approachcan offer stable and reliable instruction well beyond the COVID-19 crisis.IntroductionSince March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all facets of life and has become a majordisruption to higher education worldwide. Many institutions have opted to cancel in-personclasses, including labs, and have mandated a pivot to online instruction to help control the spreadof the virus. Researchers have studied online education for decades and research shows thateffective online learning results from a planned instructional design using a systematic model fordevelopment [1]. Research also showed that educators who are new to online instruction reportchallenges related to increased workload, the usage of new technologies, and organizing theircourses
struggles with being motivated while working off-campus. However,the overall experience with flipped learning in remote classes was positive as they had more controlover their study schedule and could benefit from different class activities and discussions.1. IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic has impacted education in different aspects. Universities and schoolshad to minimize in-person interactions to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Thus, thetraditional in-person classrooms transitioned to online ones. Previous studies on distance educationhave shown that online teaching requires a different pedagogy and set of skills from that of the in-person classroom [1], [2]. Educators and students needed to adapt to online teaching promptly. Asa
domain, time response, model reduction,stability, steady-state errors, root locus, design via root locus, frequency response, and design viafrequency response. Feedback and Control courses are usually considered to be complex,abstract, theoretical, and mathematically-involved that can be hard for many undergraduatestudents to fully understand [1-4]. Students find it difficult to relate the discussed topics with theirdaily lives [1-4]. Common pedagogy involves theory with lectures and readings, mathematicalhomework assignments, and exercises with computer simulations and hardware-basedexperiments. In this course the concepts are difficult for the students to visualize, and moststudents have no conscious personal experience with the phenomena [1-4
measurements to the system, that the task would become significantlymore difficult. It turns out that the added complexities did not decrease performance and, in somecases, enhanced student performance. Finally, we investigated whether we could effectively usemeasurements as a proxy for thought process. Our results point to significant overlap betweenmeasurement patterns and final reasoning given.BackgroundSince troubleshooting is a type of problem-solving, we follow the universal list of expert problem-solving decisions across the STEM fields identified by Carl Wieman’s physics education researchgroup [1]. Several relevant to our research include determining what information is needed andcomparing predictions to data to draw appropriate conclusions
involve significant hands-on and/or problem-solving components. In this regard,engineering education has been profoundly impacted by the challenges associated withdelivering laboratory content and design experiences remotely. In a qualitative survey conductedby the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) to help assess the impact of thepandemic on the engineering education community [1], respondents overwhelmingly consideredthe loss of lab-based, hands-on instruction to be the leading problem faced by engineeringeducators. Approximately 120 out of 207 responses included the terms “hands-on,” “lab” or“laboratories,” or both, and another 20 mentioned “team,” referring to activities and projects. Incomparison, although lecture courses have
ensure the accomplishment of the studentlearning outcomes and to enhance resilience of students. This includes 1) combiningsynchronous and asynchronous learning options to provide both flexibility and humanizedinteractions; 2) eliminating traditional exams and designing a new tech interview-style codingexam.; 3) increasing social presence in the class and building a collaborative and supportivelearning community; 4) adjusting the term project to address the restrictions caused by remotelearning; and 5) designing and distributing surveys at multiple points of the semester tounderstand students’ needs and learning progress. According to the course assessment results andthe responses from an anonymous exit-class survey, the transition of this
shows that decisions to pursue STEM in later careers are influenced by early exposureduring K-12 education [1]. This early exposure is also useful in understanding connectionsbetween coursework related to mathematics, science, and liberal arts. For example, a pilot studyfound that students who were introduced to neuroscience in the context of health sciencespossessed an increased knowledge and awareness of the growing concerns related to mentalhealth issues [2]. Another study found that students who pursued higher education in STEMreported having an early personal connection to their field through a family member or friendwith a career in STEM [3]. Students who lack such personal connections may also be drawn tothe field by shadowing a
