Conference Session

Fostering Student Learning

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Snyder, Taylor University; Rachel Tomasik; Bethany Smith, Taylor University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

statistically significant difference between them in intrinsicmotivation (p .05 3: EXPERIENCED1: EVENT GROUP 2: NOVICE GROUP GROUP 4: EXPERT GROUP 1. Intrinsic 1. Intrinsic 1. Intrinsic1. Intrinsic Motivation Motivation* Motivation*** Motivation*** a. a. a. a.Contextualization* Contextualization Contextualization** Contextualization b. Curiosity* b. Curiosity b. Curiosity*** b. Curiosity*** c. Challenge

Conference Session

Assessment Instruments

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie Martin Trenor, Clemson University; Matthew K. Miller, Clemson University; Kyle G. Gipson, Clemson University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

why participants are making theirvarious choices while interacting with the interface, you will need to ask them about it”12 (p.478). Think-aloud processes, where participants are asked to vocalize internally-generatedthoughts as they complete a given task13, fall under a larger umbrella of cognitive techniquesused to gain insight into human thought processes (e.g. verbal probing, interviewing, and focusgroups), often referred to as Verbal Report Methods5. Think-alouds have been described as “theclosest possible way to get to the cognitive processes of [participants]”14 (p. 1). Thus, think-aloud techniques are a useful way to find out why these choices are being made, as theparticipant can take the survey with the researchers present, and the

Conference Session

Educational Research and Methods Potpourri II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James E. Lewis, University of Louisville; Cathy Bays

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) requires all accredited schools todesign and implement a quality enhancement program. In 2007, the University of Louisvillebegan implementation of their multi-year Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Ideas to Action(i2a): Using Critical Thinking to Foster Student Learning and Community Engagement, whichfocuses on improving the critical thinking skills of undergraduate students and more effectivelypreparing them to contribute to society and the workforce.1 The alignment of critical thinkingimprovement with ABET outcomes is also a motivating factor in the school of engineering’sefforts to comply with the university’s QEP.2 The freshman experience course, Introduction toEngineering, is an important

Conference Session

Fostering Student Learning

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gerald Sullivan, Virginia Military Institute; James C. Squire, Virginia Military Institute; George Mercer Brooke IV, Virginia Military Institute,Department of Physics and Astronomy

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

demonstrate mechanicalvibration concepts via its suspension system for a lesson on spring/mass/damper systems. Forthe purposes of examining the effect of a polished demonstration, the body shell of the monstertruck was left in place, hiding much of the frame and power train, but still leaving the springsand shock absorbers of the suspension visible, (Figure 1). The “raw” version of the democonsisted of the monster truck with the body shell removed, making it possible to see thesuspension components and the rest of the internal structure of the monster truck model, (Figure2). A total of 119 students were involved in the study; 62 technical majors such as Engineeringand Physics and 57 students from nontechnical majors such as History and Psychology

Conference Session

Assessing Student Learning

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David J. Therriault, University of Florida; Christine S. Lee, University of Florida; Elliot P. Douglas, University of Florida; Mirka Koro-Ljungberg, University of Florida; Nathan McNeill, University of Florida

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

use of texts and reference materials(Bhaskar & Simon, 1977; Jonassen, Strobel, & Lee, 2006). The purpose of the presentdescriptive and correlational study is to begin to document that behavior by explicitly examiningstudents’ use of text materials when problem solving. Problem solving, whether by students or professionals in the field, often requires multipleskill sets. With this mind, consider the two following engineering problems: (1) A cylindrical rod of single crystal nickel with a radius of 2 cm yields when a tensile force of 17.47 kN is applied along its length. This force is being applied in the [001] direction. Slip occurs on the (111) plane in the [ 01] direction. What is the critical resolved

Conference Session

Research on Engineering Design Education

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carla B. Zoltowski, Purdue University, West Lafayette; William C. Oakes, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Monica E Cardella, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

characteristics: 1. “The central place of human beings” 2. “Understanding people holistically” 3. “Multi-disciplinary collaboration” 4. “Involving users throughout the design process” 5. “Making products or services useful, usable, and desirable” (p. 3)Similarly, Krippendorff4 describes human-centered design methods as those that share thefollowing three features:1. “They are design methods, which entails that they systematically expand spaces of possibilities and then contract them to arguable proposals for artifacts that promise to bring forth desirable futures or prevent undesirable ones from occurring.” (p. 230)2. “They are concerned with how stakeholders attribute meanings. Because meanings are acquired in use, not designed

