Research Initiation Grant: Increasing Student Engagement in Homework

University Of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

This engineering education research initiation grant seeks to understand how to increase student engagement in out-of-class learning assignments such as homework, and to develop effective methods to improve engagement. The project engages partners from engineering and the behavioral and learning sciences to gather initial data which on why students don't do out-of-class work and how to identify and engage these students. The broader significance and importance of this project is that by better understanding why students choose not to do out-of-class assignments it may be possible to improve how often they complete this work and the quality of work they do complete. Since much learning in engineering programs takes place outside of the classroom, this is an important issue for engineering workforce development. This project overlaps with NSF's strategic goals of transforming the frontiers through preparation of an engineering workforce with new capabilities and expertise. Additionally NSF's goal of innovating for society is enabled by creating results and research that are useful for society by informing educational policy and practices.