Hidden curriculum plays a significant, yet often overlooked, role in shaping students' experiences, expectations, identities, and professional development (PD) in computing education. As computing programs continue to evolve in response to emerging technologies--i.e., artificial intelligence (AI), and changing industry expectations, understanding the implicit structures that influence student success becomes increasingly important. Students are increasingly expected to navigate collaboration, communication, co-curricular experiences (e.g., internships, research, etc.), and the use of technological tools. These expectations are rarely uncovered and made explicit within formal curricula.

This Research-to-Practice full paper introduces a custom-developed protocol and process to mediate difficult graduate student and faculty interactions within engineering and computer science departments. Positive and productive graduate student and faculty cultures and dynamics are essential for ensuring a healthy research environment. When interpersonal issues arise between a faculty and a graduate student a solution may not always be straightforward. As a result, healthy research environments may be at risk. While some research-intensive universities can afford services for mediation such as those offered by an ombudsman, not all universities and institutions of higher education have the resources to hire and financially support such services. Thus, it is important to provide easy-to-implement and accessible materials for mediation that engineering and computing departments can build upon to provide this much needed training and educational resource to its faculty, staff, and students. The materials presented on this paper were designed and created based on evidence-based practices of parent and teacher mediation meetings when seeking special education services and accommodations in K-12 school settings. The innovation elements of this paper include: (a) communicating and documenting concerns and needs from both the graduate student and the faculty member; (b) the creation of guidelines and restrictions for the mediation meeting; (c) the use of a handout and protocol; and (d) the follow-up processes that results after a mediation meeting. The paper introduces some of the most salient challenges documented in the literature regarding graduate student and faculty conflicts. Also, the paper introduces the considerations and resources that were used to create mediation materials and protocols. Furthermore, the author includes self-reflections and insights as they prepared for and conducted mediation meetings with the provided materials. The conclusion of the paper recommendations and implications for introducing these materials across engineering and computing education environments and ways that mediation can support healthier research cultures.

This full research paper describes the research areas and funding trends through NSF funded awards in engineering education. Engineering Education Research (EER) has traditionally spanned fives main areas of research [1] including engineering learning mechanisms, engineering learning systems, engineering epistemologies, engineering assessment and engineering diversity and inclusiveness as written by the original author. However, in a recent online content analysis of the U.S. institutions that offer engineering education academic programs or serve as engineering education research centers and research groups, we found additional areas that are missing in research. These gaps were mapped between the existing research areas and the ones advertised on institutional websites. This study considered the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded awards from the Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) publicly available on the website which listed about 752 projects with a starting date between 2012 and 2022. The list of these awards was extracted from the website on August 25, 2022. These awards were mapped onto five research areas to aid in identifying unexplored and underexplored research areas. The funded awards were divided into different categories based on the labelled titles of funded awards by NSF. Additionally, this study explored the universities/organizations that had the highest number of funded awards and the highest amount of funding within this timeframe. The findings suggest a dire need for research in epistemologies, learning mechanisms, and assessments in engineering education. It sheds light on the uneven distribution of funding trends in the field of engineering education. This exploratory study builds upon the significance of the research areas in EER and funding trends for different institutions in engineering education. The paper concludes with a call for the engineering education research community to discuss ways to incorporate more research in the gap areas, equitable funding, as well as consider the possibilities for future work in engineering education.

This research full paper describes a measuring performance using assessments allows instructors to evaluate if students have developed the requisite skills and knowledge needed to advance in their field. Cognitive factors alone do not contribute to performance. Researchers are increasingly utilizing physiological sensing techniques and biological markers to gain a deeper sense of the science of learning and performance. This exploratory study seeks to understand how cognitive and training performance looks like for a group of seven undergraduate biomedical and chemical engineering students participating in a summer research experience. Students were tasked to learn about cell culture lab techniques using video-based tutorials (experimental condition) or digitally written tutorials (control condition). A quiz was designed, face and content validated by the authors and provided to the students before and after the cell culture training. Preliminary observations suggest improved laboratory student performance, using video-based instruction. Future work will seek to better understand how lab training interventions based on video and other forms of instructional aids can improve laboratory student performance.

