and exams: useful in identifying misconceptions, but can be time consuming, but improves likelihood of accurate assessment, about ½ of MITs ugrad use oral assessment within at this point
- Concept Questions & Peer Instruction: focus on single concept, multiple choice, more than one plausible answer (using electronic poll system to get responses)
- Student Preparation: Look-ahead homework – used to give only reading, now they also give homeworks that are due before discussion of concept within class

Teaching/Learning System
Anne Dollár, Miami University
Hattie, John. 2009 Visible Learning shows formative assessment has high impact on student learning.
- feedback to students: on progress, non-threatening
- feedback to instructors: on both individual and class performances
- opportunity to close gap between current and desired performance

Open Learning Initiative: Example within Engineering Statics
Learning by doing, electronic system with electronic feedback, scaffolding and hints, if students don’t ask for hints, they may be moved further along while others get more opportunity for practice.

Inverted classroom, where first contact with materials students are studying electronically prior to class and come prepared to be engaged in more intense activities. Instructors monitor to determine where students are struggling, so this learning dashboard allows instructors to focus on target areas that need elaboration and reinforcement.

Evolving Engineering Libraries: Services, Spaces and Collections

Connecting with Data: First Steps toward an Emerging Area of Library Service
Megan R. Sapp Nelson discussed the need for librarians to learn and work with faculty and graduate students to develop data management skills. She indicated there is a need for distance learning for professional librarians in this area. At Purdue librarians are working with faculty to determine needs, practicing with their own large data sets starting this fall, and working towards development of data management education for graduate students. See the paper for useful references and a guide to get up to speed in this area. Check out Purdue’s Data Curation Profiles.

Start conversations with faculty about their graduate student’s data management practices, as well helping faculty with data management plans, especially helping them to keep within the two page limit.

See also portal April 2011 for article on Determining Data Information Literacy Needs by  Carlson, Sapp Nelson, Fosmire & Miller.

Dark, Dim and Daring – Anne C. Glorioso
Wendt Library staff at University of Wisconsin faced a challenge last year to reconfigure and relocate over 1 miles of their print collection. There was no existing withdrawal policy so they had a develop one. Last summer the collections management team used weeding criteria and considered factors such as electronic duplication (see PowerPoint or paper for criteria). During the process they developed an electronic journal back file wish list. Since they did not have a storage facility available they used various criteria to determine what would be kept. Library student employees were given instruction on updating Voyager records as the resources were relocated. Librarians verified the catalog records. Five hundred boxes per week were removed or 1.38 miles from their 4th floor. Changes in organizational structure at the Wendt Library may be of interest, as the School of Engineering merged support units. The reconfigured space will be for a Teaching & Learning Center opening this fall. Check with Wendt Library staff about the dark, dim, and daring details of this project.

A Library Instead of a Lab: Forging a Space Partnership in a New Building
Jeff McAdams described how University of Texas San Antonio recently added two new buildings to their campus, due to growing demand in the Bio-Sciences and Engineering (2006) and Applied Engineering and Technology (2010). Partnerships with librarians paved the way for the library to incorporate a “library lab,” now the branch AET Library. The new space has collaborative study spaces, printing, and ten computers. There are no print materials in this particular space but McAdams reassures us they still have print materials in their main library. The group study rooms with large display monitors and whiteboard walls prove to be popular as well as small areas with lounge seating. Staffed by science and engineering students, librarians serve as backups and are available for research consultation. At the service desk, students can ask questions, book/check out study rooms, check out eReaders (they have six, various kinds, but not too many checkouts so far), troubleshooting, tutoring, and consultations. Staff record their interactions and use survey monkey to do this, with a shortcut on their desktop. Eighty chairs in the facility with ~400 users a day. Smaller number of reference questions, more technical questions. This area is new and sounds like the potential of this new space is still being realized by engineering students and faculty.

Why call this a library? Librarians are there to foster use of the virtual engineering library.

