Thematic Review of Canadian Engineering Education Research between 2017-2021

Abstract

Trends in engineering education have shifted over time, with teaching methods adapting to facilitate student learning [1], and the importance of equity, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) coming to the forefront [2]. It is important to understand the trends in engineering education to assess where we are coming from and where things currently stand in terms of teaching methods, culture, and pedagogy, to guide engineering educators and researchers moving forward. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of thematic trends in past CEEA papers over the previous five years (2017-2021), exploring shifts and evolutions in the major topics discussed as well as looking at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on engineering education research. Papers were analyzed from the 2017-2021 CEEA proceedings. By studying the frequency of main themes in papers for each year, the popularity of subjects that have been trending were determined, allowing for an analysis of the major trends seen year over year. During the period under review, institutions across Canada transitioned to online learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in a prevalent thematic shift in paper topics towards an increased interest regarding pure online delivery of a course during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the 2021 proceedings, which saw 41 (41.8%) papers discuss online learning in some form, research into this topic generally had little traction with 2017 having the next highest frequency of 17 (10.2%) publications, and 2018-2020 each having under five publications on this topic. Up until 2021, the focus on teaching beyond conventional formats had been primarily on mixed delivery (such as flipped classrooms and blended learning), as opposed to purely online. Other trends observed from the analysis include the importance of K-12 outreach with this theme seeing most focus at the CEEA 2020 conference with seven (7.9%) papers discussing this topic. In addition to the changing trends in topics, a discussion on the ambiguity of research and practice-based papers and their definition was undertaken. This analysis will assist engineering educators to understand the research topics of interest that past CEEA submissions have gravitated towards, and will highlight topics that are important, but are presently understudied.