Exploring the black box of dissemination: The role of professional and organizational development

The field of engineering education has initiated a focus on ensuring engineering education research is disseminated and implemented within the classroom. Numerous researchers have investigated the reasons for the adoption of evidence-based practices, or, more often, the lack thereof. The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) network community is an underutilized potential ally for ensuring the implementation of engineering education research due to their focus on organizational change and improving teaching practice. Using the Diffusion of Innovation framework and best practices for adoption, this session will guide faculty in envisioning a wide variety of channels for moving engineering education research into the classroom. Participants in this special session will brainstorm ways to encourage collaboration between these two communities culminating in a "message in a bottle" to the POD community to help them understand the activities and needs of engineering education researchers. This message will be delivered to faculty development professionals, centers for teaching and learning, organizational change specialists, and others in the POD community at their annual conference in November 2015.

I. Goals of the Session

Through this session, we hope to enhance the connection between engineering education research and the day-to-day teaching practices of university instructors. Specifically, we will pose the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) network community (which includes Educational Development Offices, Centers for Teaching & Learning, etc. as well as a national organization linking such centers) as a venue whose existing initiatives provide opportunities to disseminate engineering education research to a wide variety of faculty members. Participants will leave with concrete methods and contacts for engaging the POD community in their own research-to-practice efforts.