Scalable apprenticeships: reconnecting students through technology

ABSTRACT

Today's students are typically over scheduled and hyper-connected, yet increasingly disconnected with their education. The classroom into which they step for core science, technology and engineering subjects is often removed from both the practice of the disciplines being taught and the technology tools which pervade other aspects of their life. A significant challenge is to reconnect the excitement and discovery that drew faculty into their disciplines back to the learning environments of STEM and CSE students they teach. Peer Instruction (inserting discussion and formative assessment into lecture) and project-based learning are two promising attempts at recapturing the process of science and engineering in introductory coursers.

Recent experiments in freshman project-based seminars such as nanoscale engineering and a major redesign of the introductory Course 6 (Computer Science and Electrical Engineering) at MIT are exploring ways to bring apprenticeship back to both small and large classes. Through Python-based tutoring tools, layered mentoring that includes just-in-time "guest laboratory assistants" to achieve 1:4 instructor-student ratios in large courses, and careful attention to learning space design new strategies for scaled apprenticeships are being forged.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
project-based learning, scalable apprenticeship, tutoring