Conference Session

Fostering Student Learning

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christel Heylen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium; Herman Buelens, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium; Jos Vander Sloten, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

Engineering in August 2010 from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. She is a member of LESEC (Leuven Engineering and Science Education Center).Herman Buelens, K.U.Leuven Herman Buelens is head of the Centre for Educational Development at the University of Leuven (Bel- gium).Jos Vander Sloten, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Page 22.1150.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011 Perceived learning effect and guidance in project based engineering education C. Heylen1, H. Buelens2 and J. Vander Sloten3 1

Conference Session

Learning Outside the Classroom

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brian A. Burt, University of Michigan; Donald D. Carpenter, Lawrence Technological University; Cynthia J. Finelli, University of Michigan; Trevor Scott Harding, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; Janel A. Sutkus, Carnegie Mellon University; Matthew Holsapple, University of Michigan; Robert M. Bielby, University of Michigan; Eunjong Ra, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

curricular experiences and co-curricular experiences). Figure 1. Conceptual Model of a Student’s Ethical Development During CollegeInstitutional culture, shown in the center of the model, influences the experiences a student haswhile attending college. Institutional culture refers to the culture of the engineering school ordepartment within the context of the institution as a whole, both of which influence studentoutcomes.1, 12. Institutional culture is parsed into two constructs: organizational context and thepeer environment. The organizational context comprises the formal structure of the organization,the informal structure of the organization (i.e. the balance in priority between teaching andresearch, and faculty composition), and academic

Conference Session

Persistence and Retention I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Marisa K. Orr, Purdue University; Nichole M. Ramirez, Purdue University; Matthew W. Ohland, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

third semester. As new institutions are added in the future, asimilar protocol can be used to expand this research further. Issues identified in this study willbe used to generate SES models specific to engineering that can begin to inform academicpolicy, as well as the recruiting and advising of students from all strata of socioeconomic status.IntroductionSocioeconomic status (SES) is a growing issue in educational equity, diversity, and policyresearch. Previous work suggests that STEM majors, in addition to having higher measures ofacademic achievement, also come from higher socioeconomic strata 1. The goal of this study isto identify relationships between socioeconomic status indicators and engineering enrollment,persistence, and academic

Conference Session

Persistence and Retention II: Curricular Issues

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Thomas F. Wolff, Michigan State University; Steven M. Cramer, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Barbara A. Masi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

) within 150 percent of the normal time to completion, usually within 6 years.1The NCES model1 does not take into account transfers, those who enter at times other than first-time, full time freshmen, or returning students. Models in the literature on engineering retentionaddress the many patterns of student entry and exit into and out of engineering degree programs.Figure 1 shows the model widely used to quantify engineering retention in publications of thepast decade (Ohland, et. al.2). Complete RETAINED: OR first year Enter as new Enrolled in semester 8 or freshman

Conference Session

Assessing Student Learning

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul M. Santi, Colorado School of Mines

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

Engineering and GeophysicalEngineering (Table 1). All students are tested in the class, but only the geological engineers aretracked for long-term retention testing. Traditionally, this fall semester course has included twonon-cumulative exams (in addition to two late-semester exams on topics not tracked for thisstudy). More recently, the course was modified to include six exams in 2009 and five exams in2010, all of which were cumulative, covering all material already introduced in the course.Consequently, some topics were tested as many as six times, later material tested five times, and Page 22.1168.3so on, with the material at the end of the

Conference Session

Special Session: Moving Towards the Intended, Explicit, and Authentic: Addressing Critical Misalignments in Engineering Learning within Secondary and University Education

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin Anderson, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Sandra Shaw Courter, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Mitchell J. Nathan, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Amy C. Prevost, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Christine G. Nicometo, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Traci M. Nathans-Kelly, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Thomas Dean McGlamery, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Amy K. Atwood, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods, K-12 & Pre-College Engineering, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

and engineeringconcepts and skills. We identified four areas of analysis for each of the three curricula.From the student materials, we analyzed the planning materials, activities andassessments. From the teacher training materials, we looked at what teachers werepresented with at the official summer training institutes (Table 1). Our content analysisfocused on examining the content of the materials. We recorded the number of NCTMmathematics standards specifically connected to the engineering curriculum for each unit(Prevost et al., 2009). Page 22.1318.4 3Table 1: Materials for Analysis

