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Improving the use of online resources to enhance efficiency of the Problem Based Learning in Engineering Education

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Conference

2025 ASEE North Central Section (NCS) Annual Conference

Location

Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia

Publication Date

March 28, 2025

Start Date

March 28, 2025

End Date

March 29, 2025

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--54674

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/54674

Download Count

39

Paper Authors

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Romain Kazadi Tshikolu University of Detroit Mercy

biography

Alan S Hoback University of Detroit Mercy Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-4609-9715

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Professor of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering, University of Detroit Mercy

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Abstract

Demand for trained engineers is high worldwide, and the situation can be characterized as very critical for the Global South where challenges due to students' apprehension towards mathematics and physics further complicate the case. Engineering skills are essential and recent shifts in methodology using problem or project-based learning (PBL) put engineering education in the right tracks. This paper is aimed at improving the PBL approach by introducing students to a better use of online resources, including those resulting from Artificial Intelligence (AI). With easy access to the Internet, some students might be tempted to search for ready-proposed solutions instead of investigating their own ideas with personal critical thinking. Engaging students, from day one, in PBL methodology exploiting efficiently AI, could result in enhancing motivation of engineering students, even those lacking scientific prerequisites. Practical experiments, like disassembling and reassembling technology, combined with PBL, are expected to reduce students' apprehension of engineering courses.

Kazadi Tshikolu, R., & Hoback, A. S. (2025, March), Improving the use of online resources to enhance efficiency of the Problem Based Learning in Engineering Education Paper presented at 2025 ASEE North Central Section (NCS) Annual Conference, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--54674

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