CASEE Overview
Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education
In 1999, the National Academy of Engineering initiated a four-fold initiative on engineering education including the creation of a standing committee to look at key issues (1999), modified its interpretation of the criteria for membership to more explicitly recognize contributions to engineering education (2000), and the creation of a, formerly biennial, now annual, award of $500,000 recognizing an innovator in engineering education (2001).
The fourth component was realized in 2002 with the creation of the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE) as a mechanism to foster a climate of continuous improvement in engineering education so as to increase the utility of an engineering education from the perspective of employers, academic institutions, current and former engineering students, and society-at-large.
By virtue of its pre-eminent role as a membership society of the Nation’s premier engineers, its commitment to the highest standards of quality as judged by peer review, and the resources it brings to bear in fulfillment of its mandate to "promote the technological welfare of the nation...", the NAE can contribute to the significant improvement of engineering education by a) expanding the capacity for the conduct of high quality research on engineering education, b) integrating engineering education research and practice, and c) leveraging the efforts and interests of relevant stakeholders.
Our ultimate goal is to achieve a climate of continuous improvement in engineering education wherein the excellence of engineering education (at the pre-college, undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education levels) contributes to the sustained maintenance of a high quality engineering workforce.
Excellence of engineering education is defined in terms of its
- Effectiveness,
- Engagement, and
- Efficiency.
A Grand Challenge has been defined in terms of specific metrics by which to gauge attainment of our goal.
As a practical matter, this means that our initial focus is on extending the research base on education within engineering disciplines and translating research results into improved practice in classrooms, internship sites, and
worksites.
To structure our efforts in pursuit of our goal, we have defined research thrusts that focus on identifying bodies of knowledge, enhancing diversity, improving teaching and learning, and developing assessments.
CASEE serves to integrate, enhance, and promote on-going activities by building collaborative networks with engineering schools/colleges as well as employers of engineers, forming cross-institutional/organizational learning communities of individuals exploring specific issues in engineering education, and building bridges between engineering investigators and relevant investigators from other disciplines.
CASEE’s core activities include an Individual Affiliates program (including Senior Fellows, Post-doctoral Fellows, and Affiliated Scholars) to recognize and support individuals whose research on engineering education is of exceedingly high quality and offers exceptional promise for advancing the state of engineering education and an Organizational Affiliates program (including Research Community Affiliates, Implementation Network Affiliates, Corresponding Centers and Dissemination Channels) to link individuals and organizations into a practice-based community committed to improving engineering education through the provision of research on, testbeds for, feedback on, and initial loci of scale-up and diffusion for advances in engineering education research.
Beyond those directly touched by CASEE’s Fellows and Affiliates, we will extend our reach deep into the ranks of the nation’s almost 350 colleges of engineering by hosting national and regional workshops to disseminate research findings.
Information sharing is facilitated via a newsletter (DISTILATE) offering in-depth case studies of proven innovations and summaries of relevant research findings. We will also sponsor an electronic portal (AREE) linking existing journals focused on education research in various engineering and science disciplines.
CASEE will be judged successful to the extent that, as a result of its activities in pursuit of excellence in engineering education, it accomplishes three operational objectives:
- Build the body of knowledge on attaining and maintaining excellence in engineering education,
- Cultivate a respected community of scholars of who will replenish that body of knowledge, and
- Promote the dissemination, adoption, and use of this knowledge.