their instructor (e.g., I sought feedback from my instructor about potential errors inmy objective-statements; α = .87). Feedback-Seeking Peers. A total of 6 items assessed students’ direct feedback-seekingfrom their peers (e.g., I asked other students for suggestions on how I could improve my designcomponents; α = .87). Value of Feedback. A total of 5 items assessed students’ perceptions of the value ofobtaining feedback (e.g., Feedback on my technical writing can help me become a betterprofessional engineer; α = .83). Cost of Feedback. A total of 7 items assessed students’ students’ perceptions of the costof obtaining feedback (e.g., My colleagues would think poorly of me if I asked them for feedbackon my problem statement
empower them to solve these problems [2- 7]. This paper presents the structure, sequence, and requirements of these team-based design projects as they form a spine across required chemical engineering courses. Participants are undergraduate students studying chemical engineering in the Southwest United States. Variety and Sequence of Design Challenges Design Challenges in the first year course (CBE 101: Introduction to Chemical Engineering and Biological Engineering) have involved a blend of student presentations (pitches), research, writing, and lab work framed within three projects of varying scope and application:1. Students complete an entrepreneurship- and research-based project where they pitch
studies and professional practice, little has been done tointegrate IL to engineering curriculum.Research Questions:Does intentional information literacy instruction impact the quality of research produced by first-year students? Does the type of intervention make a difference?To operationalize these questions, the level of synthesis, quality of citations, as well as thewriting conventions were examined. The writing convention would be the primary level of IL inthe instruction. Can students use proper formatting and write a foundational piece of research.The quality and quantity of the citations, as well as their level of relation to the topic shows adeeper level of understanding and implementation of the IL instruction. The synthesis level ofthe
community of practice that embodies professional diversity and excellence and ensures a personal commitment by those selected to participate. • Utilize pre-travel activities to present learning materials, webinars, and required assignments that establish baseline knowledge, foster peer relationships, and build the context for the international experience. This front-end work also helps ensure the best use of valuable time abroad. • Ensure knowledge capture and retention by requiring daily writing exercises while traveling. • Utilize post-travel assignments to support integration of acquired knowledge into participants' professional and instructional practices. Setting personal learning goals prior
Engineering. At LMU, her main research areas are divided along two avenues: (1) numerical simulations of earthquake source physics, which relates to her graduate work, and (2) developing, imple- menting, and assessing the effectiveness of educational interventions that support student persistence in STEM.Ms. Meredith Jane Richter, Loyola Marymount University Meredith Richter is a mechanical engineering undergraduate student at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. She is interested in peer-mentoring research because she is a female engineer striving to change the stigma and demographic makeup of STEM disciplines. She is currently involved in her senior design project, which focuses on using additive manufacturing
andcommunities; (2) peer cohorts, providing social support structure for students and enhancingtheir sense of belonging in engineering and computer science classrooms and beyond; and (3)professional development from faculty who have been trained in difference-education theory, sothat they can support students with varying levels of understanding of the antecedents of collegesuccess. To ensure success of these interventions, the CAPS program places great emphasis ondeveloping culturally responsive advisement methods and training faculty mentors to facilitatecreating a culture of culturally adaptive advising. More details of CAPS interventions can befound in [4].CAPS program is a 5-year project that started fall 2018. The program planned to support
value. Each of the three components are discussed in depth. Successfulstudents using this model have produced peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations,awards, new businesses, and grant funding. To quantify what students are learning, what makessuccessful students, and how this type of learning can be supported, learning objective data from28 students were collected during a semester to explore the different pathways that studentschoose. This work defines the learning objective creation process, explains how it is used forassessment in a cardiovascular engineering course, and suggests how to implement thisassessment strategy in other courses. Example learning objectives from a variety of students arepresented and discussed, as well
