Effectiveness of Media Modules for Blended Delivery of a Statics Course: A Preimplementation Study

Seach Chyr (Ernest) Goh; Claire Yu Yan; John M. Hopkinson

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: First-year Programs: Core Skills
Tagged Division: First-Year Programs
Page Count: 20
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34501
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/34501
Download Count: 400

Paper Authors

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Seach Chyr (Ernest) Goh P.Eng. University of British Columbia, Okanagan

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Dr. Ernest Goh received his B.Eng and M.Eng degrees from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He taught college-level engineering for more than a decade before joining a consulting group, working on environmental and water technologies. In 2010 he joined NTU as a research associate and at the same time embarked on his Ph.D. studies, carrying out research which involved the tow testing and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of a wind turbine above a forward facing step. Upon completion, he joined the National University of Singapore, where he taught mechanical design related courses. He also started work on enclosed narrow-track electric vehicles and carried out wind tunnel testing and CFD simulations to optimise the aerodynamics of the enclosure. He joined the University of British Columbia – Okanagan campus as an instructor in 2016.

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Claire Yu Yan P.Eng. University of British Columbia, Okanagan

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Dr. Claire Y. Yan is a tenured senior instructor (Professor of Teaching Stream) in the School of Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science, University of British Columbia. She received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Xi'an Jiaotong University, China and Ph.D. degree from the University of Strathclyde in the UK. She had also worked as a research scientist at Ryerson University in Toronto until 2008. Currently at UBC, she teaches various core engineering courses in the subjects of fluids, solids, math and design, mostly, in large classroom settings. During her daily interactions with students and colleagues, she has developed a strong passion for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, in particular, in the areas of innovative pedagogies, education technologies and open education. She has presented her studies in various engineering education conferences, and served as a reviewer for different international journals and conferences. In 2017, she received UBC certificate on curriculum and pedagogy in higher education. Currently, she is a sectional editor for the open access journal Collected Essays on Learning and Teaching (CELT). Her professional affiliations include registered P.Eng. (Professional Engineer) with APEGBC (Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of the Province of British Columbia), member of CEEA (Canadian Engineering Education Association) and ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education).

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John M. Hopkinson University of British Columbia, Okanagan

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Dr. Hopkinson is a Senior instructor in Physics.

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Abstract

In our university, the first year statics course is taken by three distinct groups of students. They are the regular direct entry students in the September term, international students of a special programme in an extended summer term, and (mainly) students who are repeating the course, in a regular summer term. The students in these three terms have a diverse background. Those in the September term are mainly from domestic school systems, with international students being in the minority. In the extended summer term, all the students are international, with only about half from school systems modelled on domestic ones, and their prior knowledge varies greatly. In the regular summer term, the majority of the students are repeating the course and could already know as much as almost half of the prescribed content. To cater to those whose learning needs are different from their classmates, funding was secured to develop media and teaching materials mainly intended for blended delivery, but also suitable for automated delivery and self-learning. With such media, those who need more exposure to specific parts of the content can get up to speed with the rest of the class on their own. On the other hand, those with a more advanced prior knowledge (e.g., repeating students) can progress at a faster pace. A complementary goal of the project is to make the relevant media available to a physics for the life sciences course in the university. Students in the physics course add to the diversity of the students' prior knowledge, since some of them do not have physics at the high school level. The full duration of the project is three years. In accordance with the project schedule, by September 2019, modules for the first half of the statics course were developed. The schedule calls for the remaining modules to be developed by September 2020, and be implemented in that term. This paper on evidence-based practice presents the pre-implementation study to compare the effectiveness of two of these modules against conventional lectures. This study has been approved by the Behavioral Research Ethics Board of our university. The students enrolled in the statics course were divided randomly by the university’s learning management system into two groups. In week five of the September term, when students have settled down with the routine of university life, one group was given access to the module on moments and couples in three dimensions, and encouraged not to attend lecture, while the other group did not get access and attended lecture as usual. In the following week, the two groups swapped the method of learning for the topic on reduction of a system of forces to a wrench. For both methods of learning, at appropriate points in the lesson, students worked on in-lecture activities, which are calculation questions with randomised numerical values on the textbook publisher’s online resource website. The performance of each group in each topic was measured by two questions in the midterm exam, held slightly over a week after the second lesson of the experiment. Qualitative feedback on the modules was sought from students in a pre-midterm exam survey. Additionally, the participation rate for the in-lecture activities was recorded at various intervals after lessons begin. The outcome of this study will be used to guide the development of the remaining modules and draw up guidelines on how to utilise the modules most effectively.

Citation
Format

Goh, S. C. E., & Yan, C. Y., & Hopkinson, J. M. (2020, June), Effectiveness of Media Modules for Blended Delivery of a Statics Course: A Preimplementation Study Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34501

TY - CPAPER
AB - In our university, the first year statics course is taken by three distinct groups of students. They are the regular direct entry students in the September term, international students of a special programme in an extended summer term, and (mainly) students who are repeating the course, in a regular summer term. The students in these three terms have a diverse background. Those in the September term are mainly from domestic school systems, with international students being in the minority. In the extended summer term, all the students are international, with only about half from school systems modelled on domestic ones, and their prior knowledge varies greatly. In the regular summer term, the majority of the students are repeating the course and could already know as much as almost half of the prescribed content. To cater to those whose learning needs are different from their classmates, funding was secured to develop media and teaching materials mainly intended for blended delivery, but also suitable for automated delivery and self-learning. With such media, those who need more exposure to specific parts of the content can get up to speed with the rest of the class on their own. On the other hand, those with a more advanced prior knowledge (e.g., repeating students) can progress at a faster pace. A complementary goal of the project is to make the relevant media available to a physics for the life sciences course in the university. Students in the physics course add to the diversity of the students&#39; prior knowledge, since some of them do not have physics at the high school level. The full duration of the project is three years. In accordance with the project schedule, by September 2019, modules for the first half of the statics course were developed. The schedule calls for the remaining modules to be developed by September 2020, and be implemented in that term.
This paper on evidence-based practice presents the pre-implementation study to compare the effectiveness of two of these modules against conventional lectures. This study has been approved by the Behavioral Research Ethics Board of our university. The students enrolled in the statics course were divided randomly by the university’s learning management system into two groups. In week five of the September term, when students have settled down with the routine of university life, one group was given access to the module on moments and couples in three dimensions, and encouraged not to attend lecture, while the other group did not get access and attended lecture as usual. In the following week, the two groups swapped the method of learning for the topic on reduction of a system of forces to a wrench. For both methods of learning, at appropriate points in the lesson, students worked on in-lecture activities, which are calculation questions with randomised numerical values on the textbook publisher’s online resource website. The performance of each group in each topic was measured by two questions in the midterm exam, held slightly over a week after the second lesson of the experiment. Qualitative feedback on the modules was sought from students in a pre-midterm exam survey. Additionally, the participation rate for the in-lecture activities was recorded at various intervals after lessons begin. The outcome of this study will be used to guide the development of the remaining modules and draw up guidelines on how to utilise the modules most effectively.
AU - Seach Chyr (Ernest) Goh P.Eng.
AU - Claire Yu Yan P.Eng.
AU - John M. Hopkinson
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Effectiveness of Media Modules for Blended Delivery of a Statics Course: A Preimplementation Study
UR - https://peer.asee.org/34501
DO - 10.18260/1-2--34501
ER -