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Using Blended Learning to Address Instructional Challenges in a Freshman Engineering Course

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Conference

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

New Orleans, Louisiana

Publication Date

June 26, 2016

Start Date

June 26, 2016

End Date

June 29, 2016

ISBN

978-0-692-68565-5

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 1: Using Technology and/or Technology Tools to Enhance Learning

Tagged Division

First-Year Programs

Page Count

25

DOI

10.18260/p.27133

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/27133

Download Count

505

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Paper Authors

biography

Tareq Daher University of Nebraska - Lincoln Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-8901-0608

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Tareq Daher earned his Bachelors in Computer Science from Mutah University in Jordan. He pursued a Master’s of Instructional Technology at the University of Nebraska –Lincoln while working as the coordinator for the Student Technology Program on the UNL campus. Currently, Dr. Daher works as an Instructional Design Technology Coordinator for the Office of Online and Distance Education at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln leading the instructional design team at the College of Engineering. Dr. Daher collaborates with engineering faculty to document and research the integration of innovative instructional strategies and technologies in his classroom. His latest collaborative submitted publication discusses Using the Flipped approach in a water resources course.

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biography

Stuart Bernstein University of Nebraska - Lincoln

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Stuart Bernstein received his Bachelors in Construction Management from Syracuse University, His Masters in Architecture from Virginia Tech, and his PhD in Educational Administration, Leadership in Higher Education from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Dr. Bernstein has taught in the College of Engineering for 14 years, teaching classes in construction estimating, scheduling, communication, and interpersonal skills. Prior to entering academia, Stuart spent 25 years working in the construction industry as a tradesman, designer, and project manager. Bernstein’s interests are in improving both classroom and online teaching methods and technologies, and has developed a new, interactive, synchronous distance learning platform that is structured for the development of emotional presence and intelligence.

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Brett Meyer University of Nebraska - Lincoln

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Abstract

Using Blended Learning to Address Instructional Challenges in a Freshman Engineering Course This study analyzed the role of the evidence-based instructional practice of blended course design and instruction for a freshman engineering course. The instructor had been teaching this construction management class combining traditional lecturing and in-class discussions. The instructor sought to increase students’ engagement with the material, each other, and himself as well as dedicate class time to active learning activities, higher order thinking skills, and application of concepts. The present research was conducted to explore blended course design in addressing the aforementioned instructional challenges. Contemporary definitions of blended learning consider the rapid development of technology tools and the opportunities these tools provide for converging online and in-class instruction and learning activities. The thoughtful integration of face-to-face and online learning experiences in blended courses and its positive effects on students’ performance, collaboration, and satisfaction with the instruction is well documented in literature. Instructors of engineering courses have documented and explored their experiences with blended learning and have reported positive outcomes. However, as blended learning gains momentum in STEM fields, it is essential to understand the freshman experiences and perspectives on blended delivery of content as well as the role of blended learning in resolving instructional challenges commonly present in first year engineering classrooms. To gather student perceptions, an anonymous survey was administered twice each year the course was taught: first during the fourth week of the semester and once again at the end of the course. Surveys gathered quantitative information from the students on time spent on in-class and online activities, how pertinent course modules were, technical difficulties or lack thereof, preferences for entirely online or traditional lecturing in comparison to the blended approach, and their overall opinions towards blended learning. In addition, students were prompted to provide overall comments throughout the survey that were later qualitatively analyzed and coded to uncover themes. The second assessment instrument was a comparison of students’ success rate from 2010 until present for the same content taught. In the present paper we provide a detailed overview of the course design, development, and implementation of the blended approach to instruction by communicating the technologies used, pedagogy employed to integrate online and in-class activities, and the collaboration between the instructional design support and instructor. Based on the results, we provide recommendations for engineering faculty teaching freshman courses that want to explore the blended approach to teaching, examples for online learning activities and how to integrate them with in class active learning activities to increase student engagement and success rates.

Daher, T., & Bernstein, S., & Meyer, B. (2016, June), Using Blended Learning to Address Instructional Challenges in a Freshman Engineering Course Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.27133

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2016 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015