learners. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2024 Syllabi Indicators of Learning Community Supports in Civil Engineering ClassroomsAbstractLearning communities in formal educational settings act as support systems for students,facilitating increased motivation, student success, and feelings of belonging. Learningcommunities can be compromised by instructional conditions due to institutional, national, orglobal disruptions, leaving students vulnerable to being disconnected from their peers andinstructors. This study explored the impact of a disruption on instructor facilitation of learningcommunities. The research question was: “How does a disruption impact instructor
result in the narrowing down ofincipient ideas and amorphous possibilities (Flower & Hayes, 1980). Brainstorming andfree writing are popular techniques used in the planning stage, but they are followed bythe breaking down of ideas into components in order to test possible arrangements ofinformation into sections of drafts as an organizational strategy. The analytic processesof peer review give each member of the class access to a potentially cohesive discoursecommunity comprised of both computing and composition disciplines. Each member ofa problem-solving team reads other students' essays in order to locate theses andsupporting evidence, the presence of an organizational strategy and the coherence ofideas. Students revise drafts based on
beginning of the students’ careers in engineering: • Both the instructor and peers are resources in developing critical thinking skills, as students receive guidance in evaluating their peers’ and their own work. • The problem (in this case, preparing instructions) is used as the point of entry into the subject of successful teamwork and written communication, and thus provides increased motivation for sustained learning. • The activity challenges students to think critically on their own first, then provides appropriate support by facilitating discussions on technical writing and effective instructions. • The problem is activity-centered rather than text and lecture centered. • Students are
wereused. These writing assignments asked students to not only explain the causes of the Flint WaterCrisis, but also to propose strategies to prevent another crisis like the one experienced in Flint.Lastly, to provide a sense of community, the problem sets were solved in pre-assigned studentgroups and writing assignments underwent a process of peer-review.Integrating teaching-as-research, learning communities, and learning-through-diversity.Teaching-as-research was used to develop this report. Throughout this report, we aim todetermine if our intervention (a Flint Water Crisis case study) benefited student learning. Wecollected and analyzed data to test our hypothesis, and we make recommendations for futurecohorts based on evidence. To encourage
business, and a summary of discussion and decisions. The team meetingminutes also include peer-to-peer assessment of each member’s weekly performance in severalcategories. Consequently, team members use the PME structure to hold each other accountable.Continued low performance on PME can substantially reduce capstone grades for individualstudents.PME provide students with a framework to work as professionals and, therefore, manage theirteams effectively with minimal intervention from advisors. These skills are essential tosupporting an entrepreneurial mindset. Students use PME to document problems such as lack ofparticipation or limited contributions by a team member, allowing for earlier intervention, ifnecessary. Over the past several years, the
included timemanagement, goal setting, industry lunch (E2 only), effective learning strategies, moneymanagement and an introduction to LSU’s Communication Across the Curriculum (CxC)initiative. Industry professionals and student organization leaders were recruited toparticipate or present activities specifically to introduce the incoming freshmen to theprofessional and university communities. Activities for both programs included mockinterviewing, resume writing and planning for internships. For both the camp and the class, academic and industrial professionals givepresentations and have informal discussions about their careers and disciplines. Allstudents are exposed to the 10 degree programs/disciplines offered in the college. Peer
useful tools for new (and old) engineering educators. First,MERLOT provides links to free, public domain, online learning objects for engineeringcoursework in a variety of disciplines. These learning objects include course notes, diagrams,tutorial programs, demonstration and interactive applets, and even online mini-courses. Alongwith the link to the learning object, MERLOT provides a description of the content and, often,sample assignments demonstrating methods for incorporating it into courses. Second, MERLOTprovides links to free, public domain, online pedagogical tools such as learning preferencessurveys and guidance on constructing rubrics, writing course outcomes, and planning learningactivities at all levels from Knowledge and Application
