Recipient Organization
TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY
601 UNIVERSITY DRIVE
SAN MARCOS,TX 78666
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Project SWEAT (Standardized Welding Education and Training) seeks standardize welding education and training across three regional universities; Texas State University; Sam Houston State University & Tarleton State University. Recent projections indicate the domestic welding workforce will reach a deficit of ≥375,000 workers by 2026 (Guerra, 2018). As the nation's infrastructure continues to age and requires increased maintenance, access to a highly trained welding workforce has never been more critical. Therefore, it is crucial to efficiently train emerging and current welders without sacrificing quality (Byrd & Anderson, 2012). Since the inception of welding, training programs have undergone continual modifications to better prepare welders. Simulator technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and virtually augmented, have emerged over past decades and have been developed for and used in many teaching and learning contexts, including welding (Saettler, 2004). The Lincoln Electric virtually augmented welding machine allows instructors to increase their effectiveness for beginning welding instruction. First, to create a standardized welding curriculum for all post-secondary academic institutions. Students across institutions will receive the same training with the same feedback to standardize welding education with the use of the Lincoln Electric REALWELD welding machine. The second goal is increasing the student's knowledge and performance of welding techniques. The collaboration between the three institutions will lead to opportunities for shared efforts on research, teaching, and professional development.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Long Term Objective #1:Create and implement a standardized welding curriculum across four-year academic institutions.Long-term Objective #2: Increase participant knowledge and performance of welding techniques.
Project Methods
An advisory committee consisting of stakeholders representing multiple facets of the welding industry will meet with the PI and Co-PIs annually to guide the planning, implementation, and evaluation phases of this project. The advisory committee will include the following: an external agricultural mechanics professor, three K-12 agricultural educators, and up to five industry experts. The agricultural mechanics professor will provide insight into the curriculum development needs of students in the agricultural mechanics courses. The high school agricultural educators will outline the skills and knowledge needed to build out the curriculum at the secondary education level. The industry experts will ensure that the curriculum and the resulting student performance meet industry standards. Leading the advisory committee's evaluation activities will be an external evaluator who is also an instructor at a neighboring state's regional university with the same size and scope as the three Texas universities.This project will begin with the purchase and installation of two REALWELD® workstations per institution. In Y1, the PI and Co-PIs will travel to Lincoln Electric in Cleveland, Ohio to attend the REALWELD® Customer Training workshop. The PI and Co-PIs will work with the education team at Lincoln Electric to develop a standardized curriculum for agricultural mechanics courses to present to the advisory committee and pilot tests in their courses. The PI and Co-PIs will work collaboratively during years one through three to integrate the new REALWELD® into a newly transformed curriculum for the introductory course, welding course, and advanced (senior design) courses, respectively. During Y1-Y3, the PI and Co-PIs will collaboratively plan welding projects for undergraduate and graduate students based on the data collected using the REALWELD®.The REALWELD® and its associated equipment will be incorporated into the undergraduate laboratory curriculum, in which undergraduate students will learn how to complete basic welds in introductory courses and build on that knowledge as they progress through advanced courses. Specifically, at TXST, three courses will directly benefit from this project. AG 2373 (Introduction to Agricultural Engineering) introduces students to all aspects of agricultural mechanics from structures to welding. Students will be able to use the REALWELD® as an introduction to welding systems. The AG 2374 course (Metal Fabrication and Welding Technology for Agriculture) will also benefit from the REALWELD® training systems. With the curriculum developed through this project, students will be able to use the REALWELD® to improve their welding knowledge and skill. As mentioned above, one unique feature of the REALWELD® is the ability for students to create accounts and log training times. These classes will assign various welding procedures for students to complete along with their traditional training. Using both training systems concurrently will improve student engagement as well as knowledge and skill acquisition.The REALWELD® will be connected via cloud technology. Students enrolled in each course across each university will have a unique username and password that will assist welds to complete during their scheduled laboratory time. Each of the welding parameters and overall scores will be recorded and connected to each student. Therefore, training will be standardized because every student enrolled in each welding course will complete and be graded the same for each weld. Curriculum will be developed further through training on how to operate the REALWELD® and the development of welding knowledge, skills, and competency. In the REALWELD®, instructors can tighten parameter tolerance throughout the semester; the tighter the parameter tolerances, the more consistent the welds become, leading to both mastery and replicability.A senior design course for agricultural mechanics students (currently in development) will benefit from the advanced curriculum developed through this project. In this capstone course, students will work with companies to create a solution to a problem the company is experiencing. In similar courses at the partnering institutions, students will typically fabricate a prototype to share with the company. The project team anticipates that participating students' foundational training in welding techniques will help them produce well-designed solutions.The PI and Co-PIs will meet with the advisory committee annually. The external evaluator will organize the annual meeting and propose recommendations as needed. In Y2, the PI and Co-PIs will attend the HEC Project Directors' program meeting. In Y3, the PI and Co-PIs will attend the American Association of Agricultural Educators conference and present innovative idea posters and research papers demonstrating the REALWELD®'s effectiveness. The PI and Co-PIs will disseminate their findings in the Journal of Agricultural Education, Career & Technical Research Journal, and the Welding Journal.The PI and Co-PIs anticipate a sense of excitement among our students about the opportunity to use the REALWELD® training system due to its ability to offer detailed and even instantaneous feedback. Furthermore, that excitement around the REALWELD® training system is expected to result in more students pursuing agricultural mechanics-related degree programs, enrolling in upper-level agricultural mechanics courses, and transitioning into graduate programs. Also, students' improved welding competence will result in increased numbers of welding certifications.Data collected by the PI and Co-PIs will be analyzed and disseminated in several outlets. Student engagement will be tracked via data showing changes in course demands and (anticipated) increases in undergraduate interest. Student performance will be proven via project and course grades, data from the REALWELD®, and the increased number of welding certifications. The professional development needs of both new and experienced welders will be extrapolated from both quantitative and qualitative data. Peer-reviewed journal manuscripts will be an additional output of the grant's educational activities. Published manuscripts and conference presentations will be used as a communication outlet for the laboratory work. Findings will be disseminated to Lincoln Electric, agricultural education teachers, and other welding-related stakeholders. During the proposed project, four university faculty members and 1,620 students (a total of 1624 people) will directly benefit.