2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Empowering Educators in Lab and Design Courses: A Community of Practice Approach

Presented at Faculty Development Division (FDD) Technical Session 6: Equity, Values, and Culture in Faculty Work

This lessons learned paper will detail the evolution of a faculty community of practice (CoP) supported by an instructional innovation program. Our CoP was initially formed in the spring of 2020, and we are still working together today. As faculty who taught lab and design courses through the early days of COVID-19, we found many common pain points that would have been easier to solve together rather than on our own. After identifying a common purpose, we submitted a proposal to explore the need for such a group in our College. Within the first year, we quickly recruited instructors from most departments within the college and began hosting events. Over the next several years, we began to clarify our purpose and refine event structures to meet the needs of the group. During that time, we have hosted over 25 events and have grown to over 50 members, led by a team of six to eight faculty members. We have disseminated what we have learned by publishing more than ten papers and leading three external workshops. Three additional instructional projects started as collaborations of this team. However, sustaining our CoP has also encountered some challenges, such as the availability of members and misalignment of interests.
Similar to previous literature, we have found that our CoP has created a network of support, mentoring, and collaboration. This self-study documents the evolution of the scope and goals of the group over time, and our output. We will also compare our experiences and keys to success within the context of other CoPs in academia and business.
We would like to present our results as a talk in a technical session.

Authors

Nikoleta Polyxeni Kastania http://orcid.org/https://0009-0009-5677-9424 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
Katie Ansell http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5823-9506 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Katie Ansell is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her teaching and research activities focus on the practical and social aspects of the classroom that contribute to the development of student expertise in Introductory Physics Laboratories.
Dr. Rebecca Marie Reck http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5894-4130 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Rebecca M. Reck is a Teaching Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research includes alternative grading, entrepreneurial mindset, instructional laboratories, and equity-focused teaching. She teaches biomedical instrumentation, signal processing, and control systems. She earned a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
Dr. Jessica R TerBush http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8438-7411 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Jessica received her B.S.E, M.S.E., and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After graduation, she worked as a post-doc for approximately three years at Monash University in Clayton, Victoria, Australia. She then spent three years working as a Senior Research Specialist at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri, where she trained users on the focused ion beam (FIB), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM). In 2016, she moved to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, to serve as a lecturer in the department of Materials Science and Engineering. Here, she is responsible for teaching the junior labs as well as providing instruction on writing in engineering.
Dr. Christopher D. Schmitz http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9673-9832 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Christopher D. Schmitz received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois in 2002.
David Mussulman University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

IT professional newly transitioned to teaching faculty. Engineering and Information Sciences.
Chandrasekhar Radhakrishnan University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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