for Engineering Education, 2015 How Do You Like Your Course - Blended or Flipped?: A Preliminary Comparison Renee M. Clark, Autar Kaw, Mary Besterfield-Sacre, and Andrew Scott rmclark@pitt.edu, kaw@usf.edu, mbsacre@pitt.edu, andrew.scott@aamu.eduIndex Terms – Flipped classroom, Blended instruction, Numerical Methods, MechanicalEngineering.1. Introduction and Literature ReviewThe traditional lecture is not highly effective in engaging students and supporting them inpracticing the higher order thinking skills, such as critical analysis. When topics are complex,students require more in-depth engagement activities to fully construct an understanding of thetopic [1]. Blended learning has emerged in
with the posttest) actually show learning gains and not only retention as afunction of the retention interval.1 IntroductionThe purpose of instruction in engineering is to help prepare students for subsequent courses andfuture jobs. It might be an obvious statement, that the knowledge gained in engineering coursesis meant to be retained, but is it really? While there is a large body of research that focuses onteaching effectiveness by measuring how much knowledge was gained during instruction, thequestion of how much of this knowledge is actually retained in the years following completion ofthe course is less frequently addressed, although it is equally important.In this paper, we investigate the long-term retention of conceptual
the projects for a campus galleryspace.The flow of the course follows the diagram of Figure 1. The first course begins with four weeksof group lectures that focus on systems engineering topics and preparation for their early writtenassignments. Later in the first course, meeting times alternate between individual team meetingswith their advisor and large-group student presentations. The second course consists largely ofteam meetings and presentations, with three professional topics interspersed.Each team also has a customer who guides the formation of the system design requirements.Typically the customer gives vague desires, and it is up to the students to produce measurableoutcomes for their requirements. Customers are typically about half
studentorganizations. I. BackgroundIn 2008 a corrective action plan was implemented at the University of Oklahoma (OU) to reversedrastic declines in ECE undergraduate enrollment.1, 2 The ECE enrollment numbers in fall 2008were 246, but by fall 2014 they soared to 440. The research that went into the plan revealed thata freshman engineering course is a critical place to start. The American College TestingProgram performed a detailed study comparing different retention practices at 228 differentaccredited 4-year public colleges. The retention practice reported to have the highest impact wasa “for credit” freshman seminar/university course with 46 out of the 228 colleges listing it as oneof the three practices that has had the greatest impact on student
constructs. In studies with hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students, trainedin leadership courses with the KGI assessment, all of the students were able to develop newskills in out-of-class group settings over a three-month period.2The conceptual design of the KGI assessment can be simply illustrated in the ‘KGI Diamond’,which shows the interrelationship of the key factors for positive team experiences and outcomes.When it is combined with the MBTI assessment, one can look at the personality preferences thatare associated with specific group behaviors, as will be seen shortly. Page 26.1598.4Figure 1. The KGI Diamond for Group Behavior2The
, whethergeneral or more specific, in terms of ecological impacts. Socially-oriented definitions ofsustainability were few and far between. Few of Burian’s10 civil engineering seniors (19%) andgraduate students (50%) could identify the Triple Bottom line, defined by John Elkington11 as anaccounting framework to consider social, environmental, and economic “pillars” of sustainabilityfor project planning. The Brundtland Report similarly bases true sustainability on threedimensions; eco-, techno- and socio-centric dimensions.1 Other studies show that engineering Page 26.118.4students struggle to consider ethics at a society-level. Referencing the frequent use
to a prescribed and emergentapproach (Table 1). For prescribed outcomes, the change agent knows upon initiating achange process what kind of behavior or mental states in individuals or groups areexpected and sought, driven by the assumption that the change agent has the keyknowledge needed to define the outcomes. For emergent outcomes, the end state, interms of behaviors or mental states, is determined as part of the change process, with theassumption that those involved in the change have important information needed todefine the outcomes7. When the individual is the focus of the change, the changestrategy seeks to directly impact their beliefs and behaviors, assuming that they act of
structure, generated details on several program experiences,identified evaluation mechanisms, and sought external funding. In fall 2014, we accepted ourfirst cohort of students. We, herein, describe our work in developing and implementing thechallenge-inspired model: the Cancer Scholars Program (CSP), http://cancer.illinois.edu/csp/.Program StructureThe CSP is organized to engage participants from first semester on campus through graduation.Each year, a cohort of freshmen students will be selected to participate in the program; selectionis based on (1) admittance to bioengineering, (2) ACT score, and (3) interest in researchindicated on admission’s essay. The cohort will progress through the program as shown in Figure1. In the first semester
