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Icon for: Aileen Huang-Saad

AILEEN HUANG-SAAD

University of Michigan

Design and Development: Fostering Graduate Student Professional Development T...

NSF Awards: 1825669

2019 (see original presentation & discussion)

Undergraduate, Graduate

The U-M BME Instructional Incubator and BME-in-Practice Sequence is an iterative instructional design sequence for graduate students, upper level undergraduates, post docs, and faculty.  In this experiential two semester program, teams are mentored through the instructional design process, learn about student learning theory and pedagogy, and pilot their courses.  In the fall term, participants interview stakeholders and learn about the current state of biomedical engineering in practice, including problems being solved, tools used, and expectations of new hires. Using this information and their understanding of pedagogy, teams jointly develop engaging 1-credit BME-In-Practices courses to meet the needs of the rapidly changing BME professional workforce. Teams are then given the opportunity to teach their BME-in-Practice courses (winter term), providing students and post docs the opportunity to gain a mentored teaching experience and mechanism for creating new 1st and 2nd year short courses.

 

The Incubator/BME-in-Practice Sequence exposes graduate students to post graduate professional opportunities typically not addressed in graduate school curriculum while developing their abilities to create curriculum informed by research-based practices.  This sequence meets the career development needs of current graduate students as instructors and non-academics, includes secondary benefits for undergraduates through informed instruction on engineering practice, and lays a foundation for long term institutionalization of professional development within the academic program.  To date, the sequence has been offered two times.  Seven 1-credit, hands-on-learning BME modules have been launched and enrolled over 70% women.

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Discussion from the 2019 STEM for All Video Showcase (19 posts)
  • Icon for: Aileen Huang-Saad

    Aileen Huang-Saad

    Lead Presenter
    Assistant Professor
    May 12, 2019 | 07:10 p.m.

    Welcome to the U-M BME Instructional Incubator and BME-in-Practice Sequence Video.  We are so excited to share what we have been doing here at Michigan to encourage more hands on learning for our first and second year BME students.  We welcome your feedback!

  • Icon for: Joni Falk

    Joni Falk

    Co-Director of CSR at TERC
    May 14, 2019 | 09:10 a.m.

    Wow. Really enjoyed this video and learning about this project! It keeps engagement and active participation at its core. The co-creation of the course involving graduate students and faculty is even better. The professors learn more about engagement, the graduate students learn in order to teach, and then the undergrads profit from the early intro to BME.

    Some questions. Who actually teaches the course? Is it co-taught by the professor and graduate students? How are these courses rated by the students in comparison to other courses? Do you have any data how many of the students who take these courses continue to take more in this field? Thanks for this great contribution which seems quite replicable in other institutions. 

     
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    Aileen Huang-Saad
  • Icon for: Aileen Huang-Saad

    Aileen Huang-Saad

    Lead Presenter
    Assistant Professor
    May 14, 2019 | 10:01 a.m.

    Hi Joni - thanks for the thoughtful questions -- It has been a lot of fun conceiving of this project and implementing it.  In answer to your questions:

    1.  Who actually teaches the course:  The course sequence has been offered for two years.  I have been the primary instructor.  During the first year, I had a great School of Education graduate student working with me as a Teaching Apprentice for the Incubator.  Then I was the mentor for the students that taught the BME-in-Practice Modules in the Winter term.  In year two, we started to explore how to integrate more faculty.  Again, I was the primary instructor.  For the BME-in-Practice Modules, two faculty from our department helped mentor the student teams that were teaching their modules.

    2. How are these courses rated by students in comparison to other courses?  - So far, students have been very pleased with these courses as demonstrated by qualitative feedback we have been collecting.  Students have commented on their enthusiasm for working in small groups, working closely with faculty and graduate students, learning professional relevant skills etc.  We are in the process of coding all of the responses from the past two years now.  Since student teams are leading the courses, we have not be collecting the same quantitative teaching evaluations that you would see in a traditional course.  

    3.  Data on students who take these courses and do they take more in this field? I'm not sure which students you are referring to, so I will address both.  Students that have taken then incubator are an interesting mix -- some have gone on to teaching positions in universities, some have gone into industry and others are still in their graduate programs.  The Incubator has helped exposed graduate students to non-academic career paths because of their instructional discovery process and for those that have wanted to go onto academics -t hey now have a portfolio of teaching materials.  Undergraduates that have taken the BME-in-Practice modules are commenting on how they are able to have a better understanding of which concentration they want to pursue and are finding it easier to get internships based on their experiences in the modules.