. just communicate, just um, have a little bit problem.”Making Experiences of interactions and “In engineering especially, it is soFriends relationships with U.S students. hard to get close with people because you start talking to them and the subject just does not get any deeper.”Working in Academic experiences in “I was in high school we write ourTeams collaborating with U.S. peers in group paper by our own, and when I go here projects
Simulation Trainings. Toanalyze students’ presentation skills improvement through the VR-activity, the authorsconducted peer evaluations for pre and post-activity presentations. Additionally, after the VRactivity, the authors conducted an exit survey, obtaining the students’ perception of theactivity. The data obtained from the different surveys and evaluations allowed the authors to(1) develop an ordered probit regression model to understand the influence of several factorssuch as academic level, gender, first-generation and international status; (2) identify themajor deficiencies in CM students' communication and presentation skills; and (3) assess theeffects of VR-based presentation simulations on CM students’ presentation skills. The
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
to consider when solving a design challenge? Planning Groups sketch and discuss initial ideas, begin fabricating initial design, but do not test. Day 8: How do we know if our design works? How can we use failures to improve our designs? Building & Groups build and test their designs. Nearly all the initial designs fail the test; groups testing iterate and continue testing, trying to improve their designs. Day 9: How can we improve our designs by generating and receiving peer feedback? Peer Groups self-evaluate their own design and design process, then pair up with other groups review to offer feedback, help troubleshoot, and brainstorm solutions to common issues. Day 10: What can
Engineering Education, 2020 Student Success Impacts in Communication and Professional Networking ContextsStudent-driven success in professional networking contexts is qualitatively surveyed andassessed in an engineering-specific technical writing and communications (TWC) course at TheCitadel – The Military College of South Carolina. This TWC course was designed in part toprovide pre-internship preparation for engineering students. Data captured from severalsemesters indicates a positive trend of industry partners’ selection of TWC students forinternships and employment. This data is corroborated by student- led surveying of peers whoidentify important connections between TWC course content and professional
skills such as working in teams, writing,programming, applying physics to solve interdisciplinary problems, designing and developingproducts, managing complex projects, and working with clients. This is an important factorconsidering approximately 95% of physics graduates go on to careers in the private sector orgovernment labs, yet most undergraduate physics programs prepare students primarily foracademic careers. In fact, a survey of 1,407 mid-career physics PhD recipients found that theyfrequently attributed career success to their skills and abilities outside of physics (e.g.,interpersonal, problem solving, computing, and analysis skills). Conversely, some of the mostfrequently mentioned career barriers among 1,321 respondents included lack
, curriculum, student experience, faculty,learning resources and administrative support. A two-day long site visit was conducted by apanel of two external and two internal peer reviewers. This paper presents planning, preparationand lessons learned from this recent academic review of the program. Some of the highlightedlessons learned are plan early, develop and implement a continuous improvement plan, securefaculty and administrative support to drive success in a graduate program.IntroductionAccreditation is an integral part of most undergraduate Engineering Technology (ET) programsin the USA. Accreditation bodies like ABET ensure that a program meets the quality standardsthat produce graduates prepared to enter a global workforce (ABET, 2019
as availability of instructional resources to support this initiative.The course involves a 10-week project, along with weekly engagement and reflection activitiesthat are designed to promote critical thinking and collaboration. Students were required toparticipate in a moderated discussion forum at least twice every week.• Discussion Forum: Each student was required to initiate a new topic of discussion (initiation thread) related to the overall theme of the week as well as engage in a discussion with posts from one or more peers (engagement thread). Both initiation and engagement threads were meant to allow for weekly reflection among students and low-stakes assessment by course facilitators. Measures such as number of posts
studio class environment (Koretsky etal., 2018). The LA Program utilizes the three core elements suggested by the Learning AssistantAlliance (Otero, Pollock, & Finklestein, 2010). First, LAs receive pedagogical development in aformal class with their peers in their first term as an LA. Second, LAs meet weekly with theinstructor and the graduate teaching assistants as a member of the instructional team to preparefor active learning in class. Third, LAs facilitate active learning in the class in which they areassigned. Each week in the pedagogy class LAs are posed a specific prompt that connects tospecific reading and asks them to reflect on their learning and practice in writing. This process isintended to help them connect the three program
