Margaret Ellis is a recipient of the 2015 Engineering Inclusive Teaching (EIT) Educator’s Award. This award is given by the Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN). The WEPAN helps educators craft inclusive engineering learning environments. Her project titled “Promoting Self-Efficacy in Computer Science” is a collaborative project with CS faculty colleagues Jack Lesko, Manuel Perez-Quinones and Catherine Amelink. Their work looks at what educational practices can be used to improve the self-efficacy of undergraduate students in low-level Computer Science courses. Margaret said, “The project investigates what educational practices can be used to improve the self-efficacy of undergraduate students in Computer Science courses. Adjustments are anticipated to encourage long-term interest in Computer Science among all students but among underrepresented groups in particular. We hope that our findings will yield information that can be used to make changes to other Computer Science courses. We are looking at the impact of special GTA/UTA training sessions, approaches for modeling analytical skills students need to develop, and what type of feedback students need to feel successful and improve understanding of CS concepts”. Visit http://www.wskc.org/eit to read more. Margaret will present the findings of this project at the WEPAN Change Leaders Forum in Colorado in June 2015.
