Lisa McNair
Virginia Tech, Engineering Education, Faculty Member
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Web games provide a platform for creative instructional activities that can capture the students' attention towards the course. These games can be used to emulate the realistic situations which can be used as effective lab... more
Web games provide a platform for creative instructional activities that can capture the students' attention towards the course. These games can be used to emulate the realistic situations which can be used as effective lab experiments that could give the students a hands-on ...
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Often in diversity and inclusion research, the goal is to represent the perspectives of those who are ‘not at the table,’ but seldom do research methods provide the participants an actual seat ‘at the table.’ Informed by a participatory... more
Often in diversity and inclusion research, the goal is to represent the perspectives of those who are ‘not at the table,’ but seldom do research methods provide the participants an actual seat ‘at the table.’ Informed by a participatory action research approach, we partnered with study participants, positioning them as our co-researchers. Together, we employed an unconference (also known as an Open Space Technology workshop) as a research method in order to elevate the voices of study participants, provide space for them to create a meaningful network, and maximize their collective expertise. Unconferences are gatherings that have no pre-set agenda; instead participants are convened around a central theme and the agenda is collaboratively designed by the attendees. This open-ended structure allows participants to initiate sessions on topics that matter to them; engage in inquiry, reflection, and learning; and develop plans, recommendations, and a record of the proceedings as the process unfolds. In the context of a research study, an unconference poses a high risk, high reward situation. The researcher/facilitator has very little control over the direction of the event and the types of data produced (i.e., high risk), whereas giving participants ownership and control generates insights that may be impossible to gather using other research methods (i.e., high reward). In June 2018, we held the ‘Unconference on Making Liberatory Spaces,’ bringing together representatives from diverse, inclusive, liberatory maker spaces from around the country to share their organizations’ stories and exchange best practices regarding inclusion of diverse populations in maker spaces. In this paper, we will share our planning process and the lessons we learned through planning and hosting our unconference — including event planning decisions, recruitment of participants, facilitation techniques, data collection methods, and IRB procedures — and discuss how an unconference could be employed by other researchers, especially those exploring emerging topics.
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Abstract This study investigates how design artefacts shape interactions among student designers and design reviewers to mediate design and design learning. By analysing data collected from two design courses in mechanical engineering and... more
Abstract This study investigates how design artefacts shape interactions among student designers and design reviewers to mediate design and design learning. By analysing data collected from two design courses in mechanical engineering and industrial design courses, this study draws on Winner’s concept of politics of the artefact and Gee’s discourse analysis to explore the ways in which design artefacts help structure social relationships and power dynamics between reviewers and students in design learning settings. We use this exploration to examine how student designers work with reviewers to negotiate meaning as they shift from student to collaborator. Our results indicate that functional and well-developed design artefacts allowed students to position themselves as experts of their designs; engage in collaborative, innovative discussion with design reviewers; and elicit constructive feedback from reviewers. In contrast, students who developed incomplete or inaccurate design artefacts experienced limited dialogue with reviewers and reinforced the power distance between them.
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This innovative practice paper introduces the use of personas as a design technique to guide the large-scale curriculum reform of an Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) program at [University X], a large Mid-Atlantic... more
This innovative practice paper introduces the use of personas as a design technique to guide the large-scale curriculum reform of an Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) program at [University X], a large Mid-Atlantic research-intensive institution. The team has created five personas to explore the potential breadth of the curriculum and expand the faculty perspective on who could be a successful ECE student in the department. The concept of personas originated in the field of human-computer interaction to represent subsets of potential users as abstracted sets of characteristics. Drawing from qualitative data including observations of team meetings and document analysis, this work describes the ethnographic inquiry designers used to develop profiles not solely based on their biases. Responses to personas during implementation show that they can be used to engage the boundaries of culture, bringing to light not only characteristics of students who are not typically present in the program, but also faculty members’ assumptions about characteristics needed for success.
