2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This is a work in progress (WIP) paper. Engineering education has called upon a need for student-centered learning approaches to help broaden skills and transform students into lifelong learners. One way to help support faculty using these approaches is through a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) program, which could be a practical approach to supporting professional development opportunities toward teaching and learning. The activities are typically faculty led including a process of learning, reflection, and support by colleagues. One way in which it can be effective for faculty to acclimate is by doing small implementations through micromoments. Micromoments are rapid and easy active learning implementations that encourage students’ learning. These activities can help support faculty who often struggle with competing demands and lack of time, limiting improvement in teaching aspects. This work-in-progress paper shows the authors’ reflections and suggestions to engage faculty in promoting micromoment activities in lecture-based teaching.

At the University of Dayton - an R2 university, the lead engineering faculty started a FLC to support the integration of entrepreneurially minded learning (EML) using the KEEN Framework. EML promotes curiosity, connections, and creating value strategies, known as the 3C’s. The FLC consisted of four bi-weekly one-hour meetings inviting lecturers, faculty-of-practice, and tenured/tenure-track faculty. The FLC meetings’ primary purpose was to keep faculty engaged in active sessions related to EML micromoments. The first session consisted of a brief introduction to micromoments to emphasize the need to develop students’ entrepreneurial mindset, followed by sessions exclusively devoted to one of the 3C's. The lead faculty provided a list of EML micromoment implementations and examples for each of the 3C's to the faculty participants at the beginning of the sessions. During the follow-up meetings, each faculty member was encouraged to discuss and review potential interventions they did or could do in the classroom. Furthermore, the lead faculty utilized the University of Dayton learning management system (LMS) to develop a website with additional resources and information available to all the faculty participants.

While the FLC approach and the list of EML micromoment activities seemed attractive to many faculty members, several challenges emerged. Examples include time conflicts with other activities, lack of additional stipends, and a rapid modification to their planned lectures. Despite these constraints, a small faculty cohort (n = 7) met, when possible, throughout the semester during three different sessions to share their micromoment implementations, suggestions, and students’ response to the micromoments. All the participants suggested and encouraged future professional development sessions related to these implementations. This paper provides more detailed recommendations for future EML micromoment learning activities for faculty members and potential FLC groups with limited funding [The authors prefer a lightning talk for this work-in-progress paper].