Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project has been faculty at three institutions (research intensive, historically black university, and community college), undergraduates (science and non-science majors), particularly natural resource and agricultural majors, distance-education students, continuing education students, and stakeholders in the renewable energy technology workforce. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Initial faculty workshops focused first on pedagogical fundamentals for curriculum content objectives then addressed integration of data collection tools for assessment into all courses to build an educational and training curriculum that would be inclusive to the broad undergraduate community at diverse institutions and merge areas of agricultural landscapes with renewable energy technologies relevant to rural eastern North Carolina. The project supported five summer internships at Cape Fear Community College for the sustainable associates degree with workforce stakeholders including municipalities, horticultural research station, and solar construction company. ?The project supported undergraduate research for marketing and workforce readiness with the researcher improving skills in survey design, implementation, and data analysis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The program curriculum has been disseminated at an annual industry conference in Raleigh NC for renewable energies, advertised through internet placement for particular internet queries, presented at four educational conferences, published in three papers,and promoted through a workforce readiness survey to industrial stakeholders.Thirty employers in renewable energy in this workforce survey for undergraduates which was developed and implemented by a renewable energy summer resesarch scholar with graduate student and PI mentoring and management. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1. Obj. 2-4. Since 2014, 755 students enrolled in the curriculum courses with 555 from NC State, 46 from Elizabeth City State University, and 154 from Cape Fear Community College. The distribution of students among majors was 33% natural resources, 20% 2 year Associates, 17% environmental sciences, 7% engineering, 6% HUB biology and engineering, 5% business, 4% agricultural and life sciences, 4% humanities, 2% math-physics-geology, 2% distance education, and 1% undeclared. The majority of respondents to the demographic surveys, 70%, were from NC State's natural resource and environmental science majors and the two-year sustainability associate degree at Cape Fear Community College. About 19.5% of respondents were associated with engineering, math, physics, geology, and agricultural and life sciences at NC State and Elizabeth City State University. Non-science respondents from business, humanities and social sciences, education, design, and textiles represented 10.5% of students enrolled in the curriculum. Respondent's interest in obtaining the online certificate increased at NC State and Elizabeth City State University to equal interest in a "minor" and remained at 61% for Cape Fear Community College. About a third of responses did not answer pursuing a certificate or minor which may represent general interest for the topic and access to several course that did not require pre-requisites such as the Introductory course and the policy course. For 2015-2017, the majority of responses considered the "importance" of renewable energy as the primary reason for enrollment in curriculum courses. The second main reason was career interest. These data suggest a genuine interest on the part of respondents to have an accessible renewable energy technology curriculum to prepare them for employment in the renewable energy sector. The renewable energy assessment courses at NC State and Elizabeth City State did not provide students credits for majors or general education requirements and most likely served as advised elective credits. The response of respondents that renewable energy education is "important" highlights an ongoing need for two-year and four-year degree institutions to offer renewable energy curriculums to a broad cohort of students. Compared to initial demographic data for 2014 (Nichols et al., 2015), the percent of respondents increased for females, African-Americans, and students not affiliated with a science majors for 2015-2017. The percentage of female respondents increased by 9% for the Elizabeth City State University (HBU) and 20% for Cape Fear Community College which represents an overall increase from 25% in 2014 to 32% for 2015-2017. Responses from under-represented groups also increased from 17% in 2014 to 36% for 2015-2017. The greatest increase among under-represented groups was for African-Americans at NC State and Cape Fear Community College. Residency and student status as full or part time remained the same between 2014 data and 2015-2017 data. Respondents identified as science majors declined from 87% in 2014 to 79% in 2015-2017; however, percent non-science respondents remain unchanged at 12%. The decline of "science majors" reflects a 7% increase in respondents who choose to "not answer" or responded as "not enrolled" between 2015 to 2017. Goal 