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This study presents results from a comparative case study of interdisciplinary product design teams from two consecutive years under non-balanced and balanced disciplinary conditions. The main difference between the two conditions was the... more
This study presents results from a comparative case study of interdisciplinary product design teams from two consecutive years under non-balanced and balanced disciplinary conditions. The main difference between the two conditions was the hands-on exercise modules focusing on each discipline (e.g., electronic prototyping exercise) used for the balanced condition. The purpose of this paper was to examine cultural traits of different disciplines (Electrical & Computer Engineering, Industrial Design, and Marketing) using questionnaires and show the impact of disciplinary balance on the effectiveness of interdisciplinary product design teams through qualitative analysis of team meetings and products. The results indicated that the teams under the balanced disciplinary condition showed higher effectiveness. Implications and the future direction for the work are also described.
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Research from the past 10 years suggests that students continue to have difficultly mastering statics content commonlyrequired in engineeringcurricula. Even when students succeed in demonstrating procedural knowledge, they often still... more
Research from the past 10 years suggests that students continue to have difficultly mastering statics content commonlyrequired in engineeringcurricula. Even when students succeed in demonstrating procedural knowledge, they often still lacka deep understanding of core concepts. In this mixed methods study, we explore the potential of a writing-to-learnassignment to enhance students’ conceptual learning in statics. Results from a quantitative analysis of exam grades for 345students show little difference between experimental and control sections, but results from nine qualitative interviews withstudents highlight four different metacognitive activities they applied to the writing-to-learn assignment. The widevariation in students’ approaches to this intervention, coupled with the emerging metacognitive acts, can be used to guidethe development of more effective interventions.
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While recent calls throughout the engineering education community have focused on increasing diversity and broadening participation in STEM, these conversations typically center on race and gender with little to no work addressing... more
While recent calls throughout the engineering education community have focused on increasing diversity and broadening participation in STEM, these conversations typically center on race and gender with little to no work addressing disability. But research in higher education broadly suggests that cognitive, physical, and learning disabilities can markedly impact the ways in which students perceive and experience school, develop professional identities, and move into the engineering workforce. To address this gap, we build on emerging conversations that explore the ways in which students experience disability within the context of engineering education. In particular, we conducted an initial grounded theory analysis of interviews examining professional identity formation in undergraduate civil engineering students who experience disabilities. From our analysis, we observed three themes that begin to highlight ways in which the experience of students with disabilities may contribute t...
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Research Interests: Discipline and Teamwork
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Design projects associated with sustainability efforts often require interdisciplinary student teams to address technical, social, and environmental concerns. While educators are increasingly seeking to understand and actively teach... more
Design projects associated with sustainability efforts often require interdisciplinary student teams to address technical, social, and environmental concerns. While educators are increasingly seeking to understand and actively teach interdisciplinary collaboration skills, less attention has been given to the structure and context of such teams. In this paper, we draw on prior research to analyze interdisciplinary teams as sites of distributed work. Using frameworks that identify key characteristics of co-located and distributed work, we identify key factors in interdisciplinary design teams that may inhibit collaboration. We conclude with strategies for faculty to help sustain such teams through concrete course management practices and through explicit learning outcomes that can help students transfer teaming skills learned in this environment to new projects.
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In this paper, we demonstrate how theory can inform the design of a program to prepare graduate students for faculty careers. Preparing Future Faculty programs within and beyond engineering are not new, but explicit application of... more
In this paper, we demonstrate how theory can inform the design of a program to prepare graduate students for faculty careers. Preparing Future Faculty programs within and beyond engineering are not new, but explicit application of Communities of Practice and related literature is novel. We describe a prestigious teaching fellowship program that spans three years of increasing instructional responsibility, and present assessment data to describe the role of faculty mentoring and peer networks in student identity development ...