Conference Session

Persistence and Retention I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ida B. Ngambeki, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Demetra Evangelou, Purdue University, West Lafayette; William G. Graziano, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Diana Bairaktarova, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Sara E. Branch, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Anna Woodcock, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

class participated in the survey. Theinitial sample contained 967 engineering students of whom 153 were women (Table 1). For thesecond phase of the study the 298 participants were randomly drawn from the population ofstudents who made up the initial class. Therefore while there is a large overlap in the samples,there are unique students in both sets. However, both samples represent the same population of Page 22.1154.3students four years apart. Table 1: Participant breakdown by group and sex First year Follow up Sex Men Women Men

Conference Session

Assessment Instruments

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Laura L. Pauley, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Jonna M. Kulikowich, Pennsylvania State University; Nell Sedransk, National Institute of Statistical Sciences; Renata S. Engel, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

courses. Astatke etal.1 investigated how a physical understanding of mathematics can be taught to students in a pre-calculus course. Cardella and Atman2 have studied how engineering students use mathematics inan engineering capstone design course. Students in the study used mathematics as a tool, as aproblem solving method, and also as a way to describe physical problems.Spatial-reasoning measures have also received attention in the literature because of the importancein determining academic success in engineering. Devon, Engel, and collegues3,4 determined thatthe students’ ability to rotate and transform geometric objects in three-dimensional space is relatedto graduation and retention patterns in engineering programs. Sorby5 has developed

Conference Session

Understanding Our Students

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Samantha Ruth Brunhaver, Stanford University; Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University; Ozgur Eris, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Ozgur Eris is Associate Professor of Design and Mechanical Engineering at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. His research interests include engineering design theory, design thinking, design informat- ics, and distributed product development. He received a B.S. from the University of Washington, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. He has published on the role of inquiry in design, design knowledge generation and capture, and data mining. He is the author of Effective Inquiry for Engineering Design, Kluwer, 2004. Contact information: Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Olin Way, Needham, MA 02445; tele- phone: (+1) 781.292.2554

Conference Session

Knowing Ourselves: Research on Engineering Education Researchers

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Junaid A. Siddiqui, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Robin S. Adams, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Lorraine N. Fleming, Howard University; Alison A. Dingwall, Howard University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

focus on engineering andengineering technology faculty and graduate students to (1) increase capabilities in conductingrigorous education research and using empirical research results to develop evidence-basedcurriculum, and (2) nurture and sustain a self-supporting virtual community of engineeringeducation scholars.This paper focuses on the short-term impact of one of the workshops that are part of the project.The background section continues with describing the purpose and process of the workshop. Abrief review of literature on the development programs for engineering education research ispresented. A summary of the overall evaluation plan of the project is given which is followed bythe specific evaluation questions considered in this paper

Conference Session

Research on Engineering Design Education

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shanna R. Daly, University of Michigan; James Loren Christian, University of Michigan; Seda Yilmaz, Iowa State University; Colleen M. Seifert, University of Michigan; Richard Gonzalez, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

solution or existing precedents14,15,16. Novice designers often"fixate" on their first ideas3,4,5. This limits exploration of the design space, and reduces theopportunity to consider other alternatives. Novice designers’ attachment to initial ideas meansthat, since most are not successful, they are likely to fail. For many reasons, they do not want to,cannot see the need to, or are not able to consider other possibilities.Existing ToolsDesign experts often use transformations of their naturally-occurring ideas to develop novelsolution concepts10,11,12,13. Thus, a variety of idea generation tools varying in their focus andspecificity have been proposed to help explore design spaces. A sample of these tools includethose that aim to: (1) facilitate

Conference Session

Understanding Our Students

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew Holsapple, Univeristy of Michigan; Janel A. Sutkus, Carnegie Mellon University; Donald D. Carpenter, Lawrence Technological University; Cynthia J. Finelli, University of Michigan; Brian A. Burt, University of Michigan; Eunjong Ra, University of Michigan ; Trevor Scott Harding, California Polytechnic State University; Robert M. Bielby, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

culture can vary widely. Included in those individual experiences arestudents’ individual curricular (including both the classes taken and the type of instruction inthose classes) and co-curricular experience (for example, student organization participation andinternships). Figure 1. Conceptual model of engineering students’ ethical developmentThe model conceives of students’ engineering ethical development comprising three distinctconstructs: knowledge of ethics, ethical reasoning, and ethical behavior. Knowledge of ethicsrefers to a student’s understanding of professional engineering codes of ethics and other rulesgoverning ethical behavior; ethical reasoning refers to a students’ ability to apply reason whenidentifying ethical

Conference Session

They're Not "Soft" Skills!