This research-to-practice full paper explores the influence of video-based and paper-based training materials on undergraduate engineering students' development of skills and competencies in biomedical laboratory techniques, from a multimodal perspective. With recent advances in physiological and biological detection methods, scholars increasingly rely on laboratory sensors and techniques to investigate potential connections between academic physiological and psychological stress and performance. For this work, we explored the biological measure of salivary hormonal biomarkers (e.g., alpha-amylase) and their relationships to performance. For this work, we conducted an exploratory study on 7 undergraduate engineering students participating in a summer research experience. These students were provided with pre- and post-quizzes before and after their initial training in laboratory cell culture preservation techniques. During the quiz-taking experience, students responded to quizzes developed by their research advisor, while saliva samples were collected at three points: before, during, and after the quiz. To ensure the validity of the experiment, the researchers engaged in extensive discussions on overcoming the challenges of designing an experimental study that combines biological, physiological, and performance measures. This research-to-practice paper focuses on the considerations necessary for designing a quasi-experimental study that utilizes biometric tools to assess academic performance and stress management among undergraduate engineering students. Our findings suggest that both video-based and paper-based training materials significantly impact students' skill acquisition and competency development in biomedical laboratory techniques. We also observed that salivary hormonal biomarkers could be useful indicators of stress and performance during academic tasks. This research provides valuable insights into the interplay between training materials, stress, and performance, highlighting the importance of multimodal approaches in educational research. We offer recommendations for other researchers interested in conducting similar studies in the future. These include strategies for effectively integrating biometric tools into educational research, addressing potential challenges, and ensuring the reliability and validity of the collected data. By sharing these insights, we aim to contribute to the advancement of research methodologies in the field of engineering education.

This innovative practice full paper analyzed over 900 responses related to awareness of the hidden curriculum to explore the relationships between expressed emotions among students and faculty members. The hidden curriculum refers to the implicit values, behaviors, and norms that are not formally included in educational programs but are learned through the social and cultural environment of an institution. Using both emotional and demographic data collected from a larger national survey of engineering educators and students across the U.S., we examined correlations between participants' responses and the sentiment classifications observed. Our analysis employed two distinct tools: VADER for sentiment analysis and a pre-trained Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) model capable of classifying six specific emotions. Through detailed analysis and comparison, we uncovered significant insights into the emotional dynamics within engineering education. Overall, we found a predominance of positive sentiment, with “joy” emerging as the most frequently expressed emotion among both students and faculty. However, we also identified nuanced variations in emotional expression, influenced by factors such as gender, engineering disciplines, and the sentiment analysis methods employed. These findings contribute to the ongoing discourse on the hidden curriculum's impact on emotional experiences, emphasizing the importance of considering both sentiment and distinct emotional states in educational research and practice. By providing a deeper understanding of emotional patterns, this research offers valuable perspectives on how emotions shape the educational experience in engineering.

The multi-modal approach for conducting education research is gaining traction among the engineering and computing education disciplines. This panel aims to introduce this novel and emergent approach to answering important research questions related to engineering and computing education. Additionally, the panelists will share their personal experiences on how they have incorporated a multi-modal approach for their research. The panelists will also share the best practices and common mistakes researchers could make using this methodology.