2. Obj. 1. As of spring 2017, twelve faculty participated in the development and teaching of shared renewable energy assessment curriculum with two faculty from Elizabeth City State University, three faculty from Cape Fear Community College, and seven faculty from NC State. From 2013 to 2014, a cohort of faculty from each institution met in biennial workshops and smaller workgroups, virtually and face to face, to develop new course materials and revise existing course materials with a timeline for implementation at each institution. Faculty discussions focused on designing a curriculum to engage science and non-science majors on STEM concepts under the umbrella of Sustainable Energy to support existing degrees and minors at each institution. Courses were developed based on the theoretical foundation of cognitive dimensions; wherein, students must understand factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge, apply their knowledge to learn by doing and then reflect on the process that led to the solution. Initial faculty workshops addressed curriculum content objectives to build an educational and training curriculum that would be inclusive to the broad undergraduate community at diverse institutions and merge areas of agricultural landscapes with renewable energy technologies relevant to rural eastern North Carolina. Smaller faculty clusters developed curriculum content for specific courses to develop students' knowledge and skills that would be assessed with a course capstone project and a common rubric within each course. Courses were refined from 2013 to 2014 using workshops and faculty cluster meetings. Faculty assessment of the collaborative curriculum development process is reported in Diaz et al. (2015). The table belowshows the equivalent courses offered by each institution and the delivery platform. A more detailed description of the courses is provided in the supplemental information and prior publication (Nichols et al., 2015). Each course focused on what assessments and measurements were necessary to determine if renewable energy technologies will be effective on a particular landscape given economic, governance, technology, and site characteristics. Course content included biomass and biofuels, solar photovoltaics systems, wind and hydroelectric energy, and policy/economics. Courses not offered by an institution were available to students through online delivery by NC State University so that students at each institution could attain the online NC State certificate as well as their institution's degree or minor. The certificate requires six hours of required courses and six hours of elective courses that are available to NC State students and distance-education students with transferable credit of equivalent courses to Cape Fear Community College and Elizabeth City State University as shown in Table 1. Institutions, courses, credit hours, and delivery as face to face (no-italics), team-taught with faculty from each institution, (italics), online/distance education (de). Courses with capstone projects are bold-faced. Cape Fear Elizabeth City NC State Community College State University University Introduction to Renewable Energy Technology and Assessment* (3 hrs) ALT 120 ENGT 200 ET 120 (de) Solar Photovoltaic Assessment (3 hrs) ELC 220 ---- ET 220 (de) Wind and Hydro Energy Assessment (3 hrs) ELC 230 ENGT 250 ET 240 (de) Assessing Lands for Bioenergy Production (3 hrs) ----- ENGT 225(de) ET 255 (de) Renewable Energy Adoption: Barriers/ Incentives*(3 hrs) ----- ---- ET 262 (de) * required for NC State online, undergraduate certificate Obj. 4. Goal 2. An internship program through the community college and NC State placed those students in summer internships with local renewable energy stakeholders. Goal 2.Obj. 5. An online survey tool was developed for stakeholders to evaluate if current workforce development needs are being met by educational institutions and to evaluate awareness of the program to stakeholders. Current REA students were engaged to develop an understanding of current and future market predicitions and issues for renewable energy facilities on landscapes. With that knowledge, a survey was developed to directly link associates and undergraduates to renewable energy sector needs and carrer paths with survey responses from the industry sector (n=30).
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Diaz J.M., Stalling, K., Birendra, K.C., & Seekamp, E. (2015). Evaluating Multi-Institutional Partnership Sustainability: A Case Study of Collaborative Workforce Development in Renewable Energy Assessment. Journal of Educational Research and Evaluation, 21(5-6): 466-484.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
DeLuca, B., R. Ebersohl, and E. Guthrie Nichols. 2017. Multi-Institutional Collaboration for a Shared Renewable Energy Assessment Curriculum. NIFA Project Directors Meeting. June 28-29, Purdue, IN.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Guthrie-Nichols, E., W. DeLuca, R. Ebersohl, D. Hazel, M. Elahi, J. Rousch, T. Cleveland, B. Lips, J. Wojiechowski. 2017. Multi-institutional collaborations and curriculum alignment to prepare diverse undergraduate majors for the renewable energy workforce. Natural Sciences Education.
