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

/internship workplace. o Traditional classroom. o Classroom laboratory. o Classroom capstone design. o Extracurricular activities (engineering profession related). o Extracurricular activities (non-engineering profession related).The engineering workplace ranked the highest as the best setting to develop and demonstrate thecompetencies, followed by cooperative education/internships. The traditional classroom settingconsistently ranked last. According to the constituents, engineering students spend the majorityof their academic experiences in the classroom, the least likely place to develop the skills,attitudes and behaviors necessary to be successful engineers.Very few of the studies reviewed focused on engineering

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

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