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Implementation and Assessment of a Remotely Accessible Laboratory in an Engineering Dynamic Systems Course

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Conference

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Salt Lake City, Utah

Publication Date

June 23, 2018

Start Date

June 23, 2018

End Date

July 27, 2018

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Division Technical Session 5

Tagged Division

Mechanical Engineering

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--30610

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/30610

Download Count

457

Paper Authors

biography

Nolan Tsuchiya P.E. California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

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Dr. Nolan Tsuchiya is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Dr. Tsuchiya obtained his Ph.D. from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA in the area of Dynamic Systems and Control). Dr. Tsuchiya teaches Controls Engineering, System Dynamics, and Computer Programming courses using MATLAB/SIMULINK at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is currently the advisor for the CPP Hyperloop team, the Baja SAE racing team, and a co-advisor for the CPP ASHRAE club. He holds an active California PE license.

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biography

Zhaoshuo Jiang P.E. San Francisco State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-4931-1622

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Zhaoshuo Jiang graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering. Before joining San Francisco State University as an assistant professor, he worked as a structural engineering professional at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) LLP. As a licensed professional engineer in the states of Connecticut and California, Dr. Jiang has been involved in the design of a variety of low-rise and high-rise projects. His current research interests mainly focus on Smart Structures Technology, Structural Control and Health Monitoring and Innovative Engineering Education.

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biography

Alec William Maxwell San Francisco State University

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Alec Maxwell is currently a graduate student in the School of Engineering at San Francisco State University (SFSU). Besides actively conducting research on innovative tools for engineering education in the Intelligent Structural Hazards Mitigation Laboratory at SFSU with Prof. Zhaoshuo Jiang, he also serves the community as the President of the American Society of Civil Engineers for the SFSU chapter.

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Zahira H. Merchant

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Abstract

[COURSE NAME] is a junior level, 4-unit required core course for all mechanical engineering students at [UNIVERSITY 1 NAME]. It is considered to be a bottleneck course because it is a prerequisite for several senior level courses, yet the DFW (non passing grade) rate is historically high. The average DFW rate across all sections of this course over the past 7 years is 20%. Part of this course requires students to employ abstract mathematics to characterize the behavior of real life dynamic systems. One potential cause of the low passing rate is that students have difficulty reconciling the theoretical computations to the real life systems. At many universities, the equivalent course contains a laboratory element designed specifically to bridge the gap between theory and practical application. [COURSE NAME] does not contain such a laboratory element, which may exacerbate the problem. To study the effects of whether or not a laboratory component would help students taking [COURSE NAME] a mobile laboratory experiment developed at [UNIVERSITY 2 NAME] was implemented in [COURSE NAME] at [UNIVERSITY 1 NAME].

This paper presents the results of implementing a remote laboratory assignment in [COURSE NAME] over three quarters. Student survey data was collected before and after the completion of the mobile laboratory assignment. In these experiments, the authors intended to assess the effectiveness of the [UNIVERSITY 2 NAME] mobile lab using three measures, namely Smart Tablet Readiness Measure (SmartTRM), Engineering Concepts Achievement Test (ECAT), and Engineering Concepts Self-Efficacy Test (ECSET). The data from all surveys are analyzed and conclusions are drawn regarding the effectiveness of the remote laboratory implementation.

Tsuchiya, N., & Jiang, Z., & Maxwell, A. W., & Merchant, Z. H. (2018, June), Implementation and Assessment of a Remotely Accessible Laboratory in an Engineering Dynamic Systems Course Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30610

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