DOI
10.1016/j.econedurev.2017.10.008

Summary
This study is concerned with the assessment of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT freshman learning community called the Experiential Study Group (ESG) and its impact on underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) fields. The aim of the ESG is to make transitioning to MIT easier, particularly for freshmen from non-elite high schools and for underrepresented groups in STEM – women and minorities. Russell opens the article by discussing the disparities of representation, job opportunities and salaries of the underrepresented groups. The ESG community is in high demand which requires MIT to accept candidates on the basis of a lottery system. The group is one of four learning communities at MIT. Students that are successful in gaining access to the group are required to attend two classes minimum in both semesters. The courses offered in the ESG typically include General Institute Requirements (GIR), introductory science and introductory mathematics. Lecturers as opposed to tenured research faculty are employed to facilitate the ESG. Each course has 2-3 upperclassmen teaching assistants. The curriculum flexibly facilitates the students involved with a focus on hands-on, cooperative, and active learning. To create a community environment, all classes are conducted in a single floor of a single building and a communal lounge and kitchen is accessible. The majority of students take lunch weekly of a Friday here and hold study groups in the assigned building where both formal and informal mentoring and advising occurs.

Russell’s data and sample includes the collection of all undergraduates in 1997, 1999, 2003 and 2006-2015. She also obtained the lottery records for applicants between 2011-2015. Russell uses baseline covariates provided by MIT to test (the above mentioned years) for covariate balance and to investigate treatment of heterogeneity.  

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
The findings of this study relate to the community development topic of COSY. The paper as a whole is not entirely useful as it focusses heavily of statistics based off MIT’s treatment of minorities and underrepresented groups in STEM. It is specific to MIT. However, this does still act as useful reference for a similar study to be conducted at different HEIs. Although these statistics may be found in other HEIs, I find that it is not specific to development of complex systems knowledge within COSY. However, the paper does outline the successes of an internal community based study group. The use of the ESG and the communal environment it creates for experiential and active learning is a useful resource for reimagining teaching.

Point of Strength
The description the ESG function is a strong point. The creation of a community driven environment with communal areas and formal and informal study groups could be useful to replicate in other HEIs. I would suspect however, that there is a better resource for this specific aspect of the study available from MIT.

Such a resource is found here: https://esg.mit.edu/learninginnovation/peer-teaching/