WIP: Pilot Study for the Effect of Simulated Laboratories on the Motivation of Biological Engineering Students

Ryan P. Devine; Dominik May; Cheryl T. Gomillion

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: Laboratory Learning in Biomedical Engineering (Works in Progress) - June 24th
Tagged Division: Biomedical Engineering
Page Count: 4
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--35565
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/35565
Download Count: 412

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Paper Authors

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Ryan P. Devine University of Georgia

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3rd year Biomedical Engineering PhD student at the University of Georgia. Researching blood-material interactions to develop hemocompatible materials to improve the safety of surgical procedures. In addition to technical research, I have over 2 years of teaching experience and am pursuing an interdisciplinary certificate in university teaching.

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Dominik May University of Georgia orcid.org/0000-0001-9860-1864

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Dr. May is an Assistant Professor in the Engineering Education Transformations Institute. He researches online and intercultural engineering education. His primary research focus lies on the development, introduction, practical use, and educational value of online laboratories (remote, virtual, and cross-reality) and online experimentation in engineering instruction. In his work, he focuses on developing broader educational strategies for the design and use of online engineering equipment, putting these into practice and provide the evidence base for further development efforts. Moreover, Dr. May is developing instructional concepts to bring students into international study contexts so that they can experience intercultural collaboration and develop respective competences. Dr. May is Vice President of the International Association of Online Engineering (IAOE), which is an international non-profit organization to encourage the wider development, distribution, and application of Online Engineering (OE) technologies and its influence on society. Furthermore, he serves as Editor-in-Chief for the International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET) intending to promote the interdisciplinary discussion of engineers, educators, and engineering education researchers around technology, instruction, and research. Dr. May has organized several international conferences in the Engineering Education Research field. He is currently program co-chair and international program committee member for the annual International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation (REV) and served as a special session committee member for the Experiment@ International Conference Series (exp.at).

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Cheryl T. Gomillion University of Georgia

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Dr. Cheryl Gomillion is Assistant Professor in the School of Chemical, Materials, and Biomedical Engineering, part of the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia (UGA). She received her B.S. in Biosystems Engineering with an emphasis in Applied Biotechnology from Clemson University, and she completed both her Master’s and Ph.D. in Bioengineering also at Clemson University. Dr. Gomillion’s long-standing research interests are in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Specifically, the work of her research group focuses on three general areas: (1) design and modification of biomaterial scaffolds to study cell-biomaterial interactions and to provide cues for directing cell behavior for tissue regeneration; (2) application of engineered tissues for aesthetic and functional tissue replacements; and (3) advanced application of tissue engineering strategies for developing in vitro tissue models for studying disease systems. Dr. Gomillion is committed to the integration of her biomedical interests with education research endeavors, with a specific focus on evaluating classroom innovations for improving biomedical engineering student learning and exploring factors that facilitate success for diverse graduate students.

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Abstract

Laboratory sections are at the core of undergraduate STEM education as they grant students the ability to observe how the physical world compares to the concepts taught in the classroom. In the context of engineering (as an applied science field), focus on the application of concepts in an educational setting is especially crucial towards proper career development; however, the biological engineering (BE) education community faces a multitude of barriers towards implementing hands-on lab sections.

The main challenge for BE educators is that BE is a relatively new and broad discipline that integrates a diverse array of knowledge from the basic sciences and engineering sciences towards application in the biological and medicinal fields. Due to variety of possible career outcomes and limited department resources (money, laboratory space, etc.), it is not possible to create a single undergraduate curriculum that will cover all of the technical skills spanning the entire BE field in a hands-on setting. As laboratory sections have been shown to provide a variety of educational benefits, it is imperative that university engineering departments seek alternative methods to deliver real-life application of classroom concepts.

As such, interest in the development and usage of simulated lab sections has risen. While these lab experiences offer economic benefits to educational institutions and are more convenient for students to access, the exact educational outcomes of simulated labs, especially when compared to traditional hands-on labs, is still unclear. Due to the previously stated challenges, the BE education community could benefit greatly by the implementation of simulated labs; however, there is a limited amount of literature on simulated labs in the context of BE.

It is warranted to study how BE engineering students interact with simulated labs as BE students have been found to have different motivations for entering the engineering field when compared to traditional engineering (TE) disciplines (such as civil, mechanical or electrical). Therefore, it is paramount that the BE engineering education community capitalizes on these differences in motivation in order to address the systemically lackluster engineering student retention rate. BE students are largely driven to the field for the opportunity to benefit society, which differs compared to TE majors who cited their love of designing and building. Therefore, these unique motivational differences of BE students compared to TE students needs to be separately studied, as previous motivational studies in a TE setting may not be applicable to BE students.