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan M. Lord, University of San Diego; Candice Stefanou, Bucknell University; Michael J. Prince, Bucknell University; John Chen, California Polytechnic State University; Jonathan D. Stolk, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

, perceived competence, interest, engagement, and academicperformance18,25,26, but the connections between these student perceptions and the instructors’choices in course design and classroom environments remain unclear.MethodsWe are in the midst of a large study investigating how instructor choices affect a range of studentoutcomes related to their development as lifelong learners. This paper focuses on examining thefollowing research questions: 1. In what ways do pedagogical choices made by engineering instructors assist students to develop attitudes and behaviors associated with self-regulated learners? Are there instructor practices and behaviors that lead students to report greater involvement in and ownership of their

Conference Session

Understanding Students and Faculty

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shane A. Brown, Washington State University; Nadia Frye, Washington State University; Devlin B. Montfort, Washington State University; Paul M. Smith, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

. The process of change and re-invention of aninnovation is an interesting phenomenon in adoption research that challenges well-establishedadoption frameworks6.Literature ReviewPrevious Work in Engineering EducationBoth DI and CBAM have been utilized to understand adoption of innovations in engineeringeducation. Borrego, Froyd and Hall did a study using DI to examine adoption of sevenengineering education innovations in universities across the United States1. The research teamsurveyed engineering department heads about their awareness of each of seven innovations usingfour criteria as follows (adapted from Borrego et al.)1: 1. Each innovation needed to be easily distinguished from the others in the study; 2. Previous research had to show

Conference Session

Learning From Experts

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shane A. Brown, Washington State University; Shannon Davis, Washting State University; Chelsea Nicholas, Washington State University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

functionof the driver (e.g. reaction time), the vehicle (e.g. braking ability), and the roadway (e.g.friction and grade). Only slight changes were made to the protocol for use in this study;some questions were reworded to address working engineers instead of students, thoughthe objective of each question remained unchanged.The interview protocol progressed from open-ended questions relating to the engineers’work experience to personalized definitions of geometric terms and ended with designcalculations. The intent of this design was to elicit overall goals and procedures used ingeometric design and specific knowledge about SD and SSD. An example of each type ofquestion is shown in Table 1 below. Open-ended (Work Experience) Tell me about a time

Conference Session

Knowing Ourselves: Research on Engineering Education Researchers

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Xin (Cindy) Chen, Purdue University; Nikitha Sambamurthy, Purdue University; Corey M. Schimpf, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Hanjun Xian, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Krishna Madhavan, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

within the problem space. In this paper, we introduce a newtechnique called weighted social tagging as a research methodology. As opposed to simplefrequency counts to generate word clouds, weighted social tagging allows users to assign relativeweights and corresponding confidence ratings to each of the tags.We demonstrate the application of weighted social tagging on a small-scale dataset of papersfrom the Journal of Engineering Education (JEE) that extend over a period of 5 years from 2005to 2009—a total of 152 papers. We attempt to address the following questions: (1) How effectiveis weighted social tagging compared to frequency counting in identifying trends and coreconcepts? (2) What trends and core topics in JEE from 2005 to 2009 can be

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul G. Flikkema, Northern Arizona University; Kenji Ryan Yamamoto, Northern Arizona University; Carol Haden, Magnolia Consulting, LLC; Jeff Frolik, University of Vermont; Tom Weller, University of South Florida

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

implemented using wirelesscommunication.The course strongly emphasizes experiential content: the laboratory projects account for 80% ofthe final grade. Student teams consisted of at most two students. For all projects, a team’sproject grade is based on both its degree of success in demonstrating achievement of objectivesin the laboratory and a comprehensive written report.To help students equip themselves with the skills to tackle a substantive final project thatinvolves systems thinking, we adopted a progressive learning method, with continualreinforcement and synthesis of skills and tools via the sequence of projects (Table 1). Table 1: Course projects leading up to Final Project. Project

