The National Science Foundation (NSF) developed the Engineering Education Coalition (EEC) program to stimulate bold, innovative, and comprehensive models for systemic reform of undergraduate engineering education. Through the EEC program groups of universities and colleges of differing characters formed Coalitions in order to become change agents amidst the engineering education community. Goals for systemic reform included increased retention of students, especially underrepresented groups such as white women and underrepresented minorities, improved introductory experiences in engineering, active experiential learning experiences such as artifact dissection, and multidisciplinary capstone design experiences. EECs have produced significant reforms that have reinvigorated undergraduate engineering curricula to produce graduates that are better prepared to meet the challenges of the constantly changing, global workforce. The Coalitions listed in the table below have done this while simultaneously increasing diversity and student retention and graduation rates.

Two other coalitions: Engineering Academy of Southern New England and the Southern California Coalition for Education in Manufacturing Engineering (SCEME) were funded for a period of three years from a technology reinvestment initiative. However, since each coalition had only three years to design, implement, and disseminate, their experience and impact were substantially different than the six coalitions that were funded for ten years.

Resources on Engineering Education Research beyond the Engineering Education Coalitions

Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education

The Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE) is working to advance scholarship in engineering teaching and learning, increase the use of effective pedagogies in engineering classrooms, and strengthen research and leadership skills of the engineering faculty and graduate student community. The five goals of the CAEE are to

• Understand and enhance the engineering student learning experience
• Integrate the needs of diverse faculty and diverse students into engineering education
• Strengthen the engineering education research base
• Expand the community of leaders in engineering education
• Promote effective teaching for current and future faculty
  

Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning

The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) will develop a national faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) committed to implementing and advancing effective teaching practices for diverse student audiences as part of their professional careers. It will create, implement, and transfer to national research universities a program of graduate-through-faculty development in STEM higher education, founded on teaching-as-research concepts implemented within learning communities.

Center for the Advancement of Scholarship in Engineering Education

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) founded the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship in Engineering Education (CASEE) to enable engineering education to meet, in a significantly better way, the needs of employers, educators, students, and society at large. Working collaboratively with key stakeholders, CASEE encourages rigorous research on all elements of the engineering education system, and seeks broad dissemination, adoption, and use of research findings.

Rigorous Research in Engineering Education: Creating a Community of Practice

The NSF-sponsored national dissemination project Rigorous Research in Engineering Education: Creating a Community of Practice will create and present workshops for engineering faculty on conducting rigorous research in engineering education and sustain the development of this project through establishing a community of practice. This project expands the boundaries of engineering education research by disseminating information from the learning sciences and faculty development into engineering education. This will allow powerful partnerships to be formed as information about how students learn and teaching methods that support students' learning are coupled with the content knowledge of practicing engineering educators.