Writing through the Writing Studio ModelAbstractThis paper presents the results of a pilot collaboration between the University Writing Centerand a senior-level Electrical Engineering course. To address the growing need forengineering students to improve their written communications skills, the professor added aresearch project to their class. Students then participated in a required writing studio, awriting group of five to seven students who provide feedback to one another on their writingprocesses throughout the semester. The writing studios are facilitated by the UniversityWriting Center undergraduate peer tutors, some of whom are also engineering students.Research in writing studies show that simply assigning
, Inc., a spin off company commercializing devices to locate intermittent faults on live wires. Dr. Furse is a Fellow of the IEEE. Page 13.832.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 LAB REPORT WRITING (AND TEACHING!) MADE EASYAbstractThis paper reports on a project to improve students’ ability to write better lab reports and assistteaching assistants (TAs) in grading reports in a consistent manner. A lab report teaching systemwas developed that includes lab report templates, teaching assistant instructions, grading rubrics,examples, peer review materials and instructions, and recommendations for quickly
” ofgathering data, conducting experiments etc. and the “rhetorical space” of writing to communicateto an audience of their peers, they create their own knowledge.Students are more likely to see the value of writing when it is tied to the technical content. As Page 12.582.3Pesante says “Learning is most effective when it takes place in context and when it is reinforcedthrough the students’ course of study.”13 In all of the examples in this paper, an engineeringprofessor rather than a writing professor grades the writing. Thus the quality of the writing andthe technical accuracy of the work are inseparable. This adds legitimacy to the claim that writingis
effectively is presented. Several strategies were used like faculty instruction,using rubrics as a guide for assessment, peer reviewing and engaging a student writing fellow toassist students in this process. The effectiveness of these strategies was verified using multiplestatistical assessment methods and the students’ performance before and after the interventionwas compared with emphasis on the writing-to-learn process. Qualitative data is also presentedto assess the benefit of the intervention for students learning the course content.IntroductionIn general, students’ performance increases with their engagement in the learning process1. Aspart of the engineering curriculum, the engineering students start building their analytical andproblem
. Plans are assessed by peer student teams, by the Page 11.777.7professors involved, and by the TCO. Students are graded on the quality of their assessment, notthe identified business potential of the product they are assessing. Some of the plans recommendentrepreneurship, others licensing, and still others indicate that there is not a good business casefor the product. Use of peer evaluation of the business plans means that all students will havehad opportunity to see details of products in all of these categories.Writing and Speaking Initiative8,9The writing and speaking initiative in this project is administered through the Center forEngineering
Engineering Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085 While no single pedagogy may work best all of the time when instructing students, we seek to create an exciting and dynamic learning environment to motivate students to become erudite self-learners in our rapidly changing world. Active and peer-to-peer learning strategies were employed both inside and outside of the lab environment in a two-course electronics sequence at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Villanova University. This flipped-lab approach was employed in an attempt to determine if this approach would (1) provide opportunities for faculty to challenge the students to perform more complex electronic circuit designs (2) foster more
presented the need for an implemented hardware variant of securealgorithms with small footprint to help add protection while reducing processing time/overheadon a standard processor.In this work we present two hands-on projects that are designed specifically to teach these twoconcepts using project-based learning techniques in an innovative cooperative learningenvironment. The learning environment served to combine both student-peer learning and jigsawstrategies.The technical contents of the first project teach students the process and methodologies ofdesigning and testing the hardware implementation of a block cipher encryption, the AdvancedEncryption Standard, on a field-programmable gate array. The second project builds on the firstby
Page 22.1404.9assignments within electronics laboratory courses,2 this work compares the effectiveness ofhaving students complete just one sustainability analysis writing assignment during anelectronics lecture course. This work has presented sustainability analysis learning objectives,information resources to help students achieve the learning objectives, assignment mechanics,tools to facilitate assignment peer review, and assessment results. Direct assessment resultsimply the single writing assignment in the lecture class produces similar learning to weeklywriting assignments in lab, though requiring less instructor time. Students completing both thelecture and lab sustainability analyses produce higher average assessment scores, but the
