Expanding Access to MIDFIELD: Strategies for Sharing Data Infrastructure for Research

This work-in-progress presents an overview of current research with the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD) and strategies for inviting and supporting other researchers to use this database in their own research. MIDFIELD is a resource for the study of students that includes longitudinal, de-identified, whole population data for multiple institutions. This enables researchers to examine student characteristics (such as race/ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic indicators) and curricular pathways (including coursework) by institution and over time. Because the dataset contains records of all students matriculating over a period of time, researchers can study students across all disciplines, not just engineering. The MIDFIELD team aims to educate the broader research community, expand the network of researchers capable of conducting this research, and share innovative research methods in addition to the actual data. We have offered workshops at several conferences as well as the MIDFIELD Institute. The inaugural MIDFIELD Institute brought together researchers from across the USA for two days in 2019. In an evaluation at the end of the Institute, participants were pleased with the Institute and rated it highly. There was high agreement about the value of the content and delivery. Most participants reported that the instituted lived up to their expectations and was a good way to learn about how to use MIDFIELD data. Areas of improvement suggested by participants included making it longer and more challenging. Several of the MIDFIELD Institute attendees are presenting works-in-progress together at FIE 2020 to provide attendees with a range of examples of research that is possible with MIDFIELD.