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide a case study on how the implementation of a commercially available simulated lab alters the motivation of students in a BE course. Collection of data will help us answer three key research questions: 1) How well does the simulated lab intervention work? 2) How do BE students experience disciplinary-specific simulated labs? 3) How do those experiences inform us on the student motivation? By utilizing the MUSIC® Model of Academic Motivation, we aim to pin down the social realities surrounding simulated BE labs, clarify the unique motivations of BE students, and provide vital information for the national discourse of proper BE curricula development.

Data analysis will follow a case study and narrative analysis approach to develop a theory on how the implementation of simulated labs affects the motivation of BE students. The case study approach to analysis will allow us to accurately assess the efficacy of the lab intervention and identify what factors of motivation are at play during the lab intervention; whereas the narrative analysis approach will be used to contextualize student experience with the lab intervention. This combined approach will ensure that no assumptions are made in regards to the data collected, and that the social realities surround BE simulated labs are accurately described.

Citation
Format

Devine, R. P., & May, D., & Gomillion, C. T. (2020, June), WIP: Pilot Study for the Effect of Simulated Laboratories on the Motivation of Biological Engineering Students Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35565

TY - CPAPER
AB - Laboratory sections are at the core of undergraduate STEM education as they grant students the ability to observe how the physical world compares to the concepts taught in the classroom. In the context of engineering (as an applied science field), focus on the application of concepts in an educational setting is especially crucial towards proper career development; however, the biological engineering (BE) education community faces a multitude of barriers towards implementing hands-on lab sections.

The main challenge for BE educators is that BE is a relatively new and broad discipline that integrates a diverse array of knowledge from the basic sciences and engineering sciences towards application in the biological and medicinal fields. Due to variety of possible career outcomes and limited department resources (money, laboratory space, etc.), it is not possible to create a single undergraduate curriculum that will cover all of the technical skills spanning the entire BE field in a hands-on setting. As laboratory sections have been shown to provide a variety of educational benefits, it is imperative that university engineering departments seek alternative methods to deliver real-life application of classroom concepts.

As such, interest in the development and usage of simulated lab sections has risen. While these lab experiences offer economic benefits to educational institutions and are more convenient for students to access, the exact educational outcomes of simulated labs, especially when compared to traditional hands-on labs, is still unclear. Due to the previously stated challenges, the BE education community could benefit greatly by the implementation of simulated labs; however, there is a limited amount of literature on simulated labs in the context of BE.

It is warranted to study how BE engineering students interact with simulated labs as BE students have been found to have different motivations for entering the engineering field when compared to traditional engineering (TE) disciplines (such as civil, mechanical or electrical). Therefore, it is paramount that the BE engineering education community capitalizes on these differences in motivation in order to address the systemically lackluster engineering student retention rate. BE students are largely driven to the field for the opportunity to benefit society, which differs compared to TE majors who cited their love of designing and building. Therefore, these unique motivational differences of BE students compared to TE students needs to be separately studied, as previous motivational studies in a TE setting may not be applicable to BE students.

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide a case study on how the implementation of a commercially available simulated lab alters the motivation of students in a BE course. Collection of data will help us answer three key research questions: 1) How well does the simulated lab intervention work? 2) How do BE students experience disciplinary-specific simulated labs? 3) How do those experiences inform us on the student motivation? By utilizing the MUSIC® Model of Academic Motivation, we aim to pin down the social realities surrounding simulated BE labs, clarify the unique motivations of BE students, and provide vital information for the national discourse of proper BE curricula development.

Data analysis will follow a case study and narrative analysis approach to develop a theory on how the implementation of simulated labs affects the motivation of BE students. The case study approach to analysis will allow us to accurately assess the efficacy of the lab intervention and identify what factors of motivation are at play during the lab intervention; whereas the narrative analysis approach will be used to contextualize student experience with the lab intervention. This combined approach will ensure that no assumptions are made in regards to the data collected, and that the social realities surround BE simulated labs are accurately described.

AU - Ryan P. Devine
AU - Dominik May
AU - Cheryl T. Gomillion
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - WIP: Pilot Study for the Effect of Simulated Laboratories on the Motivation of Biological Engineering Students
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/35565
DO - 10.18260/1-2--35565
ER -