For the ASEE 2024 conference, we summarized many of the takeaways from CoP events as a tips and tricks paper in the New Engineering Educator Division of ASEE. The paper was awarded second place for the division Best Paper Award. Abstract A group of six faculty from laboratory and design courses at a large public […]
CoP Resources
Teaching Assistant Resource Guide
We have pulled together resources from across campus and within the Champaign-Urbana primarily for teaching assistants of lab and design courses. The purpose of this resource is to provide a broad list of professional development opportunities and other resources that will support our TAs in one place. If you have suggestions to add to this […]
Facilitating Better Teamwork
Teaming of students in design-based engineering courses improves outcomes for projects and replicates the working environment of engineers. Yet the group-level and individual benefits of working in groups depend on healthy group function. In lab and design-based courses, where assignments are typically more open-ended and have high levels of interdependency, unhealthy group dynamics lead to […]
Entrepreneurial Mindset of Students in Undergraduate Laboratory Courses
Many of the objectives of laboratory experiences overlap with Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network’s (KEEN) Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM) framework. KEEN’s EM framework includes learning outcomes related to curiosity, connections, and creating value (3C’s) [1]. In the 2022-23 academic year, we explored this overlap Entrepreneurial Mindset and Laboratory Courses Laboratories are key learning spaces in undergraduate STEM […]
TA Panel: Supporting Student Staff
A panel including TA’s Sam Engblom, Hannah Harris, Hannah Kimmel, and Sushant Mahat was hosted on February 11, 2022, to better understand the TA perspective of teaching. Sam is a 5th-year physics graduate student, Hannah Kimmel is a 3rd-year PhD student in the Bioengineering department, Hannah Harris is in the master’s program in Bioengineering, and […]
CoP Workshop: Writing Assignments
Dr. John Popovics (CEE) and Dr. Julie Zilles (CpSc) collaborated on a presentation outlining how to design effective and efficient writing assignments for lab courses. Their presentation covered the research done by the Writing Across Engineering and Science team over the prior five years. Their website can be found here: https://publish.illinois.edu/waes/. The presentation was divided […]
CoP Workshop: Lab and Design Courses in Canvas
On April 21, 2022, Dr. Rebecca Reck hosted a hybrid workshop event on the ins and outs of using canvas as a lab and design course tool, following a successful Coffee Hour Chat back in November 2021. The previous coffee chat gave more formalized general guidelines on using Canvas, while the workshop was more of […]
CoP Workshop: Culture of Inclusion
On October 22, 2021, the Community of Practice hosted a workshop focused on stressing the importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within classroom settings. This workshop was hosted as a hybrid event, with participants able to join either in person or through Microsoft Teams. Presented by Dr. Holly Golecki and Ilalee James Harrison, the […]
AE3 Workshop: Designing Better Labs
Chris Schmitz and Rebecca Reck presented a workshop on designing better labs that was sponsored by the Academy for Excellence in Engineering Education (AE3). They covered educational theories and models that apply to laboratory experiences, the basics for preparing a lab course, executing a lab during the semester, and some tips and tricks. The complete […]
CoP Workshop: Facilitating Teamwork
The Facilitating Teamwork Workshop, hosted on November 9th, 2021, was the first workshop hosted by the Community of Practice (CoP) and was hosted by Chris Schmitz (Teaching Professor, ECE) and Holly Golecki (Teaching Assistant Professor, BioE). Hosted on Microsoft Teams and utilizing Google Jamboard for collaboration and presentation, content covered regarded team formation specifics, individual […]