The Theme Course: Connecting the Plant Trip to the Text Book

A plant trip provides subjects for team projects and lecture examples in a sophomore chemical engineering course, thus becoming a unifying “theme” for the course. The “theme” structure is intended to improve student mastery of course material by helping students relate different course topics to one another via real equipment and processes. Here, performance in a subsequent junior chemical engineering course by students from the “theme course” is compared with performance by students who took the sophomore course in a traditional lecture‐homework‐exam format. Theme course graduates claim better retention of concepts from the sophomore course, though their scores on exam questions testing their knowledge, comprehension, and application of these concepts did not differ significantly from that of students from the traditional course. Theme course graduates did earn higher grades in the junior course, due to better performance on exam questions requiring higher level skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Students were enthusiastic about the course structure, and expressed excitement about learning from “real life.” Thus the “theme” structure results in early student success in the skills necessary for engineering design, and generates student enthusiasm for engineering.     

Making Engineering Education Fun

Maintaining student interest is more than an academic exercise. Institutions or departments that fail to challenge and actively involve their students in the learning process risk losing them to competing programs where the curricula are more dynamic and relevant. Within the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Oregon State University, we continually seek innovative ways to promote student retention while maintaining academic excellence. One recent effort was to restructure a first‐year nuclear engineering/health physics course. Using nuclear techniques, students were required to solve a fictitious murder. In the process they learned about teamwork, nuclear forensics methods, radiation protection, and basic radiation interactions. The class members were brought into the mystery playing the part of “graduate students” who helped their police‐detective uncle solve the case. To assist in their investigation the students subpoenaed expert “witnesses” to educate them on nuclear principles. The students, through homework, explained their actions, methods, and reasoning to a nontechnical participant (their “uncle“). By building on knowledge gained through interviews and homework, the students were able to solve the mystery. This mode of teaching requires extensive hands‐on faculty participation. However, the potential long‐term benefit is increased comprehension of course content as well as greater student interest and retention.     

Characteristics of Freshman Engineering Students: Models for Determining Student Attrition in Engineering

Nationwide, less than half the freshman who start in engineering graduate in engineering, and at least half of this attrition occurs during the freshman year. Clearly, the freshman year is critical for both academic success and retention of engineering students. Such success depends not only on the knowledge and skills learned during this first year, but also on the attitudes individual students bring with them to college. Hence, if these attitudes can be measured before beginning college, we can develop more targeted programs for reducing attrition and improving academic success. Further, by measuring changes in student attitude over the course of the freshman year, we can develop better methods to evaluate engineering education programs. To learn more about these attitudes and how they impact upon retention, we undertook a three-year research effort. First we identified attitudes incoming students have about the field of engineering, their perceptions about the upcoming educational experience, and their confidence in their ability to succeed in engineering. These attitudes were then related to performance and retention in the freshman engineering program. To accomplish this, a closedform survey was developed, tested and administered to the 1993–94 and 1994–95 freshman engineering classes. This study demonstrated that student attitudes can provide an effective means for evaluating aspects of our freshman engineering program, particularly those relating to issues of attrition. Specifically, students who left the freshman engineering program in “good academic standing” had significantly different attitudes about engineering and themselves than those possessed by other comparison groups: students who stayed in engineering and students who left engineering in “poor academic standing.” We developed regression models to predict attrition and performance in our freshman engineering program using quantified measures of student attitudes. Implementation of the models has allowed freshman advisors to better inform students of opportunities that engineering offers, to devise better programs of study that take advantage of students' varied interests, and to set retention goals that are more realistic.     

