Evaluation of integrated and inclusive pedagogy for cognitive communications

Educational systems, especially in STEM disciplines, continue to be challenging in terms of effective design of pedagogies and environments to support teaching and learning. There is a need for more empirical investigations of the effectiveness of specific pedagogies. As part of a cognitive communications curriculum for engineering and computer science students, learning modules were developed through a partnership between Virginia Tech and Norfolk State University. A quasi-experimental design was used, including pre- and post-test measures of cognitive communications self-efficacy and performance on lab assignments. Results were mixed in terms of effectiveness. Criteria for engagement were fully met and selfefficacy increased significantly for one of the self-efficacy items. However, student performance based on lab assignments did not fully meet the criteria. Issues contributing to the lack of effectiveness are discussed as well as extended analyses of the data to further explore student performance.