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Session Number 2532

Student Evaluation of Instructional Modules on EC 2000 Criteria 3 (a) – (k) Skills

Russell Pimmel, Robert Leland, and Harold Stern Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Alabama

Abstract

A team of engineering faculty members has developed a set of fifteen instructional modules for teaching several skills identified in EC 2000 Criteria 3 (a)-(k). Module developers designed them for a week of classes in upper-level engineering courses and incorporated active/cooperative learning and web-based resources. In addition to the standard instructional material, each module contained learning objectives, a justification, student exercises and assignments, and an instructor’s guide discussing the use of the material and the grading of student work. To determine students’ reaction to these modules, we had instructors, who were not the module developers, teach them to a class of engineering students. The students completed extensive evaluation forms, including a series of questions where they indicated their agreement with a set of positively oriented statements on the material using a five-point scale (1 – “Strongly Disagree” to 5 – “Strongly Agree”). These data indicated a positive student reaction to the instructional material. For example, the overall average scores on the statements about the learning objectives, justification, teaming activities, and homework were 4.1, 4.2, 3.9, and 3.9, respectively. The two modules with the highest overall average scores dealt with ethics (4.4) and oral communications (4.4); the two with the lowest overall average scores dealt with lifelong learning (3.6) and contemporary issues (3.7).

Introduction

The EC2000 guidelines require that engineering programs to demonstrate that their graduates have acquired a set of specified skills, including design, experimental, problem solving, teaming, communication, lifelong learning, ethical interpretation, and global and societal impact skills 1. To date most of the creative work has focused on the assessment aspects -- establishing goals, objectives, and outcomes, identifying assessment tools, and defining feedback mechanisms. In contrast, the development of classroom material for newly emphasized skills and technology related knowledge, as defined in Criteria 3, Items (a) through (k), has received considerably less attention. Traditionally, engineering courses have focused on technical content and presumed that students developed these other skills, sometimes called "processing skills", by working with the technical content and by observing the instructor working with it in the classroom. Educational research, along with many anecdotal reports from industry, indicates the ineffectiveness of this ad hoc approach 2, 3. Because EC2000 requires an assessment process that demonstrates acquisition of these processing skills, engineering programs must ensure that their curriculum includes instruction and practice in these skills.

Proceeding of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Stern, H., & Leland, R., & Pimmel, R. (2002, June), Student Evaluation Of Instructional Modules On Ec 2000 Criteria 3 (A) (K) Skills Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10074