Informing Collection Development through Citation Examination of the Civil Engineering Research Literature  Scott A. Curtis, now at University of Missouri, Kansas City, performed a study to determine if there are differences in citation patterns among varying disciplines. With a focus on civil engineering, he wanted to know if a high proportion of grey literature was being cited by researchers. He was also interested in web resource adoption by civil engineers. Research draws upon previous results (Musser, 1997, 2007; Kirkwood, 2009; Eckel, 2009). He used Journal Citation Reports to find the top CE journals by impact factor and number of citations. Using a May 2008 time period one finding is that the average of almost citations per article increased since a prior study, with 28 citations per article (range 3 to 62). Citations were coded and can be found within the University of Missouri, Kansas City’s data repository. Analysis of citations by format show variations, for instance he found hazardous materials researchers using more citations to journal articles, so even within sub-disciplines there are citation variations. Aging of cited materials analysis show engineers continue to use literature with a “long tail” or over time showed more citations to papers. Read the paper for details.

Defining grey literature: Curtis included tech reports, standards, theses/dissertations, patents, software/manuals, product literature, and unpublished materials.

Gaining Intellectual Control over Technical Reports and Grey Literature Collections
Adriana Popescu at Princeton University suggests engineering librarians learn from archivists and special collections professionals to bring special technical materials we own to light. At Princeton they have processed materials and published finding aids to enable “access” to these materials. Describing with contextualization to made this information findable and useful to researchers worldwide.

Working with archivists, she developed a processing plan and hired a student help to make their reports and technical drawings accessible. Popescu learned Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard and used Archivists Toolkit (AT). They also added MARC records into their library catalog. Popescu and her student processed 30 collections and the cost was $6000 for student help and her own time. Since posting these finding aids online, they show increased use of these collections, including interlibrary loan requests.

Popescu reminded all to check out TRAIL Technical Report & Image Archive.

Made it to Vancouver: Information for Engineering Librarians

Check the ELD website for useful information: 
Also, conference proceedings will be online at the ASEE Conference Proceedings search. 2011 papers do not seem to be up yet.

For the full program, see the ASEE 2011 Conference Overview site.


Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Passports, Please: Are You Ready for Vancouver?

If you're planning on attending next year's ASEE conference in Vancouver (and I hope you are), now is a good time to make sure that your passport is in good order. Since June 1, 2009, everyone traveling between the U.S. and Canada by land, sea or air is required to present a valid passport, NEXUS card or enhanced driver's license (MI, NY, VT and WA only) at the border. Here are a few resources that may be helpful in planning your trip to Canada:
  1. U.S. Passport Information
  2. U.S. Consulate Vancouver
  3. Canada Border Services Agency: Tips for Visitors to Canada
  4. Vancouver Tourism Office Travel Tips
  5. Crossing U.S. Borders

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Call for Papers, ASEE 2011, June 26-26, Vancouver, BC

The summer of 2010 is winding down. It's hard to think about next summer when the leaves are just starting to change, the days are growing shorter and students are streaming back to campus for the start of another academic year. But planning is already underway for the 118th ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, which will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 26-29, 2011.

The Engineering Libraries Division invites papers for technical and poster sessions and abstracts for panel discussions. Below is a list of proposed session topics for the 2011 program. Most of these ideas were suggested by you, the membership of ELD, during this year's conference in Louisville and in our post-conference survey. Please note that this list is not exclusive. If you have an idea that doesn't seem to fit in any of the categories below, please feel free to suggest it by contacting me at
michael.white@queensu.ca.