    We have started to present some of our outcomes for graduate students at ASEE:

    1. Handley, J., Huang-Saad, A., & Woodcock, C.S. Exploring biomedical engineering students self-raised motivations for engaging in instructional design.  American Society for Engineering Education: Annual Conference and Exposition. Salt Lake City, UT.  (2018)
    2. Malaga, K., Nu, Chrono, & Huang-Saad, A.Y.  “Introduction to Neural Engineering:”  Design and Development of a BME-In-Practice Course through the BME Instructional Incubator.  American Society of Engineering Education – North Central Section Spring Conference 2018.  Akron, OH. (2018).

    Thanks for your thoughtful questions and let me know if there is anything else I can explain.

     
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    Joni Falk
  • Icon for: Joni Falk

    Joni Falk

    Co-Director of CSR at TERC
    May 14, 2019 | 03:44 p.m.

    Thanks for your very thoughtful replies!!!

     
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    Aileen Huang-Saad
  • Icon for: Jay Labov

    Jay Labov

    Facilitator
    Senior Advisor for Educaition and Communication (Retired
    May 14, 2019 | 04:30 p.m.

    Thank you for preparing and submitting your video and so for your very thoughtful responses to Joni Falk's questions. I want ask a technical question and the take the discussion in a different direction as it relates to the future of graduate education:

    The technical question: Your video indicated that the majority of students who enroll in the one credit courses are women. What percentage of undergraduate engineering students are women?

    The different direction: As a former member of the staff of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine I was able to work on a study that led to the 2018 report, Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century [available for free download by clicking on the link]. Many components of your initiative are completely consistent with the recommendations in that report and it appears from your preliminary data that graduate students as well as other faculty and undergraduates are benefitting in various ways. My question is how your work in this project might be serving as a catalyst for changing graduate education in engineering and perhaps other fields at the University of Michigan. Is anyone who has the capacity for influencing systematic change paying attention? Are other innovations taking place in graduate education in engineering at Michigan?

     
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    Aileen Huang-Saad
    Joni Falk
  • Icon for: Aileen Huang-Saad

    Aileen Huang-Saad

    Lead Presenter
    Assistant Professor
    May 14, 2019 | 10:56 p.m.

    Hi Jay

    Thanks for your thoughtful insights — in response to your technical question, the percentage of women enrolled in engineering at U of M is approximately 27% as of Fall 2018.

    Thanks for recognizing that this program meets several different needs in higher educatiom for both undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty.  In fact, the idea was conceived when our department was seeking to revolutionize engineering education using organizational change theory. We systematically interviewed faculty, students, alumni, and industry partners to learn more about the needs and problems.  The solution was designed to address those needs.  So far, people in the college are enthusiastic of the potential — I have begun introducing the concept to other departments in the College and am starting to work with my colleagues to find ways to scale the program.  We are so excited for the potential.

    Thanks for your questions.

    Aileen

  • Icon for: Karin Lohwasser

    Karin Lohwasser

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 14, 2019 | 11:39 p.m.

    I agree with Jay, this kind of professional collaboration across different levels of teaching and learning has so many benefits. It is a great example that should spread to other courses and departments. How time intensive is it to get such a collaboration off the ground and working, and course segments lead by students actually ready to go?

     
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    Aileen Huang-Saad
  • Icon for: Aileen Huang-Saad

    Aileen Huang-Saad

    Lead Presenter
    Assistant Professor
    May 15, 2019 | 01:49 p.m.

    Thanks for your question Karin.  As you already hinted -- it isn't exactly easy -- but I am always amazed out how the students pull it off.  The Incubator course is a 3 credit class and I would say that the amount of work is consistent with what a typical 3 credit course requires -- but I also find that students will go above and beyond to execute the courses in the winter term because of their personal interests.  The BME-in-Practice modules are only 4 weeks long (1 credit long) so it also doesn't over burden the teaching apprentices in the winter term.

  • Icon for: Ivory Toldson

    Ivory Toldson

    Facilitator
    President and CEO
    May 15, 2019 | 12:20 p.m.

    Hello All! My name is Ivory Toldson, professor at Howard University, president of Quality Education for Minorities, and one of the facilitators for the STEM for All Video Showcase. The conversation is off to a great start and I will be chiming in with my own input this afternoon and over the next few days. I'm excited about what we can achieve for the next generation of STEM learners!

