Conference Session

Cooperative Education and Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tylisha Baber, Michigan State University; Norman Fortenberry, National Academy of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Cooperative & Experiential Education

integratecooperative education based learning within their teaching practices. Contomanolis[2] conducteda study of engineering faculty at the six largest engineering cooperative education programs inthe United States (Georgia Institute of Technology, Kettering University, Drexel University,University of Cincinnati, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Northeastern University) toassess their views concerning the academic value of cooperative education and the extent towhich they utilized teaching activities to incorporate student co-op experiences into theclassroom learning environment. The survey instrument used in the study was a questionnairethat allowed faculty respondents to use a five-point Likert scale to report their attitudes on theacademic value of

Conference Session

Issues of Cooperative Education II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jean-Claude Thomassian, State University of New York, Maritime College; Anoop Desai, Georgia Southern University; Patrick kinnicutt, Central Michigan University

Tagged Divisions

Cooperative & Experiential Education

teams of students work on structured tasks (e.g., homeworkassignments, laboratory experiments, or design projects) under conditions that meet five criteria:positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, appropriate use ofcollaborative skills, and regular self-assessment of team functioning. Many studies have shownthat when correctly implemented, cooperative learning improves information acquisition andretention, higher-level thinking skills, interpersonal and communication skills, and self-confidence.” [6].Regardless of the subject matter, research has shown that active/cooperative learning is aneffective teaching technique compared to using traditional instruction alone such as lectures. Byusing Active

Conference Session

Issues of Cooperative Education I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

ROBERT GRAY, Penn State Erie

Tagged Divisions

Cooperative & Experiential Education

with a local industry.Perceived Shortcomings to Traditional Systems Design CurriculumBefore I began a career in academia as a professor of (electrical) engineering, I worked inindustry for nearly 20 years. A major part of my career was in the military performing duties asan avionics maintenance technician, a flight crewmember in remote operations in Alaska, anavionics systems engineer for the F-16 aircraft, and researcher for guidance and controls systemsin an avionics laboratory. Once in front of the classroom, it did not take long before I noticedthat my senior students had a good grasp of the individual subjects (circuits, digital electronics,microprocessors, mathematics, physics, etc.), but they lacked a solid understanding of how