multiple sections offered inthis course. This learning model is being applied to half of the sections. Students register forone of the offered “Introduction to Digital Logic” sections. Students have no knowledge thatthere are different modalities of instruction. This method assures a nearly random assignment tosections. The remaining sections will receive the traditional approach to instruction. Thesections using the learning model receive instruction through a combination of lecturing, activelearning exercises, collaborative learning exercises, and peer instruction exercises. In thesesections, students are engaged in challenge projects and presentations. Instructors and teachingassistants are provided with special training workshops on techniques
expertise in engineering resources and services; and the SLCadvisors provided study skills, writing skills, oral presentation skills and learning support tostudents.As a result of a number of meetings of this team, it was agreed that a formal lectureprogramme of ten lectures backed up by coursework, peer feedback and hands-on tutorialwork would provide a good balance for students during their research.The first lectures covered an introduction to research and the development of objectives andresearch methodology. This was followed up by the various forms of literature review andsome guidance with preparation. Further lectures on writing styles, reporting results,referencing and formatting the final report were delivered at key times during the
ideas and concepts from previous work listed here, the authorundertook a redesign of his mechanics classes (statics and strength of materials) toinclude interactive engagement, cooperative learning and peer instruction. The idea of“teaching-notes”1 was modernized by the faculty’s use of current technology consistingof a media projector and a tablet-pc with ink technology. Digital ink-technology is theterm used for writing on a tablet-pc screen using free hand writing. The students in theclass did not use tablet-pc. Page 15.1323.2BeginningsTo begin the process, the concept of mini lectures based on informal cooperative learningexperiences of Johnson, et
writing, in ways that respond to different communication scenarios (goal: draw on rhetorical analysis concepts to practice adjusting communications for different audiences and contexts). ● Learn to communicate your professional strengths and research interests in ways that are clear, concise, and engaging to diverse audiences (goal: understand and draw on known best practices for communicating complex information). ● Engage in peer feedback and self-reflection exercises to deepen your thinking about how to communicate your research (goal: wherever possible, have students demonstrate learning through peer sharing activities).Learning outcomes were embedded across five workshops (see Table
,academic progress), student and peer mentor surveys, student and peer mentor focus groups,and student writing samples.Our assessment program has yielded large amounts of data, a result that has both positive andnegative implications. On the positive side, we have a wealth of information from which to draw;however, that volume of data has been a bit unwieldy to process. At this time we have beenmost interested in discovering if the LC has in fact helped us to achieve the five comprehensiveobjectives guiding our LC initiative. We have strong evidence addressing four of the fiveobjectives: 1. The ABE LC fosters an increased sense of community students majoring in the ABE department. (Objective 1: To build community for entering first-year
other devices to joinits network. The peer-to-peer topology also has a PAN coordinator. However, it differs from the startopology in that any device can communicate with any other device as long as they are in rangeof one another. Peer-to-peer topology allows more complex network formations to beimplemented such as a mesh networking topology. Applications such as industrial control andmonitoring, wireless sensor networks, asset and inventory tracking, intelligent agriculture, andsecurity would benefit from such a network topology. Beacons are used to synchronize the attached devices to the network to identify the PANand describe the structure of the super frames. Any device desiring to communicate during thecontention access
andrapidly diagnosing their conceptions of a situation. This study introduces an innovativeinstructional method, called “pseudo peer diagram” (PPD), where students compare andcontrast their work with others as a formative feedback mechanism. Fourteen studentswho graduated from the First Year Engineering Honors Program were asked to generatefree body diagrams to interpret equilibrium in the provided systems. PPDs werepresented to enable a direct comparison and to serve a metacognitive function forstudents who use them as feedback to practice and build up their own self-checkstrategies. In order to understand how individuals cognitively process PPDs, this studyused think-aloud protocol to make students’ cognition explicit.This study revealed several
the students, and providing a framework for interactionsbetween faculty, students and industry personnel. The project hosts three main programs: aFaculty Development Workshop, the Encounter Engineering Bridge Camp (E2), and a freshmancourse, ENGR 1050 Introduction to Engineering. The project also hosts several of itsprofessional development and academic enhancement activities in the Engineering ResidentialCollege (ERC), a residential hall for freshmen. Finally, the project is expanding Peer Mentoring,which emerged from the bridge camp team captains, and now is incorporated into ENGR 1050. Assessment includes individual program elements and overall impact on retention.Feedback on the individual components includes surveying the