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Abstract: Drawing from the prior work of McNair and Paretti (2010), this study investigates how language practices and design artifacts mediate the interactions among novice and expert designers to shape the nature of design, and... more
Abstract: Drawing from the prior work of McNair and Paretti (2010), this study investigates how language practices and design artifacts mediate the interactions among novice and expert designers to shape the nature of design, and specifically design learning. By analyzing data collected from two design courses in different fields, this study addresses two research questions: 1) how do language practices mediate the interactions between design mentors and design learners; and 2) how do design artifacts mediate these interactions between mentors and learners? Drawing on activity theory and discourse analysis, we use these questions to explore how students work with experts to make meaning within their design experiences. In doing so, we treat meaning-making as an array of social processes situated within a complex activity system that includes instructors, professionals, team members, and artifacts.
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In response to a call from the National Science Foundation, “Revolutionizing Engineering Departments” (RED), several departments across the United States are engaged with reforming their curricula, program structures, and culture. This... more
In response to a call from the National Science Foundation, “Revolutionizing Engineering Departments” (RED), several departments across the United States are engaged with reforming their curricula, program structures, and culture. This work-in-progress paper presents a preliminary causal loop diagram (CLD) drawing from the engineering education literature. A CLD consists of variables and positive and negative relations between them describing the dynamics of a system. One RED team in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech developed a CLD to conceptually connect project goals and the challenges associated with change. The challenges were hypothesized to be linked to a perception of rigor in the department creating a “culture” that exacerbated difficulties in the change effort, which was supported by the literature. Goals of the grant including broadening participation in Electrical and Computer Engineering and adopting alternative pedagogical strategies were tied to the culture of rigor. Extending the model as a tool for the change effort is discussed.
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Making curricular decisions about critical content is fundamental to the operation of any academic unit in an institution with teaching responsibilities. The literature provides a wealth of information about how instructors plan for... more
Making curricular decisions about critical content is fundamental to the operation of any academic unit in an institution with teaching responsibilities. The literature provides a wealth of information about how instructors plan for instruction and assessment but does not detail how instructors identify core concepts. This work in progress explores curricular decision-making from the instructor’s perspective within the context of large-scale programmatic change in an Electrical and Computer Engineering department. We thematically analyzed existing data from a Content Representation (CoRe) instrument used to capture instructor pedagogical content knowledge and teaching strategies for big ideas in a curriculum. The emergent themes for teaching the big ideas concerning the faculty member’s perceptions of student attitudes were: instructors valuing systems thinking (but not seeing it in students) and appreciating versatility/adaptability, as well as seeing students struggling with the value of concrete vs. abstract, and having a low tolerance for ambiguity. Teaching strategies were dominantly instructor-centered. This work in progress builds upon what is known about curricular decision-making while offering insights about faculty perceptions of content knowledge and strategies for teaching it.
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study investigating ePortfolio use for graduate
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This workshop introduces threshold concepts as a framework to design an integrated first-year course that covers a wide range of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) from circuits to software. We discuss an interaction plan to engage... more
This workshop introduces threshold concepts as a framework to design an integrated first-year course that covers a wide range of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) from circuits to software. We discuss an interaction plan to engage participants in distilling fundamental projects for ECE courses into their fundamental components and looking for opportunities to make explicit connections across disciplines. While ECE is used as the guiding example, other disciplines can benefit from a similar approach.11This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1623067.
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This work-in-progress paper in the research category presents a case study conducted in an advanced undergraduate course that is part of an interdisciplinary minor in innovation. Our study investigates student collaborations in a... more
This work-in-progress paper in the research category presents a case study conducted in an advanced undergraduate course that is part of an interdisciplinary minor in innovation. Our study investigates student collaborations in a cross-disciplinary course spanning engineering, business, and industrial design approaches to creativity and innovation in commercializing technologies. We examine whether instructor methods, course structure, and curriculum contribute to interdisciplinary collaboration. Our study included faculty and student interviews to present multiple perspectives regarding interdisciplinarity and creativity.