students to finish in one semester. To solve the problem of slow start with poorplanning, the project is divided into six tasks; the first two are to initiate students individuallyinto the project, as teams are to be formed only during the fourth week of semester. Theremaining tasks are for when teams are formed. It is expected that by the time the teams areformed, each student is already familiar with the project and this is shown via continuous onlinediscussions as well as written reports. Students who contribute more towards the project,evidenced by online discussions as well as CATME student peer evaluation results, are givenbonus marks. It is anticipated that this framework can change the high achievers’ perception ofteamwork; in normal
Figure 4: Overview of the Double-Blind Peer Review Process.single paragraph regarding at least five technical points that they learned through completing thecapstone report.3.3 Double-Blind Peer Review Process In order to implement a double-blind peer review process, we implement an LMS quiz. In order toincrease the effectiveness and learning aspect of the double-blind peer review process, GTA and facultyinstructor review the final capstone report submissions. Furthermore, GTA and faculty instructor selectthe top 10 high quality capstone paper submissions according to certain criteria, such as formatting ofthe capstone report, quality of writing, quality of figures, and quality of the analysis provided. Afterreviewing the capstone report
” both mimic engineering practice andfollow the cognitive apprentice model. Scaffolding is provided by the instructor through thestandardized report format and rubric with direct feedback on performance to students. Page 12.93.5As well as a team report, each student submits a one page statement outlining their experienceson the project and completes a peer evaluation of their teammates. Students rate each teammember’s contribution to the team through a series of qualitative and quantitative questions.While completing the peer evaluation the student is asked to consider the work done by
reflect upon their experiences throughout thesemester. The course met formally once per week. The main purpose of the meetings was tomake the students accountable for keeping up with their research, to discuss the journal articlesthat they were assigned, to provide opportunities for presenting their results, and interacting withtheir peers and the faculty supervisor. The following excerpt from the course syllabussummarizes the expectations for this research course: Laboratory notebook. The student will keep a notebook recording all his/her findings. This will be reviewed periodically by the faculty mentor to ensure that the essential data is properly recorded and organized so that it can be used to write the final report and poster
assess certainperformance indicators, leading to results that were not as meaningful as they should have been.Consequently, the course instructors made some relatively simple changes to course assignmentsto ensure that students provide evidence of achievement of each of the desired performanceindicators. This serves both to facilitate assessment and to emphasize to the students what theyare expected to know and be able to do. The following sections describe how this has been donein ELEC 3040/3050.IV. Course assignments and assessmentIn the past few years, Auburn University has emphasized writing across the curriculum. Eachprogram in the university has been required to submit a plan for writing within the majorcourses, with students expected to
model of a street intersection with working LED traffic lights and crosswalk switches, allunder real-time MATLAB program control. The project is divided into a research stage, aconstruction/programming stage, and a final demonstration. At the end of the research period,students write a report describing their work and evaluate their own performance and that of theirteammates using CATME. This information gives both the team and the instructor criticalfeedback on the team’s working dynamics and interaction. Another peer evaluation is done afterthe final demonstration. For long-term planning, each team is expected to define the major goalsand timeline needed to complete their project. From this, they are asked to generate a traditionalGantt chart
). The tenth week is devoted to work on projects, typically a filter design using SMDand/or microstrip techniques. Weekly lab activities include: characterization and modeling ofSMD components; using TDR response to determine line properties (2 weeks); examiningreflections using TDR and VNA; designing and testing λ/4 and single-stub matching circuits;two-port measurements on VNA; deembedding of fixtures. During the 9th week students areasked to watch a webcast on a technical topic and write a summary. During the term studentsalso work on two simulation assignments which utilize Agilent ADS software.The second quarter deals primarily with active circuits, including: passive power combiners;active devices, gain, and stability; design for gain and