lab reports associated with other classes. One goal of capstone isto prepare engineering students for the workplace. An area of improvement in our program wasthe mentorship experience that many new graduates will encounter when employed. As a result,five semesters ago the Electrical Engineering program at Texas State University implemented amentorship model in which second semester capstone students were assigned to mentor firstsemester capstone students. It was felt that first semester students might gain valuable insightand direction since they were speaking with peers who possess a student perspective and who arespeaking the same language. Anecdotal evidence suggested that the mentorship model wasworking and as a result the other two
successfully meet academic standards, and become active and independent learners. Learning strategists can help students manage the physiological arousal (e.g., stress) that is common during the first year, as well as be an important source of positive social persuasions.3. Peer-Mentoring Program: As freshmen, students are assigned a mentor to help them navigate college. Interactions with mentors serve as vicarious experiences for underclassmen, although mentors may also provide positive social persuasions and advice for managing physiological arousal.Table 1. Alignment of student support services with S-STEM objectives (blue activities are prior,successful ExCEL initiatives, while green activities are newly-included for the current
: Engineering, Arts and SciencesNumber of students: 16 students, 5 yearsInitiatives: 1. Two, one-credit courses 2. Peer mentoring of seniors to freshmenResults: 1. Beneficial to the retention of the freshmen 2. New study habits and the importance of time management 3. Experience in research, report writing, and poster presentations were also found to be very beneficial to the freshmen 4) NSF S-STEM Scholarship [20] University: University of Maryland Baltimore County Discipline: Mechanical engineering Number of students: 45 students, 5 years Initiatives: 1. Proactive recruitment 2. Selected high impact practices such as orientation, one-to one faculty mentoring, peer
accepted solutions and anticipating new directions for researchPrior to the Fall 2019 revision, students were encouraged to select a topic from a list of ~10topics chosen by Engineering and Writing Arts instructors each semester. Other instructorsallowed students to choose their own topic subject to instructor approval. The crucialrequirement was that the topic be rooted in technology, but also be topical and relevant tosocietal considerations, such that it was well represented in both peer-reviewed technicalliterature and the popular press. Examples of topics used prior to 2019 include self-drivingvehicles, smart grid, asteroid mining and wearable sensors.Once students had chosen a topic, for the rhetorical analysis, they located and
, and were required to demonstrate proper technical citation using the IEEE citation style. For most students, this was their first experience with technical writing. They quickly realized that it was different from the writing they had done before in high school English, history, and other non-technical courses. Furthermore, they went through a writing revision process in which their paper went through three iterations of review: self, peer, and instructor review. All reviews were done prior to the final grading of the paper [7]. • Individual Oral Presentation: The second project, early in the semester, was an individual oral presentation (IOP) of the ITW paper. This project’s objective was to
)? (3) How did you engage with course materials outside of the class period? (4) Did you communicate your learnings to someone not in the class? Did you relate your learnings to any current events? (5) What did you learn about how you learn (or how you could learn) more effectively?A simple 3-point grading rubric to evaluate the weekly writing reflections was established at thebeginning of the semester with input from the class. The agreed-upon rubric is shown in Table 3.This regular assignment prompted students to discuss course topics and how they relate tocurrent events with their peers, as well as regularly assess their own engagement in the course.The simple grading approach allowed students to feel comfortable being candid in
experimentationskills such as data acquisition and uncertainty analysis. In this class, students also write a singledetailed lab report on an experiment that undergoes an two-stage peer review process.. Both ofthe first two labs include a small group project that challenges students teams creativity to design,execute, and communicate their own experiments. For the final course, Mechanical EngineeringLab, students work in teams throughout the semester to design, execute, and write a full report onmore complex experiments.The new experiential lab sequence began in Spring 2019 with the first offering of the MechanicsLab. The succeeding sections of the paper specifically discuss the design of this course, highlight-ing a few specific modules and how they align