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Since the turn of this century, engineering programs in Australia and the United States have been motivated by accrediting bodies such as IEAust and ABET to include multidisciplinary teaming in their curriculum. Yet, the reality of... more
Since the turn of this century, engineering programs in Australia and the United States have been motivated by accrediting bodies such as IEAust and ABET to include multidisciplinary teaming in their curriculum. Yet, the reality of teaching interdisciplinary teaming requires both instructors and students to navigate institutional and social structures of engineering programs that are neither flexible nor adaptive. Drawing from multiple data sets, we present a case study of one interdisciplinary design course from the points of view of instructors and students. While the instructors prioritized flexibility to allow students to develop their own objectives for the project, many students desired more guidance. Nonetheless, many examples of successful interdisciplinary learning and appreciating the expertise of other disciplines occurred.
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Virginia Tech is in the process of an intensive restructuring of its Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department, driven by an NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Department (RED) grant. As a natural first step, discussion has... more
Virginia Tech is in the process of an intensive restructuring of its Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department, driven by an NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Department (RED) grant. As a natural first step, discussion has centered on how the curriculum can be meaningfully enhanced to go beyond a mere reshuffling of core content without tangible changes in pedagogy. Accordingly, we have adopted the threshold concept framework, initially developed by Meyer and Land, as a lens to view elements of the curriculum that are often considered “troublesome” for students to learn and are both transformative and integrative in nature. We opted to frame the discussion of threshold concepts in terms of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), the knowledge associated with communicating concepts in such a way that others — primarily students — can understand. To capture PCK, we used an instrument called a “content representation” (CoRe). This paper describes one element of our sequential qua...
This special session introduces threshold concepts as a framework to design an integrated first-year course that covers a wide range of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) from circuits to software. We discuss an interaction plan to... more
This special session introduces threshold concepts as a framework to design an integrated first-year course that covers a wide range of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) from circuits to software. We discuss an interaction plan to engage participants in distilling fundamental projects for ECE courses into their fundamental components and looking for opportunities to make explicit connections across disciplines. While ECE is used as the guiding example, other disciplines can benefit from a similar approach.
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International graduate students serving as teaching assistants constitute a major component of the teaching of undergraduate students at US universities, particularly in engineering. Prior literature on these international teaching... more
International graduate students serving as teaching assistants constitute a major component of the teaching of undergraduate students at US universities, particularly in engineering. Prior literature on these international teaching assistants (ITAs) generally characterizes their linguistic experiences as challenges. This characterization can be attributed to an institutional environment that is reluctant to accommodate diverse ways of speaking English. This study applies an intersectionality framework to explore the variations in ITAs’ English-language experiences and the influence of the academic context on these experiences using semi-structured interviews and weekly reflections collected from seven engineering ITAs over a semester. Results of data analysis suggest that ITAs’ English proficiency varies based on their prior exposure to English in their home countries, and their English competence improves through their teaching experiences in the US. Participants’ experiences also ...
Research Interests: Psychology and Students
In this Research Work in Progress paper, we describe the methods chosen for a project exploring best practices of inclusion in maker spaces serving diverse populations. Maker spaces provide communities access to innovation tools in... more
In this Research Work in Progress paper, we describe the methods chosen for a project exploring best practices of inclusion in maker spaces serving diverse populations. Maker spaces provide communities access to innovation tools in startup settings that are shaped by the participating members. In our study, these include not only hacker spaces that involve computing, electronic activities, and three-dimensional printing capabilities, but also sites focusing on traditional arts and crafts. Sites selected represent sustainable examples of the values embedded in maker space missions: to promote shared space (physical or virtual, temporary or permanent), materials, and knowledge for the purpose of putting production back in the hands of the people. To study the dynamics through which a community and its space come together, we have employed methods including content analysis, ethnographically-informed participant-observations, and an open space technology workshop/Unconference combined with participatory action research (PAR). We position PAR as both a method and as a methodology, providing a justification for our flexible approach and adaptable strategies. We will describe the process of data collection leading up to the Unconference, how various perspectives are combined at the Unconference, and how the PAR component is threaded throughout the entire project. Finally, we explain our use of the theoretical framework and analytical tool of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which guides our interpretations of interactions in both the maker spaces and our participatory action research process.