Conference Session

Capstone Design Projects in ECE

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ziqian Liu, State University of New York, Maritime College

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

) (1) dt JLr J d a Rr Rr a b Mia (2) dt Lr Lr d b Rr Rr b a Mib (3) dt Lr Lr dia MRr M

Conference Session

ECE Division Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin P. Pintong, Binghamton University; Douglas H. Summerville, Binghamton University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2011-532: TRANSITIONING A LAB-BASED COURSE TO AN ON-LINE FORMATKevin P Pintong, Binghamton University Kevin Pintong is a first year master’s student and research assistant with interests in online education.Dr. Douglas H. Summerville, State University of New York, Binghamton Page 22.1549.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011Transitioning a lab-based course to an online format Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering State University of New York Binghamton Page 22.1549.2 1

Conference Session

Innovative Instructional Strategies and Curricula in ECE II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie A. Rursch, Iowa State University; Douglas W. Jacobson, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

graduates to fill professional IT positions. TheIT-Adventures program (www.it-adventures.org) is one of the authors' responses to the original"Gathering Storm" challenge to increase the number of students to pursue a degree in a STEM-related.The IT-Adventures program, which is now in its fourth year, is an innovative program dedicatedto increasing interest in and awareness of information technology among high school studentsusing inquiry-based learning focused on three content areas: cyber defense, game designprogramming, and robotics.1 The target audience for this project is high school students,especially those students who previously have not exhibited an interest in studying IT, as well ashigh school teachers, not necessarily information

Conference Session

ABET Accreditation, Assessment, and Program Improvement in ECE

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard W. Kelnhofer, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Stephen M. Williams, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Owe G. Petersen, Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

is often used for reporting customersatisfaction survey data. Finally, the data is accumulated in a manner often done in trying topredict reliability for complex systems when only a limited number of systems are built.Specifically, we utilize a multi-year moving window and aggregate the data.Introduction and PurposeTo ensure quality in ABET accredited engineering programs, each program must have a set ofProgram Educational Objective (PEOs).1 The PEOs broadly define the career and professionalaccomplishments expected during the first several years following graduation.2Common tools used for assessing PEOs include placement data, input from industrial advisoryboards, and alumni and employer surveys.3 Placement data is a quantitative measure

Conference Session

ECE Division Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Miguel Alonso, Jr., Miami Dade College; Sarah Hug, University of Colorado, Boulder; Heather Thiry, University of Colorado, Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

for students/faculty (Google’s development tools are free and run on Windows, Linux, and Mac computers) Using an emulator, as well as a “real” device to develop and test the applicationsCourse competenciesThe following course competencies were developed as a guide to both the students, as well as theinstructor. A detailed version of the competencies will be available online at http://www.cahsi.orgfollowing Spring 2011 term. Lecture modules and activities were developed to introduce and reinforcethese competencies. These modules will also be available on the CAHSI website after Spring 2011. 1. The student will demonstrate the ability to identify key components of mobile computing platforms. 2. The student will

Conference Session

Experiential Learning in ECE

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mihaela Radu, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Clint S. Cole, Digilent, Inc.; Joe Harris, Digilent, Inc.; Mircea Dabacan, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

for The Royal Academy of Engineering, UK (2006) 1, the paceof change in industry is expected to intensify in both the technological and non-technologicaldomains. Certain disciplines, including electrical/electronic and system engineering are seen asparticular likely to be of increasing importance over the next ten years. Looking at particularskills and attributes needed for engineers, there is strong evidence that the top priorities in termsof future skills will be: (a) practical applications, (b) theoretical understanding and (c) creativityand innovation. Page 22.1590.2The same report claims that certain topics are seen by students to be

Conference Session

Distance and Web-based Learning in ECE

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ronald D. Williams P.E., University of Virginia; Joanne Bechta Dugan, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

presentation within the recommended presentation sequence. A second control for presentation pace was provided in the form of a button used to request more details about a topic. Thus, each student could choose to divert from the recommended sequence to learn more about the topic from a “sidebar” related to the topic. Topic 1 – Introduction to Boolean Algebra The first topic implemented in GOAL provides an introduction to Boolean Algebra and is intended to be used at a very early point in the semester. The abstract presentation begins with a definition of a binary variable and three operations: conjunction, disjunction and complementation, presented in a formal Figure 2. Abstract presentation of