useful experience for learning what it’s like to work in a team. Completing the project, seeing it work, and seeing everyone’s part come together, was actually quite satisfying, and I very much enjoyed the moment where I realized I was proud of what we’d finished.” However, not all the comments were positive. Some students felt they were overworked; some mentioned they didn’t like the peer pressure; one thought the C3/C4 linkage was not consistent with the “university stand-alone class” organization.• Was the management experience worthwhile? Managers write reports on their experience. They detail meeting behavior, how effective their teams were in meeting deadlines, as well as documenting problems and how problem students were
the instructor for their design and write several progress reportsthat precede the final report. Expectations for using Trello as a kanban board are also raised, withassessments being tightly focused on weekly progress and individual participation. At themidpoint and the end of the project, students are asked to perform a peer evaluation usingCATME, which provides the instructor and the team members feedback on team dynamics andindividual contributions.The ECE 103 course offers a set of labs that contain a mix of general C programming exercisesand hardware interfacing. Teaching staff are on hand during the lab to provide immediatefeedback and guidance, especially when they introduce the ESP32 microcontroller to students.The ESP32 is a low
such a project, students will beinterviewed by peers and the instructor. All students will participate in a mock interview. Everystudent is responsible for writing at least one chapter of the final document (book).Example:The following project might be one possible choice for the students with Electrical and ComputerEngineering major:Name of the project: Automation of the appliances in a house. This project controls appliancessuch as: Radio, TV, Garage door, Shower, Coffee maker, Microwave, Telephone, Refrigerator, etc.Main Hardware: ZigBee or WiFi, IP gateway, Microcontroller.Main Software: Graphic User Interface (GUI) was written using a high level language (JAVA,C++, C#, VBNET).Every student will select one of the appliances for controlling
in an interactive environment in which mistakesand confusion are encouraged, that in turn leads to a deeper path of learning and increasedstudent motivation.Motivation The final component of Bandura’s (1977) Memory Modelling System is motivation. Tobe able to model, recreate and reproduce knowledge successfully, students need to be motivatedto learn (Hargis, 1999). Emily McIntosh (2017) explores how peer assisted study sessionsengage and motivate students, and leads to improved retention. In addition, the development ofproblem solving and critical thinking skills improved student resilience (McIntosh, 2017). Inrespect to resilience and motivation, Claudia Muller and Caroll Dweck (1998) write that praisingstudents’ intelligence results
developing software that supports cognitive radio reconfiguration, includingapplication of software engineering practices and tools, as well as experience in presentingresearch results to peers, university researchers, and other wireless communications professionalsand end users as part of the program.Following the program, these students transitioned to a role as research collaborators anddevelopers and maintainers of open source research infrastructure. The students‘ continuedcollaboration with each other and their mentor, resulted in availability of the students‘ softwareand documentation as an open source resource for further research and education at the hostinstitution and worldwide. This collaboration is described, as is their participation
courses, andapply knowledge learned in different settings to solve new problems.Faculty members must promote student engagement inside the classroom through a variety ofapproaches, including being attentive to students’ backgrounds and talents, experimenting withengaging pedagogies, providing new students with adequate feedback about their academicperformance, requiring them to take advantage of writing centers, math and science tutorials, andtechnology support centers, as well as encouraging students to learn through peer evaluation,group projects, and study groups [1]. These actions, and many others, can be promoted with thehelp of curricular initiatives, institutional assistance and academic interventions, studentdevelopment initiatives
atmospheric electricity, radio wave propagation, and digital signal processing. He and his students are currently conducting research in both geophysics (e.g., fusion of lightning and satellite data) and computer engineering (e.g., human interface devices and handheld gaming consoles). He has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed publications, including some with DigiPen students.Christopher Theriault, DigiPen Institute of TechnologyProf. Charles Duba, DigiPen Institute of TechnologyDr. Lukas P van Ginneken, Digipen Institute of Technology Lukas van Ginneken is a professor of computer engineering at Digipen Institute of Technology. His interests are digital logic, field programmable gate arrays, computer architecture, hardware