American c Society for Engineering Education, 2021 Service Learning Through a Course on RoboticsIntroduction Getting young people especially from the under-represented and minority communitiesinterested in science and technology has always been a challenge that educators have faced andresponded through various measures. The need for STEM education initiatives particularly inlow-income and underperforming school districts has been well documented. In 2018-2019,only 52.6% of Bridgeport public schools students met or exceeded the standards set by theState of Connecticut’s Smarter Balanced Assessment [1] in Mathematics, which means that47.4% of students are performing below grade level
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own learning. A common misconception is that self-directedlearning can only occur in isolation from all other input from either the educator or fellowstudents. Students can work in a highly self-directed way while being a part of a larger team.Notably, a salient trend in the research suggests that students with highly developedself-directed learning skills connect and consult with a range of peers and leverage theirlearning network to make their choices about the direction of their learning [1].Foundational literature that examines the construction of a successful self-directed learningenvironment suggests that learning should reflect three distinct parts: The learner, the educator,and the learning resources [2]. Significant parts of this
laboratories in higher educationRecent innovations in online education and the need for lab exercises as part of competencedevelopment in STEM education have led to the development of online laboratory solutions -termed online labs. Those tools include remote–physically real existing equipment used overdistance, augmented reality (real existing labs with VR add-ons), and virtual labs–a software-based fully virtual lab, often through simulation [1-7]. Online laboratories have gainedprominence because they have the potential to overcome some drawbacks of classical, hands-on labs such as equipment, time, capacity, or infrastructure constraints [7, 8]. Furthermore, ifused in addition to and not as a substitute for hands-on labs, online laboratory
concepts of First Order Differential Equations through the use of intuitive and example-based approaches as they relate primarily to electrical engineering. This paper seeks to simplify theintroduction to the topic of First Order Differential Equations into something that is clear and easy tocomprehend. To accomplish this, the paper starts with a visual background of first order systems and anexplanation of exponential growth vs. exponential decay. It then moves into (1) electrical examples,including the charging rate of cell phones and the idea of transient response in electrical systems such asRC and RL circuits, (2) electromechanical examples, including DC motors and heat transfer rates ofdifferent types of stoves, (3) various topics from other
the latest pedagogical research as well as looked for innovative approaches andtechnologies being utilized by other institutions. For example, [1] presents a novel approach tooffering embedded systems labs remotely by incorporating a cloud-based camera system withwhich students can interact. When considering offering our course remotely, we contemplatedsuch an approach, but we concluded that it would be most beneficial to the students to send themindividual kits. We understand that not all courses will work well in that format, but we found itto be the best option for our students.In our planning stages, we explored the approaches of other prominent universities. Notably, UCBerkeley highlighted some of the findings that we consider to be
– knowing how databases interact with servers inbuilding IoT products, for example.The Agile Experiment (History of the Course)To meet these challenges, we established three project objectives. Our first objective was to findmore agile and sustainable processes to develop and continuously improve engineeringcurriculum. The second objective was to improve our pedagogical methods to make theclassroom learning experience more engaging [1]. The third objective was to develop a newlearning experience for our students that produced measurably better learning outcomes.An essential idiom that emerged from student, faculty, industry, and professional surveys was thewidespread use of agile methodologies. Since these methods are part of the curriculum we
< 0.10).1 IntroductionSignals and systems (SS) is a standard electrical engineering (EE) undergraduate course coveringlinear time-invariant (LTI) system properties, convolution and system responses, Fouriertransforms (FT), Laplace transforms (LT), and filtering. These topics are fundamental to signalprocessing, image processing, and machine learning specializations, all of which arehigh-demand areas for graduates.Despite the importance educators place on concepts in SS, studies show that students typically donot learn even half of new concepts in a SS course [1], and that students can derive the correctanswer on procedural questions without being able to explain the underlying concepts [2], [3].For example, students may be able to use
