Full Paper:  One Tool to Support Attendance, Engagement, Metacognition, and Exam Preparation

Kathleen A Harper; Kurt R Rhoads

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Conference: 15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE)
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Publication Date: July 28, 2024
Start Date: July 28, 2024
End Date: July 30, 2024
Page Count: 8
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--48594
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/48594
Download Count: 44

Paper Authors

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Kathleen A Harper Case Western Reserve University

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Kathleen A. Harper is an associate professor and has served as the assistant director of the Roger E. Susi First-year Engineering Experience at Case Western Reserve University since 2021. Prior to that, she taught as part of the Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors program at The Ohio State University. She received her M. S. in physics and B. S. in electrical engineering and applied physics from CWRU and her Ph. D. in physics, specializing in physics education research, from The Ohio State University. She has served on the ASEE Commission for P-12 Engineering Education.

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Kurt R Rhoads Case Western Reserve University

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Kurt Rhoads, Ph.D., P.E. is the faculty director of the Roger E. Susi First-Year Engineering Experience at Case Western Reserve University. He holds a B.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, all in environmental engineering. Dr. Rhoads is a registered professional engineer in the state of Ohio.

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Abstract

The first-year engineering experience at Case Western Reserve University is one course that combines twice-weekly laboratory modules and a weekly lecture. The lectures serve two primary purposes: to instruct students in MATLAB coding and to introduce them to each engineering discipline on campus. As the course grew from a pilot with around a dozen students to an engineering requirement with up to 230 students in one semester, the lecture’s atmosphere naturally changed. It became more formal and less personal, with students less likely to engage as fully as desired. The larger enrollment also necessitated that exams be given through the lecture and that they be administered on paper. The instructional team sought strategies to make improvements in several areas. The first was to improve lecture attendance, particularly to insure students learned about all engineering programs on campus. A second was to increase student engagement and give them an opportunity for additional interaction with the guest presenters. Third was to encourage development of metacognitive skills; while the instructors emphasized metacognition early in the semester and shared strategies they hoped students would adopt, there was little modeling of these strategies throughout the semester. Finally, the instructors wished to bridge the gap between the homework, which was almost exclusively creating scripts in MATLAB, and the paper-based exams. One tool was implemented to address all of these concerns. Students now pick up a half-sheet of paper as they enter lecture. In the first few minutes of class, they answer a few short questions on paper about the material from the previous week’s lecture. These formative quizzes illustrate some of the kinds of questions that may appear on exams. The quiz is discussed before delving into the new topic of the week, and students keep the paper with them during the class. Then, when the guest lecturer presents in the final part of class, students are encouraged to write questions for them on the back of the page. At the end of class, the papers are collected. Students receive modest credit toward their course grade for simply attempting the formative quiz. The questions for the guest lecturer are compiled, and the most popular ones are sent to the presenter, who writes responses. The resulting document is posted on the course management system. Since the advent of this approach, lecture attendance is markedly improved. Many of the guests have commented on the high caliber of the student questions. On a course-end survey, students rated the exercise as helpful to their learning, but it was not one of the highest ranked activities in the course. While it is not possible to isolate this innovation to determine if it alone had positive impact on student learning, a modest analysis found reasonable alignment between the styles of questions on the quizzes and on the exams. The authors will continue using this tool and will be making improvements to the way it is used in the hopes of increasing its impact.

Citation
Format

Harper, K. A., & Rhoads, K. R. (2024, July), Full Paper: One Tool to Support Attendance, Engagement, Metacognition, and Exam Preparation Paper presented at 15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE), Boston, Massachusetts. 10.18260/1-2--48594

TY - CPAPER
AB - The first-year engineering experience at Case Western Reserve University is one course that combines twice-weekly laboratory modules and a weekly lecture. The lectures serve two primary purposes: to instruct students in MATLAB coding and to introduce them to each engineering discipline on campus. As the course grew from a pilot with around a dozen students to an engineering requirement with up to 230 students in one semester, the lecture’s atmosphere naturally changed. It became more formal and less personal, with students less likely to engage as fully as desired. The larger enrollment also necessitated that exams be given through the lecture and that they be administered on paper.
The instructional team sought strategies to make improvements in several areas. The first was to improve lecture attendance, particularly to insure students learned about all engineering programs on campus. A second was to increase student engagement and give them an opportunity for additional interaction with the guest presenters. Third was to encourage development of metacognitive skills; while the instructors emphasized metacognition early in the semester and shared strategies they hoped students would adopt, there was little modeling of these strategies throughout the semester. Finally, the instructors wished to bridge the gap between the homework, which was almost exclusively creating scripts in MATLAB, and the paper-based exams.
One tool was implemented to address all of these concerns. Students now pick up a half-sheet of paper as they enter lecture. In the first few minutes of class, they answer a few short questions on paper about the material from the previous week’s lecture. These formative quizzes illustrate some of the kinds of questions that may appear on exams. The quiz is discussed before delving into the new topic of the week, and students keep the paper with them during the class. Then, when the guest lecturer presents in the final part of class, students are encouraged to write questions for them on the back of the page. At the end of class, the papers are collected. Students receive modest credit toward their course grade for simply attempting the formative quiz. The questions for the guest lecturer are compiled, and the most popular ones are sent to the presenter, who writes responses. The resulting document is posted on the course management system.
Since the advent of this approach, lecture attendance is markedly improved. Many of the guests have commented on the high caliber of the student questions. On a course-end survey, students rated the exercise as helpful to their learning, but it was not one of the highest ranked activities in the course. While it is not possible to isolate this innovation to determine if it alone had positive impact on student learning, a modest analysis found reasonable alignment between the styles of questions on the quizzes and on the exams. The authors will continue using this tool and will be making improvements to the way it is used in the hopes of increasing its impact.

AU - Kathleen A Harper
AU - Kurt R Rhoads
CY - Boston, Massachusetts
DA - 2024/07/28
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Full Paper: One Tool to Support Attendance, Engagement, Metacognition, and Exam Preparation
UR - https://peer.asee.org/48594
DO - 10.18260/1-2--48594
ER -