Registrar at Stanford University. She is also a member of the research team in the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter). Helen earned her undergraduate degree from UCLA and her PhD in Communication with a minor in Psychology from Stanford University in 1998. Her current research interests include: 1) engineering and entrepreneurship education; 2) the pedagogy of ePortfolios and reflective practice in higher education; and 3) reimagining the traditional academic transcript.Dr. Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University Sheri D. Sheppard, Ph.D., P.E., is professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Besides teaching both undergraduate and graduate design and education related classes at
expressed are those of theauthors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science FoundationReferences[1] Shah, J. Y., & Gardner, W. L. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of motivation science. New York, NY: Guilford Press.[2] Chen, G., Gully, S. M., Whiteman, J. A., & Kilcullen, R. N. (2000). Examination of relationships among trait- like individual differences, state-like individual differences, and learning performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(6), 835-847.[3] Mowrer, O. H. (1939). A stimulus-response analysis of anxiety and its role as a reinforcing agent. Psychological Review, 46(6), 553-565.[4] Pintrich, P. R. (1999). The role of motivation in promoting and sustaining self-regulated learning. International
growing job markets in the world. Despite this increase in jobs, however, only 16% ofhigh school students are proficient in mathematics and interested in pursuing STEM careers.1 Ifthis trend continues, the National Math and Science Initiative estimates that by 2018, the US maybe short up to three million high-skilled workers.2One example of a rapidly growing STEM field is cybersecurity. As more and more sensitiveinformation is stored in online databases, ensuring the security of this information is ofparamount importance. In fact, protecting credit card numbers, private communications, andother personal data has been named one of the National Academy of Engineering’s 14Engineering Grand Challenges.3 While the vast majority of high school students
system, and determine their relation with studentperformance. The number of times the material was accessed and the time durationspent on assessments are some of the examples of the data that were included in thestudy. The results show that there is a correlation between students’ use ofBlackboard and student performance. We found a significant statistical differencebetween course grades of the face-to-face and distance learning sections. We didnot find any evidence for significant difference across a range of demographicfactors.1. IntroductionOver the years, as the available technologies and student demographics [6] havechanged, higher education institutions have begun offering more and more distanceeducation (DE) classes to their students
energy producers from wind. However,current level of efficiencies of small-scale wind turbines have limited the use of wind turbines asthey are not economically feasible. Polar vortex in 20131 proved that wind turbines can becomecost beneficial during unexpected energy demands. Additionally, rise in wind energy productionthroughout the United States made USA as the world leader in wind power production 1.However, many turbines do not always operate at their maximum efficiency. This could be dueto a number of factors including the wind turbine blade design. In previous studies researcherswere able to increase wind power output by 40-60% 4 by designing a shrouding system that couldamplify incoming wind velocity. The Equation below shows that
correct and expand the technical content.Industry professionals were identified with experience that spanned the topics of the Engaged inThermodynamics material. Secondly, the paper will discuss the current year’s activity ofexploring innovative and creative uses of the Engaged in Thermodynamics material.Engineering educators are being recruited to create case studies of how the material can be usedwith different pedagogical approaches. Examples of possible case studies will be presented inthe paper; such as flipped classroom use and problem based learning.I. History of the ProjectThe Engaged in Thermodynamics project was originally supported in 2005 by a NSF-CCLIPhase 1 grant with the purpose of improving student engagement in thermodynamics and
interviewing a broader base of students (around 20-30) andapplying a more deductive strategy to analyzing common themes, based on the inductivefindings of the first two studies.Summary of FindingsThe first phase of the investigation has produced robust and nuanced understanding of students’engineering identity trajectories throughout and beyond the curriculum. Detailed descriptions ofthese themes may be found elsewhere1. Specifically, the following 7 psychological themes werefound for male participants in the first study: 1) Becoming more of an engineer: Feeling the responsibility and credibility that comes with identifying as an engineer. 2) Questioning the engineering-self: Contending with increased levels insecurity about competence