the adder module, students should be ableto: 1) understand the inefficiency of a serial adder; 2) understand the concepts of generate andpropagate signals as the basis of carry-look-ahead recursive formulation; 3) express the carry-outrecursive expression in terms of inputs. After completing the counter module, students should beable to: 1) recognize a carry-ripple counter and explain its shortcomings; 2) understand that thesame approach in carry-look-ahead adder can be used to solve the delay in carry-ripple counter;3) understand the trade-offs among different parallel counter implementations.In Fall 2019, 48% (n=183) of students completed the adder module and 47%(n=178) completedthe counter module. The completion rate in Spring 2020 and
%. The results from the hypothesis testing suggest that using iClickers in the method given did not significantly improve student performance in the class. This also suggests that changes to using iClickers will need to be made in subsequent semesters to improve student performance.* Email schuh4@illinois.edu, Phone +1(217)3007091 11 IntroductionPersonal response systems, or “clickers”, have been used extensively in the classroom by instructorsto gain feedback on student performance and identify misconceptions that the instructor can correctearly on [1–7]. Clickers have been used effectively in large lecture style courses, and have yieldedimproved student performance [2, 8]. One
that thiscourse has been successful.1 IntroductionThe growing popularity and trend of mobile devices have impacted our lives in a wide range. Inparticular, mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have become ubiquitous. Such mobiledevices with higher computing power now integrate various I/O modalities, includinghigh-resolution cameras, microphones, speakers, and IMU sensors. The hardware improvementhas inspired new mobile applications in signal processing areas such as human voice recognition,gesture tracking, music discovery, face recognition, etc. Consequently, it is important to reflectthese trends in the embedded DSP education.However, conventional courses tend to persist in the traditional application whose modality hasbeen one
, itis almost always in the context of a total device failure, rather than focusing on an intermittentfault or the progressive changes in a device's performance over time. This is also usuallydiscussed in a purely theoretical sense and is rarely shown to students in a laboratory setting. Thelack of this type of laboratory exercise from most student’s undergraduate curriculum isreasonable considering the time limitations of most standard courses and the difficulty ofproducing labs of this kind. However, it does result in students having limited exposure to thesetopics and would reduce the efficacy of the instruction. [1] The development of a measurement system was proposed to serve the double purpose ofeducating students on reliability
being said, there may be someimpact to the students’ positive or negative reactions. The impact of the virtual modality willlargely be ignored for the paper.This work was reviewed and approved by Wentworth Institute of Technology’s InstitutionalReview Board for human subjects in research.3 Literature Review and Related WorkResubmissions and Multiple Attempts: There are numerous previously published worksaddressing a policy of allowing students to submit incorrect or incomplete work multipletimes [1, 3, 9, 20, 21, 23, 25, 29, 32], but each varies in its focus or implementation. Moore andRanalli tracked the faculty time and impact for a mastery-based approach to homework, allowingtwo resubmissions per student [25, 29], which is especially
-12students have less exposure to electrical engineering (EE) than to many other STEM subjects.Within EE, the focus is often on introducing students to robotics or electronics, such as electricalcircuits, microprocessor programming and system integration (e.g., [1] - [3]). However, EE spansa much broader spectrum. The topics of communications and networking are often not presentedto high school students at all, and students are unaware of the fascinating challenges connectedwith careers in this direction.The current pandemic, entailing remote education, offers a unique opportunity to teachcommunications and networking. Remote delivery platforms such as Zoom can be leveraged toillustrate communications and networking concepts in new interactive ways
own their own mobile studio platform. Accessibility: Allows students to carry out measurements anywhere, anytime, and for unique integrations of measurements into in-class exercises, homework, and laboratory experiments. Experiential Learning: Engages all students with hands-on, individualized measurement experiences that can extend beyond the confines of a traditional lab session. Inclusivity: Students can work at their own pace since they are no longer bound to rigid laboratory session hours. Students can gain practice without fear of making mistakes in front of peers. Students can also make use of assistive technology tools [1] on their computer when taking measurements, particularly