Engineering Education has emerged as an interdis-ciplinary field of research which focuses on gaining effective knowledge on engineering concepts, improving teaching method-ologies and enhancing students' learning. There is a need for more U.S. institutions to establish engineering education centers for expansion of existing research agendas as well as delving deeper in the research areas identified. This research undertakes an online content analysis of engineering education centers in seven (07) U.S. institutions to explore emerging trends of research being conducted, the existing programs offered, and the academic background of faculty members working in these centers. The research areas in Engineering Education spans engineering epistemologies, engineering learning mechanisms, engineering learning systems, engineering diversity, and inclusiveness and engineering assessment as written by the original author [1]. According to these institutional websites, the research areas that are most worked upon include engineering learning mechanisms and engineering learning systems. The research areas that are least worked upon fall under the category of engineering epistemologies, and engineering diversity and inclusiveness. The programs offered in these centers include certifications, fellowship programs (for faculty and graduate students), while some centers also offer master's degree programs. The faculty members working in these centers are predominantly Ph.D.s in engineering (55%); the top three being mechanical engineering, biosystems and agricultural engineering, and engineering education. It is found that the research areas, that consider students' social contexts and diverse human talents, are least worked upon, or communicated by these centers although these areas are endorsed by National Science Foundation (NSF), National Academies Science Engineering Medicine (NASEM), and ABET criteria. The objectives of the academic programs are also limited in terms of research areas in these institutions. The findings also suggest the need of more engineering education centers to offer training and teaching programs covering all five research areas in engineering education.

This panel is dedicated to a comprehensive exploration of the critical role that multimodal measurement plays in enhancing our understanding of complex human experiences. It serves as a valuable resource for both seasoned researchers and aspiring students who aspire to create their own multimodal laboratories. In today's research landscape, where human experiences are increasingly multidimensional and nuanced, the importance of employing diverse measurement techniques cannot be overstated. Through this panel, attendees will gain a profound appreciation for how combining various modalities, such as electrodermal measurement, surveys, and eye-tracking, can yield a more holistic and profound comprehension of human perception, cognition, and emotional responses.

Ethical mentoring is a relatively new term in engineering that describes the dual relationship that both an advisor and an advisee should have for each other during an intersectional time in their engineering education or profession. Ethical mentoring has several principles— beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, fidelity, fairness, and privacy—principles to ensure that research relationships are effective and mutually beneficial. In a prior qualitative study, led by the author, a group of graduate student mentees and faculty mentors in science and engineering were interviewed around the six ethical mentoring principles. Out of this analysis, three key themes emerged: (a) power; (b) awareness; and (c) communication around implicit expectations within the research culture. While some recommendations around ethical mentoring were provided from that study, no comparisons were made to ethical practices of engineers (i.e., NSPE). This research-to-practice paper expands upon prior findings on ethical mentoring and compares them against NSPE. From this comparison, practices in the form of recommendations, tips, and resources were derived. While not comprehensive, the practices included aims to improve engineering mentoring relationships to support mentees towards their transition to the workforce.

This research-to-practice paper discusses how hidden curriculum pathways in engineering can be used to mentor and professionally develop graduate students in engineering. Hidden curriculum is a relatively new term in engineering and is used to describe the transmitted inclusionary or exclusionary systemic messages that are structurally supported and sustained in engineering. While there is work around hidden curriculum in engineering, both nationally and internationally, only the author has conceived hidden curriculum as a pathway model. Work from the author and colleagues has shown that when exploring the hidden curriculum pathways, students situate their actions based upon what resources and sources of support they value. If they value a campus resource or a mentor, for example, they are more likely to enact change and use hidden curriculum for their growth in the profession. However, if they do not value the resource or mentor, there is greater risk for mentoring discords, which can ultimately lead to attrition. This paper expands upon these earlier findings to develop a set of practical tips of how individuals navigate hidden curriculum in engineering, more specifically from the perspective of the author.

Though engineering digital game inclusion in undergraduate classrooms has steadily increased over the last two decades for in-person courses, their use has exponentially increased in remote and contactless higher education learning environments. Studies exploring student technological acceptance of and content mastery from the use of engineering digital games have provided mixed results in terms of student enjoyment, engagement, and game effectiveness. The majority of these studies have relied on pre- and post-questionnaires to assess differences in students' gaming experiences and performance in the game and learning environment. However, quantitative methods such as the measurement of physiological responses during gameplay have been less explored for the exploration of student engagement and education. The goal of this work is to explore how a set of eye - tracking metrics can be related to gamer attention to in-game stimuli and game interface areas of interest.