1. Sunday Workshop Ideas

  • Introduction to data curation and management
  • Preparing for the ABET accreditation process
  • Teaching standards
  • Engineering librarianship 101: introduction to sources
2. E-Science and Data Curation
  • E-science in the engineering context
  • Role of engineering librarians in facilitating e-science and data curation
  • Educating faculty about the importance of archiving and managing scientific data
  • Library data management services for small-scale research projects
  • Emerging standards for archiving and disseminating research data
3. You Can't Do That On Facebook! Ethical Issues and Plagiarism
  • Ethical challenges created by new technologies, e.g. social networks, smart phones, etc.
  • Working with faculty to develop effective ethics and plagiarism policies
  • Educating undergraduate and graduate students about ethics and plagiarism
  • Library responses to specific problems, e.g. Ryerson University Facebook case
4. Out With the Old, In With the New: Reinventing the Academic Engineering Library
  • Stellar success stories and frightening failures
  • The incredible shrinking library: space planning, space sharing
  • Developing the library's virtual presence using Web 2.0, Second Life, social networks, etc.
  • New tools and techniques, e.g. mobile technologies, etc.
  • Library services for the 21st century engineering student and faculty
5. International Perspectives on Engineering Librarianship
  • Canadian Engineering Landscape
  • Librarian perspectives on the new Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA)
  • Role of librarians in the CEAB Accreditation Process (Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board)
  • Library services for foreign students studying at Canadian and American universities
  • International library partnerships and programs
  • Engineering libraries worldwide
6. Collection Development and Access
  • Developments in e-book content, platforms and tools
  • Library support for e-book readers, e.g. Kindle, etc.
  • Patron-driven acquisition models
  • Collaborative collection development, e.g. university consortia, multi-campus coordination, etc.
  • Supporting new programs and niche disciplines in difficult economic times
  • Promoting access to electronic materials, e.g. online research guides, pathfinders, etc.
7. Scholarly Communication Issues
  • Social networks for professional engineers
  • Library support for faculty research profile systems, e.g. VIVO, etc.
  • New tools for promoting scholarly communication, e.g. publisher websites, open access tools
  • Educating faculty and grad students about predatory open access publishers
  • Promoting open access to engineering faculty and researchers
8. Information Literacy, Professional Skills, and Life-long Learning
  • Assessment of course-integrated library instruction
  • Librarian-faculty partnerships
  • Programs for graduate students
  • New tools and techniques for delivering tutorials, e.g. course management software, video tutorials, etc.
9. Digital Collections
  • Ongoing developments in institutional repositories (IR)
  • Library support for electronic theses and dissertations
  • Free or fee? Striking a balance between access and financial sustainability
  • Obtaining funding for digital projects
  • Local technical report collections
  • Rembrandts in your attic: identifying and preserving rare engineering materials
10. Developments in Engineering Librarianship
  • Embedded librarians: old wine in new bottles?
  • Successful librarian-faculty collaborations
  • Innovative library outreach programs
  • Mentoring the next generation of engineering librarians
11. ABET/CEAB Accreditation
  • The role of librarians in the accreditation process
  • Preparing for an accreditation visit
  • Educating faculty about the role of the library in accreditation
12. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Issues
  • IPR training for engineering students and faculty
  • Copyright training for librarians
  • Developments in open access
  • Patent search tools and techniques
  • Open source software
You may submit abstracts for papers, posters and panel discussions beginning today, Wednesday, September 8, 2010. The last date for abstract submissions is Friday, October 8, 2010. Please remember that all posters and presentations require a paper in accordance with ASEE's "publish to present" policy. Papers will be peer-reviewed for acceptance into the conference proceedings. Exceptions to the paper requirement include guest speakers and members of panel discussions. I will be contacting potential reviewers in the next few days.

Again, here are the important fall deadlines to remember:


Sept. 8 - Abstract submission opens

Sept. 8
- Abstract review process begins
Oct. 8
- Abstract submission closes
Nov. 12
- Abstract review process ends
Dec. 3
- Abstracts Accepted/Rejected

If you're interested in submitting an abstract, please review the information in the Author's Kit located at
http://www.asee.org/conferences-and-events/conferences/annual-conference/2011/program-schedule/AuthorKit.pdf. I also encourage you to take advantage of our Mentoring Committee's Paper Review Service.

Please note that ASEE has replaced the SmoothPaper paper management system with a new system designed by in-house staff. I will be learning the new system with you and will do my best to make the submission and review processes as straightforward as possible. To get started, please go to
http://www.asee.org and click the "log in" link in the upper right hand corner to log into the paper management system or to set up your account.

The ELD Program Planning Committee looks forward to working with all ELD members over the next ten months to create a strong program for ASEE 2011 in Vancouver. The Program Planning Committee is:


Craig Beard, Publications Chair

Amy Buhler, Director (1st year)
Aleteia Greenwood, Member of the Awards and Nominating Committees
Bob Heyer-Gray, Chair
Doug McGee, Treasurer/Secretary
Adriana Popescu, Director (2nd year)
Megan Sapp Nelson, Scholarly Communications Chair
Larry Thompson, Development Chair
Michael White, Program Chair/Chair Elect

If you have any questions or ideas, please contact me at
michael.white@queensu.ca. (E-mail is best as I am on parental leave until early November.)

Thank you,


Michael White

ELD Program Chair, 2010-2011