—how we define it, how students perceive it, and how to measure it—an interest that continues to inform her work. American c Society for Engineering Education, 2021 Measuring Changes in Students’ Engineering Practice Skills in a Project-Based LaboratoryIntroductionUndergraduate engineering curricula across the United States are largely designed to preparestudents to enter industry upon graduation, yet studies over the past decade have suggested a gapbetween what is emphasized in this curriculum and the competencies that are most useful inindustry [1-4]. These studies indicate that important competencies are often underdeveloped inthe
success intheir degrees. Educational data can be retrieved in various levels of granularity thanks to intensivedata keeping ensured by most universities. In most cases data is stored in multiple databases linkedto systems provided by multiple vendors. These systems often link to the main contentmanagement system being used by the university. Moodle and Banner are examples of suchcontent management systems.Universities realize the importance of their data and the potential it has which can allow them tomake more informed decisions [1], [2] related to recruitment and retention. Retention being on thetop of the list for universities, data mining provides avenues and methodologies that can be usedto extract meaningful information that can eventually
machine. Topics includebasic I/O, interrupts, timers, communication methods and protocols, driver circuitry, actuator(stepper motors, dc motors, solenoids, servos) control, user interface, and reactive state-machinedevelopment. We specifically discuss how the lessons and labs build upon themselves over the (a) Side View (b) Playfield Figure 1: Course Pinball Machinesemester to culminate in a complete, functional machine. A custom designed pinball machine,shown in Figure 1, and custom node based embedded system architecture, shown in Figure 3,were developed specifically for this course. The course pinball machine includes both traditionalpinball mechanisms
targetdemographic of these kits ranges from middle school to first-year college students. This paperhighlights our results from our flagship Family Program and community outreach. The FamilyProgram and Library Program deploys these kits through a series of workshops aimed at raisingawareness in electrical engineering for parents and children and encourages teamwork in familiesthrough hands-on projects. Both programs encourage participants to become the teachers of theircommunity further proliferating the efforts to encourage STEM.IntroductionIt is an exciting time in STEM education as more technologies have become affordable andreadily available with online support structures and forums [1-4]. Teaching and engaging theyounger generation of students to
skills workshops,industry/alumni engagement, and campus resources). The program concluded with studentspresenting their final projects and submitting a project report. Top performing students receivedresearch internship opportunities provided by our faculty. The costs and benefits associated withvirtual programs as they compare with traditional in-person programs are discussed.IntroductionIncreasingly, engineering students are expected to have a strong record of technical skills as wellas professional development skills before they enter a globally competitive workforce [1-4].Typically, students attain these skills at the university through a myriad of ways, includingcoursework, student organizations, engagement with peers and faculty, and hands
-based learning.Further, it has potential to help students, including students who have visual impairments,develop spatial skills that are not only valuable but required in many engineering careers.1. IntroductionThe continued optimization of wireless communications and other radio frequency (RF) systemsis an essential technological effort that has enabled the advancement of modern society.Antennas are an indispensable component of myriad vital RF systems, with applicationsspanning science, industry and commerce, personal communication and entertainment, publicsafety, and national security. Thus, antennas, along with electromagnetics more generally, “willcontinue to be the heart and soul of many modern technology advances ranging from
. American c Society for Engineering Education, 2021 WIP:Detection of Student Misconceptions of Electrical Circuit Concepts in a Short Answer Question Using Natural Language ProcessingAbstractWhile the use of writing exercises in gateway STEM courses that focus on solving numericproblems is not widespread, there is evidence that students could benefit from the addition of suchexercises [1]. Writing exercises may be effective in both uncovering student misconceptions thatare not necessarily apparent with typical computation problems, and as tools to foster conceptualchange and metacognitive skill.In this paper, pilot studies of the use of two Natural Language
the intersection of personality and vocational interest as well as how counselors learn to become effective in their work with clients. American c Society for Engineering Education, 2021 Support to Success: How Institutional Resources Foster Increased Academic Outcomes for Underrepresented Students in Electrical and Computer Engineering Departments (WIP) Existing literature well documents that women and students of color are underrepresentedacross STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) field majors and industrypositions. Women comprise 47% of the workforce yet hold only 12% of engineering jobs [1].Additionally, citizens who