electrical andcomputer engineering (ECE) department. The first, ECE 102, requires the student to solveengineering problems using MATLAB. The follow-on course introduces the C language. Tomake programming less abstract and to establish a real-life connection, we use MATLAB forinterfacing with a data acquisition device called LabJack. Students use MATLAB’s integrateddevelopment environment to write scripts that control the LabJack.This environment has enabled students to participate in some interesting hands-on projects thatcombine problem-solving, programming, and interfacing. Early on, student participation in theECE 102 course consisted of attending lectures, three laboratory exercises related to LabJack andMATLAB interfacing, and participation in
single student or group of students. Rather, UnLectures are based onpromoting reflective learning through peer instruction. Studies have shown that reflection of Page 24.1300.2students’ own or others’ experiences results in development of new perspectives or clarificationof concepts and techniques8, 9. It is also evident from these studies that reflective learning hassignificant value in professional practice10. Given that our students have integrated cooperativeeducation into their curriculum, UnLectures provide meaningful ways to reflect on lessons fromboth engineering practice and classroom education.Development of UnLectureThe UnLecture
the program in general and of each team’s progress, severalfactors were determined to be significant. The presence of a strong peer role model andan active industry mentor influenced the level of involvement of each team member andthe progress each team made toward achieving their project goals.Introduction This paper describes a program in the Electrical and Computer Engineering(ECE) Department at Texas Tech University that provides research and designopportunities for freshmen and pre-freshmen engineering students. The goal of theprogram was to increase recruitment and retention of students in ECE by exposing themto engineering through paid internships that focused on projects with social or communitysignificance. The program was
as building blocks.Portable USB storage devices are becoming faster and holding larger quantities of data (for ourprototype, we used an eight gigabyte Corsair Flash Voyager GT). Copy-on-write (COW) imagesprovide a mechanism for efficiently storing file systems that are very similar (see Figure 2.) Weinstantiate multiple virtual machines using the same base image, with any changes to each virtualmachine’s file system being stored to a separate file. Copy-on-write semantics can beimplemented either within the virtualization system or within the host operating system’sfilesystem. Our implementation utilizes virtual disk-image COW facilities provided by VMWare.With this, students are free to perform experiments using most computers that support
. Table 1. Sample of initial questionnaire translated in English1) I know how to turn on / shut down a computer2) I know the basic parts of a computer (screen, mouse, keyboard, tower)3) Page 22.1521.34) I know how to browse on the InternetWhich key do I have to use to make my keyboard write in capitals? Chose the correct answer Α. Β. Γ.Match the text with the icon Close window Minimize window Maximize windowThere is a computer at homeThere is Internet connection at homeTable 2. Sample of the questionnaire given to
understanding of DC motor control and how to work with them (power, speed, torque, and tradeoffs using gearing) • Describe the many subdisciplines of ECE • Design autonomous robots that respond to sensor inputs and use motors/actuators to accomplish simple tasks • Assess the factors affecting the reliability and repeatability of the programmed tasks (How consistently does it work? How well does it work? Why?) • Work in teams, including: o Fair delegation of tasks o Communicate with peers (i.e., other team members) o Assess the performance of team members o Create a realistic time-line for a design project and stick to it or assess why it didn’t work o
“green screen”; developing a threestep iterative process for videos based on story boards; and changing how concepts wereidentified. In the first year students selected from a list of relevant concepts, in the second yearconcepts were represented mathematically. During both years the videos were scored usingrubrics on both accuracy of conceptual understanding and production values, and were also peer-evaluated. Comparisons of video scores to performance on standard exams and the results ofconcept inventories are presented. We also reflect on the value of videos for self-explanationand for engaging with conceptually difficult material. Example student videos will be used toillustrate both correct and incorrect conceptual explanations.Introduction
1 3. Initialization of the Motes and working of the sensors 1-2 4. Combining the sensors with MATLAB for Simulation 1 5. Simulation of the whole system 1 6. Application based Real-time launching of the sensors 1-2 7. Taking real life examples for the operation of the ring sensors over 1-2 increased distances 8. Implementing the sensors for other medical applications 1 (like Arthritis, Kidney Diagnosis) 9. Writing the report for the entire experiment 1-2 10. Reviewing and editing the final report