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Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16
Outputs
Target Audience:The Renewable Energy Assessment Curriculum has reached predominantly male undergraduates (74%) and female undergraduates (25%) based on our demographic survey data from Fall 2014 to Fall 2015. For this last year, we have had a 6% increase in female undergraduate participation.We have also increased under-represented groups with 15% African American, 73% Caucasian, 4.6% Asian, and 2.7% Hispanic for this last year.Students are primarily fulltimestudents and residents of North Carolina (95%); non-science majors (11%) are represented but most students are fromSTEM majors (87%). Participation from a HBU has increased by 5% while participation by community college students decreased by 7%. This project has immediately impacted 11 faculty at three institutions (7 at NC State, 2 at CFCC, and 2at ECSU) as part of the collaborative curriculum development and implementation effort. The total number of studentsenrolled in REA courses at the three campuses is 288 students from Fall 2015 to Spring 2016. These undergraduate are mostly science majors (81%) with non-science majors comprising 15% of enrolled students.Since courses were complete, 615 students have taken REA courses at the three institutions.At NC State, on campusstudents may receive the REA Certificate or REA minor. For the last year, four students received the REA certificate andeight students received the REA minor. Changes/Problems:Our HUB collaborator has experienced decreased enrollment at their institution due to reduced state funding. This has impacted the number of students at this campus and enrollment in our courses. To better utilize existing pipelines, we are bridging our program to an exisitng professional certificate program on campus at NC STate in the College of Engineering. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have co-joined the NC State minor capstone course with the Clean Energy Technology Center professional certificate course so that students can work with professionals and trainees in a diverse classroom on skills preparing them for the NABCEP certification and direct installation of solar energy panels.We have also accomplished objective 5 with a virtual/face to face seminar series "Employment Opportunities and How to get a Job in Renewable Energy Technologies," at NC State andan internship program through Cape Fear Community College. Five students were interned the following organizations for renewable energy experience. City of Wilmington, NC; City of Wilmington, NC; Horne Brothers Construction (Solar Division); NC State Horticultural Crops Research Station Castle Hayne; Bellamy Mansion Museum. The average age was 26 for the interns. For faculty,the external evaluator has reviewed pedagogical approaches to effective teaching and assessment. The evaluator has also worked with faculty to evaluate existing assessment strategies within courses. The collaboration supports one graduate studentat NC State who co-teaches two undergraduate REA courses. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The program maintains an updatedwebsite for online and on-campus students at each institution. Project findings were presented at two educational conferences in 2016. We are revising our central webportal for all three institutions to link to workforce placement. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our major emphasis for the next reporting period is outreach and engagement with stakeholder groups to make them aware of the trained workforce and to provide career paths for participating students. We have initiated two new directions to support this effort using existing REA networks on NC State campus and online delivery to bridge ECSU and CFCC to those opportunities.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We have met both goals by completing all required courses and teaching all courses at the respective institutions for this academic yearfor both on-campus and off-campus non-degree seeking students. Faculty have met annually as a whole group to evaluate course collaborations and programatic progress in half-day workshops at Cape Fear Community College (2014), Elizabeth City State University (2014), NC State University (2015), Elizabeth City State University (2016), and NC State (2016). Faculty continue to collaborate acrossinstitutions to revise course content and to synchronize assessment tools for each course and for the program. We have also accomplished objective 5 with a virtual/face to face seminar series "Employment Opportunities and How to get a Job in Renewable Energy Technologies," at NC State andan internship program through Cape Fear Community College. Five students were interned the following organizations for renewable energy experience. City of Wilmington, NC; City of Wilmington, NC; Horne Brothers Construction (Solar Division); NC State Horticultural Crops Research Station Castle Hayne; Bellamy Mansion Museum. The average age was 26 for the interns.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
DeLuca, B., R. Ebersohl, and E. Guthrie Nichols. 2016. Multi-Institutional Collaboration for a Shared Renewable Energy Assessment Curriculum. 11th Biennial Conference on University Education in Natural Resources (BCUENR). University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point., WI. Feb.25th-26th, 2016.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
DeLuca, B., R. Ebersohl, and E. Guthrie Nichols. 2016. Multi-Institutional Collaboration for a Shared Renewable Energy Assessment Curriculum. 8th Annual Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy. Center for Instructional Development and Educational Research, Virginia Technological University. Feb.10th-12th, 2016, Blacksburg, VA.