This Research Full paper focuses on perceptions and experiences of freshman and sophomore engineering students when playing an online serious engineering game that was designed to improve engineering intuition and knowledge of statics. Use of serious educational engineering games has increased in engineering education to help students increase technical competencies in engineering disciplines. However, few have investigated how these engineering games are experienced by the students; how games influence students' perceptions of learning, or how these factors may lead to inequitable perspectives among diverse populations of students. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions, appeal, and opinions about the efficacy of educational online games among a diverse population of students in an engineering mechanics statics course. It was hypothesized that compared to majority groups (e.g., men, White), women of color who are engineering students would experience less connections to the online educational game in terms of ease of use and level of frustration while playing. It is believed that these discordant views may negatively influence the game's appeal and efficacy towards learning engineering in this population of students. Design/Method: The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is expanded in this study, where the perspectives of women of colour (Latinx, Asian and African American) engineering students are explored. The research approach employed in this study is a mixed-method sequential exploratory design, where students first played the online engineering educational game, then completed a questionnaire, followed by participation in a focus group. Responses were initially analyzed through open and magnitude coding approaches to understand whether students thought these educational games reflected their personal culture. Results: Preliminary results indicate that though the majority of the students were receptive to using the online engineering software for their engineering education, merely a few intimated that they would use this software for engineering exam or technical job interview preparation. A level-one categorical analysis identified a few themes that comprised unintended preservation of inequality in favor of students who enjoyed contest-based education and game technology. Competition-based valuation of presumed mastery of course content fostered anxiety and intimidation among students, which caused some to "game the game" instead of studying the material, to meet grade goals. Some students indicated that they spent more time (than necessary) to learn the goals of the game than engineering content itself, suggesting a need to better integrate course material while minimizing cognitive effort in learning to navigate the game. Conclusions: Preliminary results indicate that engineering software's design and the way is coupled with course grading and assessment of learning outcomes, affect student perceptions of the technology's acceptance, usefulness, and ease of use as a "learning tool." Students were found to have different expectations of serious games juxtaposed software/apps designed for entertainment. Conclusions also indicate that acceptance of inquiry-based educational games in a classroom among diverse populations of students should clearly articulate and connect the game goals/objectives with class curriculum content. Findings also indicate that a multifaceted schema of tools, such as feedback on game challenges, and explanations for predictions of the game should be included in game/app designs.

This Work-In-Progress falls within the research category of study and, focuses on the experiences and perceptions of first-and second year engineering students when using an online engineering game that was designed to enhance understanding of statics concepts. Technology and online games are increasingly being used in engineering education to help students gain competencies in technical domains in the engineering field. Less is known about the way that these online games are designed and incorporated into the classroom environment and how these factors can ignite inequitable perspectives and experiences among engineering students. Also, little if any work that combines the TAM model and intersectionality of race and gender in engineering education has been done, though several studies have been modified to account for gender or race. This study expands upon the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by exploring perspectives of intersectional groups (defined as women of color who are engineering students). A Mixed Method Sequential Exploratory Research Design approach was used that extends the TAM model. Students were asked to play the engineering educational game, complete an open-ended questionnaire and then to participate in a focus group. Early findings suggest that while many students were open to learning to use the game and recommended inclusion of online engineering educational games as learning tools in classrooms, only a few indicated that they would use this tool to prepare for exams or technical job interviews. Some of the main themes identified in this study included unintended perpetuation of inequality through bias in favor of students who enjoyed competition-based learning and assessment of knowledge, and bias for students having prior experience in playing online games. Competition-based assessment related to presumed learning of course content enhanced student anxiety and feelings of intimidation and led to some students seeking to “game the game” versus learning the material, in efforts to achieve grade goals. Other students associated use of the game and the classroom weighted grading with intense stress that led them to prematurely stop the use of the engineering tool. Initial findings indicate that both game design and how technology is incorporated into the grading and testing of learning outcomes, influence student perceptions of the technology's usefulness and ultimately the acceptance of the online game as a “learning tool.” Results also point to the need to explore how the crediting and assessment of students' performance and learning gains in these types of games could yield inequitable experiences in these types of courses.