     
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    Aileen Huang-Saad
  • Icon for: Aileen Huang-Saad

    Aileen Huang-Saad

    Lead Presenter
    Assistant Professor
    May 15, 2019 | 01:46 p.m.

    Great!  Thanks -- Looking forward to the dialogue

  • Icon for: Mary Besterfield-Sacre

    Mary Besterfield-Sacre

    Higher Ed Administrator
    May 15, 2019 | 03:41 p.m.

    Sweet!  This approach is both fresh and meaningful for students. 

     
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    Aileen Huang-Saad
  • Icon for: Ivory Toldson

    Ivory Toldson

    Facilitator
    President and CEO
    May 15, 2019 | 04:58 p.m.

    Thank you for this video. Entering the project, were you anticipating such a large involvement from female students? Is there evidence that their involvement at the earlier levels of their education leads to greater involvement at more advanced levels? What other observations have you made that you were not anticipating?

  • Icon for: Aileen Huang-Saad

    Aileen Huang-Saad

    Lead Presenter
    Assistant Professor
    May 16, 2019 | 08:55 a.m.

    Thanks for your question -- from inception, our goal was to offer more hands on learning experiences for all of our students -- in retrospect, looking at the literature, our results of high participation from women is consistent with what others have documented.  Our program is in it's 2nd year, so we still have yet to be able to make conclusive comments on greater involvement at advanced levels -- although we do have anecdotal data indicating that there is success with internships and research opportunities for participants.

    The biggest observation that we did not anticipate was the graduate students' interest in actually teaching the courses they created.  Initially, we had not planned on them teaching the courses, it was more of a design exercise - but their enthusiasm for launching them was overwhelming.  We were also amazed at the interest of the undergraduate students. 

     
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    Ivory Toldson
  • Icon for: Judith Dilts

    Judith Dilts

    Facilitator
    Professor Emerita of Biology and Retired Associate Dean, College of Science and Mathematics
    May 16, 2019 | 12:16 a.m.

    The idea of pairing instructional design for faculty, grad students, post-docs, and upper-level undergraduates with the design and teaching of an incubator course is excellent -- as is the mix of participants. I was able to observe at James Madison the construction of incubator courses, but the preparation of those occurred in the summer and only involved the faculty who were to teach. Their incubator courses, however, were very interdisciplinary -- e.g., biology, art, engineering, and history. I wonder if you have thought about including faculty from disciplines outside of STEM, for example artists or economists? The outcomes of the design process and teaching might be richer.

  • Icon for: Aileen Huang-Saad

    Aileen Huang-Saad

    Lead Presenter
    Assistant Professor
    May 16, 2019 | 08:58 a.m.

    Thanks for your comment.  I would really like to learn more about what is being done at James Madison -- if you could give me some information on their program, it would be great.  

    I would very much like to have faculty/graduate students from other disciplines participate.  With two years under our belt - we are now talking to more departments and groups on campus about broadening our participant base.  

  • Icon for: Judith Dilts

    Judith Dilts

    Facilitator
    Professor Emerita of Biology and Retired Associate Dean, College of Science and Mathematics
    May 16, 2019 | 08:42 p.m.

    Contact Nick Swayne, swaynedd@jmu.edu, and he can help and direct you to others. 

     
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    Aileen Huang-Saad
  • Icon for: Aileen Huang-Saad

    Aileen Huang-Saad

    Lead Presenter
    Assistant Professor
    May 16, 2019 | 11:42 p.m.

    Thanks!

  • Icon for: Tim McKay

    Tim McKay

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 17, 2019 | 07:40 a.m.

    Congratulations Aileen to you and all your collaborators on this work! I love the model of developing fresh "BME in Practice" modules each fall then teaching them in winter, and doing it with low stakes 1 credit courses avoids many of the usual constraints which surround courses in the traditional curriculum. I'd love to get your thoughts about how we might translate this model to other programs across the disciplines.

     
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    Aileen Huang-Saad
  • Icon for: Aileen Huang-Saad

    Aileen Huang-Saad

    Lead Presenter
    Assistant Professor
    May 17, 2019 | 11:54 a.m.

    Thanks!  We have had a great time conceptualizing the model and I definitely think it is scalable across disciplines.  The aspect of Instructional Discovery is particularly important to push the discipline specific needs.

  • Further posting is closed as the event has ended.