alternative method enables students to form their ownteams in a dynamic faculty-guided setting: Students place nametags on their top project posters,speak with other interested students, and move their nametags as needed until each project hadteams with the appropriate size and skillset.Teams formed using these two approaches have completed a full year-long senior design projectexperience. Throughout these experiences, we collected data to help answer our two keyquestions. We used student surveys about the experience and the class, peer feedback on teamdynamics, focus group discussions, and faculty observations. The results are inconclusive: Thedifferences between the two approaches are small, indicating that either approach could be usedto enable
the 21st centuryto develop [7], [8] so they may become more curious, self-directed problem-solvers and thinkers.In an effort to democratize access to this fundamental skill, most resources on the QFT are madeavailable for free to download online.1.1. Elements of the Question Formulation TechniqueThe QFT is comprised of a few essential elements. As a part of the first element, learners are firstpresented a Question Focus (QFocus), which serves as a prompt to elicit questions. Then,learners formulate their own questions on the prompt while following four rules for formulatingquestions: • Ask as many questions as you can. • Do not stop to judge, discuss, or answer any questions. • Write down every question exactly as stated or
experience while on campus. The aims of the coursewere to (1) help undergraduate students who are interested in research connect with facultypartners who are committed to mentoring undergraduates in research, (2) to guide students inreading through papers that introduce the type of research being carried out in a faculty partnerslab, (3) to guide students in drafting a mini-review of 5 papers relevant to that research, (4) toguide students in identifying and writing up a research proposal which they will complete in thelab of the faculty partner. In the first year, six academic departments out of eight participated inthis new course by offering a cross-listed course for their students under one major course taughtby one of the PIs at the STEM Center
relate to teamwork. Diversity hasbeen identified as important for better problem solving in a team setting, and faculty interventionthroughout a project or course, which leads to a team that values diversity and inclusive behavior[14]. Reading about and reflecting in writing on stereotyping and implicit bias is importantthroughout a student’s career, and can lead to recognition of implicit bias [11]. Equity training isnot only important for students, but professional development for educators is needed torecognize gender stereotype and bias in engineering and such training may lead to more youngwomen and people of color (PoC) being encouraged to pursue an engineering career [15].MethodsStudent growth and evolution was tracked via two methods
resources, such as the mentee/mentor ratio, total yearsof the undergraduate program and the local culture are some of the factors that govern the effectivenessof mentoring.Key words: role model, peer mentoring, academic counseling, sponsor, international students.IntroductionThe dictionary definition of the word ‘mentor’ is “an experienced and prudent advisor”, stemming fromthe Greek name Mentor, the advisor of the king Telemachus [1]. Mentoring differs from academiccounselling in many ways. Both the mentor and the mentee need to know each other at a personal level,and thus a stronger bond develops between the two, maintaining a lasting relationship often throughouttheir lifetime. In the ancient epics of India, Krishna became the powerful mentor of
ACCESS leadership team in virtual communicationand how to interact with a professional. Scholars practiced writing emails and learned moreabout the structure of the program during onboarding. Program ambassadors were introduced tocross-age mentoring strategies and engaged with Cultivate ACCESS leadership through weeklyexperiential learning class sessions. One month into the onboarding phase ambassadors werepaired with scholars. Ambassadors completed one face-to-face peer mentoring session withscholars and connected weekly to assist scholars in learning how to navigate virtualcommunication channels.Mentors were recruited and trained during onboarding. The onboarding phase allowed CultivateACCESS leadership the opportunity to learn more about
reflectivepractices, as demonstrated by the curation of artifacts and writing of personal reflections. Webelieve that by allowing students to explore and discover how their competencies are developingthrough their course assignments, they may also discover how classroom learning goals connectto professional learning goals drawn from the ABET quality assurance framework.2) Encouraging peer and instructor assessmentEvaluation of the ePortfolios included peer grading to help build a community of practice [26].This study paper evaluates whether peer grading increases transparency, improves learning,provides more valid and reliable assessment, increases student engagement, and/or increasescoherence in learning outcomes. The study included scaffolded mini projects