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Prior work in engineering education has shown that individuals who do not identify with engineering groups, maintain a sense of belonging to, or perceive themselves as engineers are more likely to leave the profession. While significant... more
Prior work in engineering education has shown that individuals who do not identify with engineering groups, maintain a sense of belonging to, or perceive themselves as engineers are more likely to leave the profession. While significant research has been conducted on various internal, intimate (e.g., gender, race, sexuality, and religion) and external, social perspectives of identity (e.g., discourse, nature of engineering work, and content knowledge), little is known regarding the ways in which these identities intersect and evolve to form students' professional identities, particularly within a single engineering discipline. In this work in progress paper, we present the preliminary findings of the first phase of a quasi-longitudinal grounded theory study consisting of 20 interviews with sophomore-, junior-, and senior-level undergraduate civil engineering students. By sharing our preliminary findings, we aim to describe and further establish the grounded theory methodology within engineering education research; engage engineering educators in a scholarly discussion regarding the value of this topic; and gain further insights for advancing this work.
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In order to promote engineering students' creative practice and self-authorship in undergraduate general education, instructors must first understand the creative process and, second, serve as models to students by engaging in... more
In order to promote engineering students' creative practice and self-authorship in undergraduate general education, instructors must first understand the creative process and, second, serve as models to students by engaging in reflective and transparent practice. However, these learning goals require some tolerance for uncertainty, both in students and in co-taught environments. This research addresses uncertainty in teaching and learning environments and explores instructor reflective practice in interdisciplinary, collaborative teaching and its impact on faculty relationships, course design, and student engagement. The work also seeks to strike a balance between flexible course structure and consistency, while fostering dynamic instructor teams to enact and model creativity for students.
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In this qualitative study, we explore acts of creative identity construction by focusing on the digital portfolios of engineering graduate students as they integrate research, teaching, and service with personal beliefs and experiences.... more
In this qualitative study, we explore acts of creative identity construction by focusing on the digital portfolios of engineering graduate students as they integrate research, teaching, and service with personal beliefs and experiences. We employ theoretical lenses of identity construction as performative and fluid, and self-authorship as intentional meaning making in that process. Our findings indicate two types of creative identity construction. First, the participants construct professional identities by drawing together and commenting on various experiences, values, and passions they select to represent their professional selves. Second, and equally important, the students use portfolios to construct an identity for the profession of engineering itself, not only through explicit engineering philosophies, but also through the ways in which they describe their work and their values. Both sets of constructions represent creative acts of engineering identity work. We conclude that the discursive acts that students undertake when they pair evidence of their achievements with narrative reflections serve as sites of identity construction that allow students the time and the framework to intentionally construct their career trajectories, their personal development, and the various facets of their professional roles. Constructing a portfolio is creative act of self-authorship that allows students to integrate their many intersecting identities and craft wholly new and unique ways of being an engineer.
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1 Lisa McNair, Co-Director, Virginia Tech Engineering Communication Center, Virginia Tech, lmcnair@vt.edu 2 Marie Paretti, Co-Director, Virginia Tech Engineering Communication Center, Virginia Tech, mparetti@vt.edu 3 Mara Knott, Associate... more
1 Lisa McNair, Co-Director, Virginia Tech Engineering Communication Center, Virginia Tech, lmcnair@vt.edu 2 Marie Paretti, Co-Director, Virginia Tech Engineering Communication Center, Virginia Tech, mparetti@vt.edu 3 Mara Knott, Associate Professor, Virginia Tech, ...