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Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:The Renewable Energy Assessment Curriculum has reached predominantly male undergraduates (74%) and female undergraduates (25%) based on our demographic survey data from Fall 2014 to Fall 2015. Most of these students are caucasian (81%) with African American (8%), Asian (3%), and Hispanic (3%) also represented. Students are primarily full-time students and residents of North Carolina (95%); non-science majors (11%) are represented but most students are from STEM majors (87%). This project has immediately impacted 11 faculty at three institutions (7 at NC State, 2 at CFCC, and 2 at ECSU) as part of the collaborative curriculum development and implementation effort. The total number of students enrolled in REA courses at the three campuses is 327 students from Fall 2014 to Fall 2015. At NC State, on campus students may receive the REA Certificate or REA minor. For Spring 2015, four students received the REA certificate, and four students received the REA minor. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?At each faculty workshop, the external evaluator has reviewed pedagogical approaches to effective teaching and assessment. The evaluator has also worked with faculty to evaluate existing assessment strategies within courses. The collaboration supports two graduate students at NC State who co-teach undergraduate courses. The program also supports an internship program at Cape Fear Community College. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The initial publication of the program has been published as an open-access journal. The program maintains an updated website for online and on-campus students at each institution. Project findings to date will be presented at an educational conference in Virginia in January 2016. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?A major emphasis for the next reporting period is to expand outreach and engagement with stakeholder groups to make them aware of the trained workforce and to provide career paths for participating students.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We have met both goals by completing all required courses and teaching all courses at the respective institutions for academic year 2014 to 2015 for both on-campus and off-campus non-degree seeking students. Faculty have met annually as a whole group to evaluate course collaborations and programatic progress in half-day workshops at Cape Fear Community College (2014), Elizabeth City State University (2014), and NC State University (2015). Faculty continue to collaborate across institutions to revise course content and to synchronize assessment tools for each course and for the program.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Nichols, E.G., V.W. DeLuca, R. Ebersohl. 2015. Multi-Institutional Collaboration for a Shared Renewable Energy Assessment Curriculum. Natural Sciences Education. 44:34-42. 10.4195/nse2014.10.0023
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Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The Renewable Energy Assessment Curriculum has reached predominantly male undergraduates (74%) and female undergraduates (25%) based on our demographic survey data from two semesters. Most of these students are caucasian (83%) with African American (8%), Asian (3%), and Hispanic (2%) also represented. Students are primarily full-time students and residents of North Carolina (95%); non-science majors (11%) are represented but most students are from STEM majors (87%). This project has immediately impacted 11 faculty at three institutions (7 at NC State, 2 at CFCC, and 2 at ECSU) as part of the collaborative curriculum development and implementation effort. Changes/Problems: No major changes What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? At the workshops, the project evaluator reviewed the theoretical foundation of cognitive dimensions with faculty and facilitated team discussions to integrate the cognitive dimensions into each course. The integration of will allow students to (1) understand factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge, (2) be able to apply their knowledge to learn by doing, and (3) reflect on the process that led to the solution. 1. Factual and Conceptual Knowledge. This knowledge includes an understanding of the systems, subsystems and components of the technology under study. What is the basic design, how does it function and what are the expected outputs? This knowledge, gained through lecture, readings or personal research, forms the basic understanding needed before proceeding with the design and solving problems. 2. Procedural Knowledge. This knowledge includes an understanding of the engineering design and/or problem solving processes that lead to innovative solutions. The processes and strategies used to solve problems and make decisions must be understood. These processes may include equations used to calculate system performance, transform data, and make predictions, and problem-solving processes such as troubleshooting and project management that help engineers, designers and technicians reach solutions. 3. Knowledge Application. To develop higher order thinking skills, students must have the opportunity to apply their factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge and learn from successes and errors. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Each institution linked their renewable energy curriculum websites to a central web portal site http://research.cnr.ncsu.edu/blogs/rea/. NC State's Minor (http://oucc.ncsu.edu/minors/renewable-energy-assessment) and online undergraduate certificate (http://distance.ncsu.edu/programs/university-undergraduate-certificate-in-renewable-energy-assessment) in Renewable Energy Assessment are officially approved and online for interested participants as of December 2014. Project activities to date have been disseminated via one journal publication and a conference presentation. Nichols, E.G., V.W. DeLuca, R. Ebersohl. 2015. Multi-Institutional Collaboration for a Shared Renewable Energy Assessment Curriculum. Journal of Natural Sciences Education. (in press) Diaz, J., B. V. DeLuca, E. Guthrie Nichols. 2014. Multi-Institution and Faculty Collaborations to Develop A Renewable Energy Assessment Program. 10th Biennial Conference on University Education in Natural Resources. Auburn, Al. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? The potential impact of this project on undergraduate students, non-degree seeking students, and professionals is under evaluation as part of the overall goal of this collaborative effort. Demograhic survey data collection continues for each course offered at each institution. Assessment metrics are also integrated into courses at all institutions to evaluate instructional effectiveness and student learning. Annual integrative meetings will continue to foster faculty development and evaluate curriculum progress and impact. Courses are being integrated into the general education requirements of the universities to inform the multidisciplinary students about renewable energy. The introductory course, "Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies and Assessment," will be a general education requirement course current at NC State and ECSU with an expected enrollment of 300 undergraduates per class at NC State and 50 students per year at ECSU. CFCC currently offers this course and enrolls 20 students per year. At NC State, estimations for undergraduate completion of either a certificate or minor (or both) are 200 students per year because this minor will be attractive to the broad undergraduate community and promoted to a wide variety of science and non-science majors. If this program follows the successful trend observed with NC State's recent online Master's Degree in Environmental Assessment, overall impact should be substantial. NC State's Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA) program will contribute to evaluation of online course impact on students as well as awareness of the curriculum by identified stakeholders. As renewable energy markets continue to grow for bioenergy production, the REA curriculum will provide education and training opportunities to our agricultural and forestry undergraduates as these disciplines will be impacted by sustainable energy production by bioenergy crops (woody and non-woody), crop residues, and livestock wastes. Efforts are underway to link curriculum participants with industry stakeholders and to promote the curriculum to non-traditional students in military, municipal, and government sectors.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This project established a curriculum for Renewable Energy Assessment to support an online Undergraduate Certificate in Renewable Energy Assessment at NC State and two undergraduate minors at ECSU and NC State. This project has immediately impacted 11 faculty at three institutions (7 at NC State, 2 at CFCC, and 2 at ECSU) as part of the collaborative curriculum development and implementation effort. An important dynamic of this project was that the core faculty remained engaged in the entire curriculum effort and not focused solely on their responsibilities to a particular course. Integrative meetings at all three institutions have helped maintain this engagement and will be ongoing. This collaboration has resulted in six courses being developed and delivered on-line by NC State and one online course at ECSU. Face to face courses covering introduction to renewable energy assessment and wind and hydroelectric energy assessment have been developed and implemented at CFCC and ECSU. CFCC has also developed and is currently implementing a face-to face version of the solar photovoltaics assessment course. Course numbering, equivalent course credit, and distance-education delivery has made the entire curriculum available to undergraduates at each institution and provided undergraduates the opportunity to complete the online Certificate or Minors. All courses have been approved by NC State's Committee on Courses and Curricula (UCCC), and NC State's Minor (http://oucc.ncsu.edu/minors/renewable-energy-assessment) and online undergraduate certificate (http://distance.ncsu.edu/programs/university-undergraduate-certificate-in-renewable-energy-assessment) in Renewable Energy Assessment are officially approved with the first minors and certificates to be issued May 2015. ECSU will work towards curriculum approval of a Minor in Sustainable Energy by 2015. Courses from the REA curriculum can be credited through equivalency toward other curricula such as the Associate's Degree in Sustainability Technologies and Certificate in Alternative Energy Technology at CFCC. Since the project started, three integrative meetings or workshops occurred in May 2013, December 2013, and May 2014. Virtual collaborations were managed by course teams using Dropbox to share course content, demographic data, and content from integrative meetings. Faculty traveled as needed to each institution to work together face to face on specific course development. Not all courses are offered at each institution, so one accomplishment of this project is the availability of the entire curriculum to students at ECSU and CFCC through NC State's distance education program. Each institution has all course materials for either online or face to face delivery if delivery needs change over time. Changes to a particular course at an institution are updated on the shared Dropbox folder. Collaborating faculty have access to the content of all courses not just the course they teach. This allows for better continuity throughout the curriculum as the introductory course is required for the higher level courses. Each institution linked their renewable energy curriculum websites to a central web portal site to highlight the collaborative projects and what courses are available by what delivery platform at each institution. This website, http://research.cnr.ncsu.edu/blogs/rea/, shows students from each institution how they can complete the curriculum to obtain an online Undergraduate Certificate in Renewable Energy Assessment (NC State), a Minor in Renewable Energy Assessment (NC State), or a Minor in Sustainable Energy (ECSU) by taking courses at their respective institution and the other two institutions. Collaborating faculty discussed and agreed on assessment metrics for inclusion in all courses to evaluate student learning and to evaluate the demographic reach of the curriculum. Pre-post test analysis were designed to assess factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge gains. To assess knowledge application, the collaborating faculty agreed to integrate a project-based culminating experience into each course. Rubrics would be developed by the instructors to score critical components of each project and to provide evidence that student's applied knowledge gained in the course. The assessment techniques employed would insure that the process of learning developed higher order thinking skills. Collaborating faculty agreed to implement the curriculum over four semesters including a summer session. Before implementation of a particular course, the teams agreed to meet and evaluate course content, assignments, assessment tools, course objectives and learning outcomes with the project leadership to ensure course content and assessment consistency among the institutions.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Nichols, E.G., V.W. DeLuca, R. Ebersohl. 2015. Multi-Institutional Collaboration for a Shared Renewable Energy Assessment Curriculum. Journal of Natural Sciences Education. (accepted Dec.22, 2014)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Diaz, J., B. V. DeLuca, E. Guthrie Nichols. 2014. Multi-Institution and Faculty Collaborations to Develop A Renewable Energy Assessment Program. 10th Biennial Conference on University Education in Natural Resources. Auburn, Al.
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