AWE FAQs

What is AWE?
AWE, the Assessing Women and Men in Engineering Project, provides assessment tools for people involved in K-16 formal and informal educational outreach activities. AWE provides researchers and evaluators high quality data and the possibility of meta-data based on comparisons of responses to consistent quantitative surveys from a variety of organizations or activities.
For more information, go to About AWE.

What is unique about AWE?

What can AWE do for me?
AWE provides people involved in K-12 outreach and undergraduate activities for girls and women in SET (Science, Engineering and Technology) with assessment tools to plan activities and collect and interpret assessment data. AWE provides researchers and evaluators high quality data and the possibility of meta-data based on comparisons of responses to consistent quantitative surveys from a variety of organizations or activities.

What assessment products does the AWE Project offer?
AWE Products include surveys, overviews of relevant literature, data collection tools, workshops and more. Download the complete list.

Are AWE Products available to everyone?
Yes. All AWE products are available through this website (aweonline.org) and are free. Just complete a quick, free registration process and then you will have access.

What is AWISE?
AWISE (Assessing Women and Men in Student Environments) is a companion project that assesses the experiences of engineering students in classroom learning environments. Classroom learning experiences are important to engineering student retention; t his project is studying students’ perceptions of those experiences.

What is SWE AWE?
SWE AWE, funded through an NSF GSE diffusion grant #0734072, moves the AWE Project to the Society of Women Engineers and further develops the AWE Project Product suite.

Why is the AWE Project joining SWE (the Society of Women Engineers)?
AWE is moving to SWE to institutionalize and expand the project. SWE will continue the development of current AWE products and foster new products, as well as encourage greater use by supporters and implementers of SET outreach activities sponsored by SWE Professional and Student Chapters, industry, professional societies, etc.

Who are AWE Project collaborators?
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is an active collaborator and the home of the AWE Project.

AWE is a partner organization for the NSF-Funded National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) Extension services project. Through this initiative, the AWE project developed an updated set of STEM outreach pre-college assessment tools and is working to build assessment capacity with organizations offering these activities.

AWE has a continuing collaboration with the National Academy of Engineering CASEE-The Center for Advancement of Scholarship in Engineering Education. Together they are continuously updating and expanding on the delivery of Literature Overview Suites, which combine the CASEE Information Sheets and AWE Literature Overview Suites.

How can my organization become an AWE collaborator?
Contact us at awe@engr.psu.edu.

AWE Registration
How do I register for the AWE Project?
Complete the free registration at http://www.engr.psu.edu/awe/register.aspx.

My organization is not listed in the registration form. What do I do?
Send an email to awe@engr.psu.edu to request that your organization be added. This normally happens within 24 hours, if not immediately.

Can anyone register for the AWE Project?
AWE registration is open to everyone.

Why does the AWE Project require registration?
Registrations provide information on who is accessing AWE Products and also make periodic assessment of users possible.

AWE Products

What AWE Products are available?
Download SWE AWE Product List for a complete list.

How are AWE surveys developed, tested and validated?
The development of all surveys are based on literature reviews, needs assessments and testing with assessment experts, content experts and users.

Are all AWE surveys validated?
The Self-Efficacy instrument (LAESE) has been tested and validated. Papers on the results are available on AWEonline.org. The Persisters’ surveys are tested and launched and awaiting the collection of sufficient data to do statistical validation beyond the initial factor analysis on the original version of that survey.

The new and revised versions of the Pre-College instruments have been tested with experts and audiences (as noted above), but have not yet been validated.

Which disciplines do the pre-college instruments cover?
Engineering, Science and Computing. Technology.

Are online versions of AWE surveys available for my use?
Yes. All AWE surveys are or will be programmed on SurveyMonkey, a commercial online company. Registered AWE Project users may request export of these online templates by emailing awe@engr.psu.edu.

Why are AWE surveys only available on SurveyMonkey, rather than other online survey providers?
We recognize that there are many excellent online survey tools. AWE selected SurveyMonkey because its lower cost makes it more accessible to even small programs or organizations. It is also user friendly, and provides quick and simple data downloads.

Can the pre-college instruments be expanded to other disciplines than engineering, science and computing technology?
Yes, they are designed to be adapted to measure activities focusing on other disciplines. Refer to the AWE Pre-College Implementation Guide for details.

What are AWE Pre-College Core Surveys?
AWE Core Surveys address objectives basic to most pre-college SET activities. These were determined through literature reviews and needs assessments. The AWE Pre-College Implementation Guide describes the objectives for the core surveys. If you have additional intended objectives, check out the AWE Question Modules that address additional common objectives and can be added to the core survey to fit your program needs.

What are AWE Pre-College Question Modules?
AWE Pre-College Question Modules are sets of questions to add to AWE Pre-College Core Surveys. They address objectives commonly found in pre-college activities and allow users to tailor surveys to their activities.

AWE Mentor surveys measure peer-to-peer mentoring. Are other types of mentoring surveys planned?
Yes, professional to student mentoring surveys are planned and should be available in 2009 as a part of the SWE AWE Project.

