Our work spans a variety of topics and approaches in engineering education research. One of my favorite aspects of working in academia is collaborating with colleagues with expertise across numerous disciplines. If you are interested in collaborating, please contact me at kjens@illinois.edu.
Research Areas
Student Mental Health and Wellness
Academia is experiencing what some have called a “mental health crisis”. Though culture and perceived norms have critical recruitment and retention implications, no research has examined the role of a high-stress culture. Our group studies the student experience in relation to mental health and works to develop proactive interventions to improve student wellbeing. Ultimately, our group’s goal is to create environments in which all students can thrive.
Engaging Engineering Faculty in Engineering Education Research
Engineering faculty bring an important perspective to engineering education research, but are rarely formally trained in engineering education research methods. Our group studies how engineering faculty are best trained in engineering education research, with goals of expanding and diversifying the engineering education research community and bridging the gap between research and practice.
Career Pathways of Female Students in Engineering
Despite intensive efforts, women remain chronically underrepresented in engineering. Research shows that even for women who enter engineering, retention in technical roles is lower compared to men, which has negative implications for retention in engineering and salary equity. Our group studies how female students develop technical identities as engineers and their career pathways.
Biomedical Engineering Lab Coursework
Biomedical engineering is an interdisciplinary field that bridges several engineering and science disciplines. Our team works to develop innovative course materials for biomedical engineering curricula that train students for work in industry and academia. We have developed, and continue to innovate, an entry-level laboratory course that provides students skills to work in the biotech industry.
Engineering Education Excellence at Scale
Engineering enrollments continue to grow. Our group is interested in developing technology and pedagogical approaches for excellent teaching at scale that foster inclusive environments.
Check out the Queue@Illinois, a collaborative project part of the Strategic Instructional Innovation Program at Illinois
The Jensen Lab is grateful for support from the following groups
Provost Initiative on Teaching Advancement