Society for Engineering Education, 2015 Optimizing Student Team Skill Development using Evidence-Based StrategiesIntroductionDetermining when and how students learn team skills, and why some students fail to do so,requires complex experimental research and documentation of individual student outcomes. Thisresearch requires large numbers of teams and multi-level analysis and is not easy to do, yetrecent research shows promise. A recent study showed that students who used a consistent on-line peer evaluation system (a proprietary system at a Canadian university) had higher peerratings on a subsequent team than students with similar team experiences who had not used thepeer evaluation system.1
Development using Evidence-Based StrategiesIntroductionDetermining when and how students learn team skills, and why some students fail to do so,requires complex experimental research and documentation of individual student outcomes. Thisresearch requires large numbers of teams and multi-level analysis and is not easy to do, yetrecent research shows promise. A recent study showed that students who used a consistent on-line peer evaluation system (a proprietary system at a Canadian university) had higher peerratings on a subsequent team than students with similar team experiences who had not used thepeer evaluation system.1 Another study showed that peer evaluations made students aware ofhow their peers perceive
first-semester course which has three mainobjectives: (1) to prepare students for the rigor of future engineering classes; (2) to providestudents with a solid foundation of basic engineering skills; and (3) to introduce students to thedifferent engineering majors available at Clemson and possible career options. In Fall 2014, theGE program enrolled 1215 new freshman and 177 new transfer students1.Promoting problem solving development in first year engineering courses is critical to ensuringstudents’ transition successfully into upper-division courses and ultimately to a practicingengineer2. Innovative approaches to teaching problem solving skills have the potential ofappealing to a broader range of students in engineering3. “Traditional
materials, and how materialsrespond to loads. A typical textbook and course that teaches solid mechanics presents insequence a variety of loading conditions, including the calculation of stresses associated withthose loading conditions. For example, Beer et al.1 presents pure shear, axial loading, torsionshear, and bending in that order. Problems and examples are presented within each chapter.This means that, as students are learning the appropriate equations for calculating stress, they donot need to consider what type of load is being applied. If they are learning about torsion shear,it is given that the load is a torsion load, and that they will use the equation 𝑇𝑐
be reflected in the different types of resourcesprevalent within these “worlds.” The research described in this paper aims to deepen insight ofengineering concept representation, description, and usage in academia and practice (i.e. theworkplace).Two specific issues guided the use of roundabout design as the medium for analyzing conceptuse, representation, and description: 1) roundabouts are specific transportation design facilities emerging in use and design within the United States, and 2) the design of roundabouts served as the larger context for an ongoing case study exploring concept use, representation, and interpretation in engineering activity and interactions.The application of roundabouts as a
because of safetyissues, expenses, and lack of qualified teaching assistants. This paper presents the planning anddevelopment of a web-based application that can simulate a virtual laboratory for electricmachines. This Virtual Power Laboratory 1 (VPL) is developed on a universal web-basedplatform that can be accessed anywhere by most mobile devices and modern computers. As aproof of concept, nine virtual experiments have been developed for DC motors and generators.Machine concepts are summarized using text, 2D and 3D graphics as well as multimediaanimation. The animated graphical user interface (GUI) plays an important role as it enablesstudents to review and retain basic concepts by building a bridge from the virtual environment tothe real
the next version of the tool.1 IntroductionIt seems a contradiction in terms. How can conflict even coexist with cooperation, let alone be thedriver of cooperative learning? Piaget’s classic work 1 on children’s learning provides the answer. Itshows that cognitive conflict arising from differences between different learners’ understanding ofimportant concepts, and the exploration and possible resolution of these differences by having thelearners engage in critical discussion with each other, can be a powerful force in driving students’learning and in helping them develop deep understanding. The key question that our work tries toaddress is, can we develop an approach based on the idea of cognitive conflict driving cooperativelearning