sought to understand the student’s level ofconfidence in their ability to write programs and the importance they placed on programming intheir future career.Following the semester-long introductory programming classes, we conducted a week-longworkshop for a small group of students who were part of the ANON project. We report on the twoworkshops that we conducted in January 2022 and January 2023. The data contains reflectionsnoted down by the instructor and near-peer mentors during the workshop. We also report on thedata from the pre-workshop and a post-workshop survey.FindingsFirst, we report on the confidence and interest of students enrolled in introductory programmingcourses. We draw upon their response to list topics in introductory computer
improve their work throughout thequarter.Key features of the courses included: 1) Dedicated class time was dedicated for students andinstructors to work together; 2) Teamwork enabled students, under time pressure, to analyzeengineering problems, formulate solutions, program, write, and prepare presentations; 3)Engineering problems were solved with widely-available software; and 4) Teams competed toproduce the best course manual for next year’s course.Preliminary results from surveys showed that students felt more confident and knowledgeablewhen presenting technical information, writing their reports, and using computer tools in theirsubsequent courses. They also used these skills later in their senior design projects. Compared totheir peers who
. Stay connected with your research sponsors – New faculty member should stay connected to research sponsors even during times that no research with that sponsor is occurring. Spend time each day writing research proposals and peer-reviewed publications – This will help to maintain a steady level of writing and accomplish proposal and paper submission goals. Encourage journal writing from M.S. and Ph.D. students – The new faculty member should encourage co-writing papers with current and past M.S. and Ph.D. students. This will assist the faculty member in producing increased levels of peer-reviewed publications. If the student writes the entire article, consider
focused on students getting to know themselves. It is important todevelop self-aware individuals to understand how to be a teammate and a leader [34]. Self-awareness allows students to reflect inward to allow them to identify, process, and storeinformation about oneself [35, 36]. The value of self-awareness is obvious as it means having adeep understanding of one’s emotions, strengths, limitations, values, motives, and perceptions[37]. The first assignment for the class is to write a biography to allow for students and theinstructor to get to know one another. The text of the biography focused on experiences bothprofessional and personal that the students thought would be relevant to their peers. The studentsposted these biographies to the course
%)and illustrates effective targeting toward their peer audience.The infographic assignment has been implemented winter quarter 2017 in two sections of theIntroduction to Engineering course (total of 90 students placed in 30 teams) and also in onesection of a Critical Thinking and Writing course (~20 students). The Introduction toEngineering course repeated the assignment and both draft and final rubric assessments wererecorded. The full rubric results are available in Appendix E with summarized results availablein Table 3. The infographic platform chosen by student teams again favored Piktochart (57%)with other platforms chosen including Venngage, Google Slides, MS Word, and various Adobesoftware. The top vote earning infographic posters from
world wide web for peer to peer communication on design teams. However, the need Page 7.1307.1for engineers to communicate effectively through technical writing on the web is growing. Many“Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition CopyrightÓ 2002, American Society for Engineering Education”engineering employers use internal and external webs for business communication. Therefore,instructors must develop engineering students’ ability to effectively communicate on the web.In an Advanced Manufacturing course in the Manufacturing Engineering program at MiamiUniversity in Oxford
participants indicated an expert skill level was needed in these areasand less than 5% rated these skills as non-essential.Results suggest that marketing products/processes, managing others, identifying customer needsand writing peer reviewed papers are some of the least important skills for entry-levelengineering Ph.D.s in industry. Less than 2% of participants felt that it was essential to have anexpert skill level in marketing. Over 20% of participants responded that marketingproducts/processes was not an essential skill for Ph.D.s in industry. Managing others,identifying customer needs and writing peer reviewed papers had over 10% of participantsindicating it was not an essential skill.Participants were solicited for additional essential skills to
thesis significantly transformed from these reciprocities. Writinggroups such as these have been shown to create a “community of discursive social practice” thatsupports peer learning and peer review (Maher et al., 2008, p. 263). Through this process ofcollective learning via dialogue and relationships, I explored and built on greater complexitiesand theories in my final thesis than I would have been able to achieve as an individual. But itwent beyond the theories, I also gained confidence in being able to do this paradigm shiftingwork with others—in knowing that, regardless of the pushback and the number of uphill battles Ihad to fight, that I wasn’t alone in this work.And an amazing thing happened: I began to learn through writing. I never