May I make minor modifications AWE Surveys for my activities or program?
Yes. The Pre-College AWE Surveys, PDQ Surveys and Mentor-Mentee Surveys are designed to be personalized and adapted for specific activities. Required and suggested adaptations are highlighted in the paper download version and marked in the online template. Refer to the AWE Pre-College Implementation Guide for details for pre-College Surveys.

May I make major changes to AWE instruments?
We recommend caution. AWE surveys are tested and, in some cases validated. If you wish to use a subset of items or change those items, we recommend that you do this with an entire subset. This is because many items are based upon factor analysis and designed to be used together.

If you change the validated LAESE instruments they are no longer validated, nor are they valid for national comparative data. You may add additional questions to the survey , in order to meet your specific objectives, you (e.g. institutional information and specific, activity-related questions.)

Is AWE interested in linking to other websites, or including assessment resources developed by other researchers or groups on the AWE website?
Yes. Contact awe@engr.psu.edu.

We are also happy to post tested and validated surveys on the AWE website or link to other projects. AWE works directly with developers to credit the surveys and develop the specific language used to credit the surveys.

AWE Literature Overviews

What are AWE Literature Overviews?
As the name suggests, AWE Literature Overviews are practitioner-oriented overviews of research and scholarly literature relevant to development of effective SET educational and outreach programs and activities. They recognize the need for practitioners to have easier access to research literature and findings about what works in SET educational activities. AWE has a continuing collaboration with the National Academy of Engineering CASEE-The Center for Advancement of Scholarship in Engineering Education to continuously update and expand the delivery of Literature Overview Suites, which combine the CASEE Information Sheets and AWE Literature Overview Suites.

How current are the AWE Overviews?
AWE and CASEE are in the process of updating existing overviews and developing new overviews. The original Overviews were developed in 2003.

Who writes the AWE Overviews?
Scholars who are experts in relevant research are creating the next generation of AWE Overviews. The original overviews were developed by the AWE Project team.

AWE Research and Data Use

Are there national comparison data available using the AWE instruments?
Several studies have been conducted using the AWE instruments. See the Research papers page for details. If you would like to participate in a research studying using AWE instruments, contact awe@engr.psu.edu

AWE Workshops and Webinars

How can I participate in an AWE Assessment Workshop?
Members of the AWE team offer workshops at many national conferences. Visit the AWE Workshops and Webinars page for a schedule of upcoming AWE workshops and information on arranging supplemental training.

Are AWE workshops and webinars available online?
Yes. Go to the AWE Workshops and Webinars page

Copyright and Citation

Are the AWE products copyrighted?
AWE products are copyrighted and should be cited by users.

If I use AWE Surveys and other products, how do I cite AWE?
Add the AWE logo (available upon request from awe@engr.psu.edu) to the survey. This can be placed inconspicuously. Also, cite AWE in any publications or mentions of the survey in reports, papers, etc.

How should I cite AWE Products in publications and reports?
The recommended citation is:
Assessing Women in Engineering (AWE) Project 200x. [Name of product cited, e.g. Career Development, AWE Mentor Pre-Instrument, etc.] [Title of type of product cited, e.g. AWE Research Overviews, AWE Survey Instruments, etc.]. Retrieved >date< from http://www.AWEonline.org.

Implementing AWE Surveys

How can I get students to complete the AWE instruments?
AWE instruments are designed to be user friendly – for both you and those who fill out the surveys. The participating AWE WIE directors found that most students are willing to complete the instrument because we have made it clear their responses will help improve the activity and future activities. Specific suggestions for getting meaningful participation and data is provided on the AWEonline.org.

Do AWE surveys administered in Universities and Colleges require Human Subjects or Institutional Review Board (IRB) permission?
If you work for a college or university, contact the IRB at your institution - they must answer this question for you. It is likely that a complete review and approval from your institution's Institutional Review Board will be required prior to implementation. A good rule of thumb is that if you any data that will be reported outside your organization, you need IRB approval. Click here to find out more information about the IRB Process.

Do organizations and individuals outside Universities and Colleges need to get permission to implement surveys?
There is no one answer for this. If you are working in schools, you will need to get permission from the schools and from parents of minor children. If you are providing outreach activities outside of schools, it is still a good idea to get parental consent.

I'm not familiar with some of the assessment and evaluation terms used on the web site; how can I learn more?
For a basic overview of assessment and evaluation, refer to the engineering Foundation Coalition's assessment overview. http://foundationcoalition.org/home/keycomponents/assessment_evaluation.html. For a glossary of specific terms related to assessment and evaluation (e.g. validity, reliability) refer to the Foundation Coalition's glossary. http://www.foundationcoalition.org/home/keycomponents/glossary.html

Contacting AWE

How do I contact the AWE Project?
Email AWE at awe@engr.psu.edu.

Web site / Technical FAQs

What do I do if I forget my AWE login and / or password?
To retrieve a forgotten or lost password, go to the Password Retrieval Page.

Whom can I contact to report a problem?
Please submit any difficulties or errors with the AWE website through the Contact AWE/Submit Feedback form.

What are the site requirements?
Visit the Site Requirements page for the AWE web site requirements.

Developed by The Pennsylvania State University and University of Missouri
Funded by The National Science Foundation (HRD 0120642 and HRD 0607081)

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