MCA: Support Engaging and Inclusive STEM Education with Extended Reality (SEISE-XR)

California State University-Fresno Foundation, Fresno CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by transforming STEM education at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) with innovative extended reality (XR) technologies. XR can enhance active learning, increase student engagement, and improve learning outcomes in STEM subjects, especially in undergraduate settings, and particularly for students with historically excluded identities. However, the widespread use of XR in STEM education faces numerous challenges. One critical deficiency is the lack of training and support for faculty to effectively and confidently integrate XR into their teaching. This project studies six STEM faculty at Fresno State who are engaged in a faculty learning community around XR integration in undergraduate STEM classes. The project will examine how their participation in the faculty learning community affects their perceptions and skills around XR integration, and connect their work in the faculty learning community with their implementation of XR in their classrooms. Through close analysis of their development and implementation, this project will generate new knowledge about how support faculty in using new technologies in the classroom. This MCA project aims to study faculty’s integration of XR to design engaging and inclusive STEM learning experiences at HSIs, informed by the Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. Through an ethnographic research study of six STEM faculty, the research team will investigate how the TPACK framework informs and intersects with the ways in which STEM faculty grow to use XR in their classes. This study will document, describe, analyze, and interpret the development of faculty participants’ shared behavior patterns, beliefs, and culture of using XR in STEM teaching. Classroom observation data and instructional materials will be gathered to develop a snapshot of their understanding and document evidence of the faculty’s enactment of TPACK when using XR. Reflective journals, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups will be used to illuminate the process of faculty’s XR integration knowledge development and investigate how the shared culture in the community of practice, interaction with peers and students in the classroom, and changes in beliefs drive this process of faculty growth. As an MCA project, the principal investigator will develop research skills in ethnographic methods through targeted training and close collaboration with a mentor. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions program, which has the goals of enhancing the quality of undergraduate STEM education, and increasing the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of students pursuing associate’s or baccalaureate degrees in STEM. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.