Quantitative and qualitative measures of community development through a structured workshop curriculum

This paper presents example quantitative and qualitative measures for evaluating a program aimed at developing an engineering education community of practice. Specifically, social network analysis is presented as a quantitative method. Assessment and research results are from the NSF-funded Conducting Rigorous Research in Engineering Education: Cultivating a Community of Practice project. The workshops are funded for three years (from 2004 to 2006), and the experience includes both a 5-day summer workshop and a year-long experience that allows participants to conduct a small education research project guided by a more experienced mentor. This paper reviews community of practice literature and evolution of the workshop design to promote a community of practice in engineering education, presents quantitative analysis of the evolution of the 2006 community, and provides assessment evidence that the community has been evolving as a valued outcome of the program since 2004. Implications are drawn and specific assessment methods presented for those interested in building engineering education research capacity.