response,the effort has evolved to include more thorough education on what constitutes plagiarism duringthe first weeks of the course. As a result, in the subsequent semesters, the culture of a higherstandard is developing and the more rigorous expectation is generally known through the studentpopulation. The second focus of this work grew as natural questions from the effort to bringrigor to technical writing in the department. What is the perception of academic integrity issuesamong undergraduate students and faculty in the department and does it shift during a student’scareer? Where on the spectrum of “unacceptable” do various actions fall? Is it “more OK” tocopy a homework assignment from a peer than it is to scour the internet for a solutions
by engaging in peer criticalcommentary (AHS Foundation Course Commonalities, 2007). My course fulfills the AHScommonality goals but differs in other respects to the AHS foundation courses at Olin and itdiffers considerably with respect to art courses taught at other colleges and universities. In theSeeing and Hearing course students improve their communication skills and develop a personalvision making use of contemporary digital media tools as vehicles for expression. One of theunusual aspects of the course as compared to art courses in other schools is that photography,video, audio and writing are offered in a single course, whereas other schools normally offer asingle medium per course, and they are not structured with engineering
programming.A series of biweekly group assignments are woven into the project-based curriculum, culminating with afinal project exhibition and written reflection. These assignments, called Milestones, assess thepresentation, graphical communication and writing skills of the teams as well as their individualleadership skills. The written reports are collected during “Town-hall Meetings” associated with eachMilestone. During the Town-hall Meetings the project manager, a role that rotates between the groupmembers during the semester, presents the progress of the project to the class using appropriate visualsand drawings (graphics) prepared in sketching software such as AutoCAD or SolidWorks. At the end ofthe presentation, the project manager is required
. Werner, S. Ishizaki, S. Rohrbach, D. Dzombak, and J. Miller, “An analysis of engineering students’ use of instructor feedback and an online writing tutorial during drafting and revision,” in IEEE International Professional Communication Conference, 2015.[12] S. Taylor, “Comments on Lab Reports by Mechanical Engineering Teaching Assistants,” J. Bus. Tech. Commun., vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 402–424, 2007.[13] D. J. Boud and W. H. Holmes, “Self and peer marking in an undergraduate engineering course,” IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 267–274, 1981.[14] J. McGourty, P. Dominick, and R. R. Reilly, “Incorporating student peer review and feedback into the assessment process,” in FIE’98. 28th Annual Frontiers in
-longprojects in teams of 5-8 (typically), following the incremental delivery approach5 with a shortiteration cycle – we set intermediate project deliveries roughly once every 2.5 weeks. After eachdelivery, instructors facilitate in-class retrospectives. Instructors also meet separately with eachproject team to provide feedback, address questions, and “take the pulse” of the team. 2-3 timesduring the term, usually shortly after some of the project deliveries, students completeanonymous peer evaluations for their teammates, offering constructive feedback. Each studentalso completes 2-3 individual reflective writing assignments during the term, to which instructorsprovide extensive written feedback and follow-up questions, engaging students in
Westmoreland Academic Success Program. In this capacity, she provides vision and direction for the Tutoring and Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) programs and provides support to the General Engineer- ing Learning Community. She is also co-developer of Entangled Learning, a framework of rigorously- documented, self-directed collaborative learning. She has an M.A. in Music from The Pennsylvania State University and an M.L.S. from Indiana University. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2020 Continuing to Promote Metacognitive Awareness in a First-Year Learning Strategies CourseAbstractThis complete, evidence-based practice paper builds upon our previous work [1] in
combination of lecture and student-led project work designed tointroduce/guide students through the engineering design process. The instructional team metseveral times to discuss desired improvements to curriculum and student communicationoutcomes. Based on those initial meetings, the technical communications faculty developedactivities and delivered lectures over a range of topics including: • Writing for audience and purpose • Common professional genres (emails, memos, reports) • Technical communications style • Best practices for developing and delivering presentations • Best practices for poster presentations • Best practices for document design • Providing peer feedback • Data visualization and effective graphics