scholarship recipients (15%) have not transferred or graduated from Page 26.793.3CCBC and are not taking classes in Spring 2015.IntroductionThe need for college graduates with technology degrees, particularly in Information Technology(IT), Networking Technology (including Information Systems Security) (NT), EngineeringTechnology (ET) and Multimedia Technology (MMT) continues to grow. According to TheGeorgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, STEM will be one of the fastestgrowing occupations through 2020 with a 26% increase in employment in each category,creating 2.6 million job vacancies over the decade.1 The largest increases are
, [and] collaborative learning.”1 Faculty at FloridaGulf Coast University (FGCU) set out to improve their gateway course to the engineeringcurriculum, a one-credit hour course common across three of the four programs within the U. A.Whitaker College of Engineering, being mindful not only of including identified high impacteducational practices, but also incorporating the University’s upcoming 5-year QualityEnhancement Plan (QEP), which focuses on “improving student learning in relation to Writing,Critical Thinking, and Information Literacy.”b The result of these efforts is a course with anemphasis on the development of information literacy, teamwork, and communication skills,focusing on engineering innovations related to the Grand Challenges
, andthe context of professional practice and design. Driven perhaps more directly by local stakeholders in the program, the new direction inherently aligned with the national vision expressedby ASCE in early draft versions of ASCE’s Body of Knowledge 11 (BOK1) and ASCE’s Policy4652. Although developed independently of BOK 1 and its second edition (BOK 2)3, theimplementation of the curricular changes and improvements tracked closely to that of the ASCEvision. (To avoid unnecessary delineation between BOK 1 and BOK 2, this paper refershereafter to them collectively as the BOK, being more specific only as needed.)Table 1 illustrates how a three course sequence in the CvEEN program contributes towardsBOK-related outcomes. This paper is predominantly
HW and LON-CAPA HW problems in the soil mechanics and siteengineering courses allowed for some comparisons of the characteristics of both methods.Figure 1 is the student view of a LON-CAPA problem that integrates graphical content withinthe problem statement. Note that every student would have somewhat different numbers andgraphics. In this instance, a numerical solution is submitted, and the computer would grade theproblem correct or incorrect based on the submitted answer falling within an error bound set bythe problem’s author. For example, the coefficient of uniformity in Figure 1, the value of whichis approximately 7.29, would be graded correct for any entry between 6.93 and 7.65, an errorbound of + 5%.To address the concerns of
study, the workshop content was designed to assist participants in accomplishing theABET student Outcome E of the DCS course17,18 which is expressed as: Implement a digitalcontroller using a digital computer and software. According to the OBE framework13, thecontent of each workshop was designed in four stages: (1) Desired Outcomes, (2) CurricularPriorities, and (3) Learning Objectives. The first two stages, provided a baseline to determine theexpected student outcomes and define student’s Learning Objectives that must be accomplished.Desired Outcomes: Outcomes were established Following Streveler’s OBE methodology13. Theinstructor identified the main requirements for the workshops according to the laboratoryexperiments characteristics and the
Engi- neering at Georgia Tech. Page 26.101.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2015 A Review of University Maker SpacesIntroductionAs society continues to progress in a globalized world, the necessity for more and betterengineers is increasingly apparent. The engineer of the future needs to be able to harnesscreativity and innovation in order to stay competitive and relevant in an economy with evergrowing needs.1 It is therefore the responsibility of the university to cultivate and grow theseskills in their students. It has been seen, though, that the
. Additionally, the school has mechanics labfeaturing several decommissioned wind turbines for mechanical maintenance exercises as well asindustrial scale hydraulics trainers and welding shop.The prerequisites for the program include WR121 Writing, CAS133 Basic ComputerSkills/Microsoft Office, MTH95 Intermediate Algebra and college level reading.Table 1 shows the course matrix for the current Renewable Energy Technology Program atColumbia Gorge Community College Number Course Name Credits First Year EET 111 Basic Electronics 1: DC Circuit Analysis 5 MEC 121 Mechanical Power 1
evaluating various regulating strategies in context oflearning subjects from multiple STEM courses. The paper reports findings from the work-in-progress of implementation of a proposed framework on faculty’s preparation and perception forintegrating skill development instructions for their students. Current status of students’ learningstrategy use and learning disposition is discussed.1. Introduction According to findings on How People Learn, learners not only have to set the motivation tosustain their learning efforts, but also need to strategically regulate their cognitive activities inorder to effectively acquire knowledge and solve problems. The latter activity refers tometacognition. Self-regulated learning is defined as “the active learning