A Collaborative Learning Methodology for Enhanced Comprehension using TEAMThink®

This paper discusses a teaching methodology to improve the retention of lecture material through peer collaboration among students. The methods introduced also help measure a student's comprehension of class material. In addition, the techniques allow the instructor to obtain continuous feedback on areas that students have difficulty grasping. The instructor can also observe students interpretation of concepts and their written communication skills. The entire process was conducted through the Internet using Athenium's TEAMThink® software. The TEAMThink® software is a professional product developed by Athenium and was developed primarily as a training tool for corporations. This is the first time an educational institution has used it as part of the curriculum. The experiences presented here were conducted on an Operating Systems course at Tufts University's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science consisting of 36 seniors and 4 graduate students and a second year Introduction to Digital Logic Circuits course consisting of 100 undergraduate students. The TEAMThink® learning process features a quiz making and quiz taking game, where students collaborate in teams to create multiple‐choice quiz questions which challenge the learning of other students. The experiences reported in this paper discuss the benefits of this approach from the student and the instructor perspectives. The unexpected outcomes such as the feedback provided to the developers of the TEAMThink® software are also discussed .     

An Experiment in Integration: Calculus and Physics for Freshmen

This paper describes an experimental course integrating calculus and physics for freshmen, conducted with partial support of an NSF Curriculum Development Grant. A primary goal of the Project was to provide a better foundation for higher-level engineering/science courses by enabling students to transfer and apply fundamental knowledge; applications and mathematical modeling were emphasized. A weekly Laboratory/Workshop, which proved to be highly motivational for students, was featured. Having team- taught the course three years in succession, the authors have much to share regarding the actual implementation of the course and its special challenges, student preparation and receptivity, and choice of materials. Assessment data indicate that the performance and retention of participating students in the next Physics course were significantly improved, but long-term effects are difficult to track and measure.     

Efficacy of Interactive Internet‐Based Education in Structural Timber Design

While traditional teaching methods (e.g., real‐time, synchronous lectures) have proven effective for training future engineers, the Internet provides an avenue to reinforce the material and augment student learning, comprehension, and retention of material. This paper presents the integration and assessment of a library of interactive instructional modules specifically for a senior‐level undergraduate elective course in civil engineering. An ongoing, comprehensive assessment process was implemented in the fall 1999 semester. The results of this quantitative assessment indicate that the use of well designed and pedagogically sound Internet‐based supplemental modules provide students with a better understanding of course material. However, when Internet‐based content does not promote critical thinking, little increase in the student performance and understanding of the material is realized. Interactive Web‐based instruction should not be viewed as a “replacement” to traditional instruction, but rather a tool that provides a broader and more dynamic environment for students with a variety of learning styles.     

From the Students' Point of View: Experiences in a Freshman Engineering Design Course

We evaluated the pilot semester of a freshman introduction to engineering course in order to provide an understanding of the students' experience in the course and identify aspects of this experience that could lead to improved student retention in engineering. The course concentrates on having students work in teams to identify customer needs, find solutions, and design and build a final product. We used qualitative research methods for data collection and analysis that included interviewing students using a set of open-ended questions, thus allowing them to introduce issues and describe their experiences. Our analysis indicated that students experienced engineering in a supportive, team-oriented environment that provided a context for making informed career decisions. The students' experiences indicate that courses such as this one can help students face the challenges they encounter in beginning their engineering education.     

Developing A Motivational Freshman Course In Using The Principle Of Attached Learning*

This paper describes the development of a new, team-taught, interdisciplinary, design-oriented, introduction to engineering course that plays a role in the retention efforts of the engineering programs at our university. While the primary purpose of the new course has not changed from its original purpose, i.e., to introduce students to engineering as a field of study, the goals have been expanded to include motivating experiences to increase student retention. We discuss the rationale for the new course, the topics selected for the syllabus, the “attached learning” strategy that was developed for the selection of course materials, the teaching strategies selected for the course, the results of the assessment of student satisfaction, and the impact of the course on the curriculum and on minority and under represented groups.     

Tracking Classroom Teaching and Learning: An SPC Application

The importance of measuring performance in higher education has long been understood by all stakeholders, including teachers, students, administrators, and researchers. However, the majority of indicators used for this purpose focus on educational outputs (e.g., graduation rates) and outcomes (e.g., final examination scores), rather than processes that create such outcomes and outputs. The problem with this focus is that the output and outcome data usually become available far too late in order to effectively respond to a problem. Because the process of knowledge transfer is an important function of educational organizations, tracking this process while it actually happens represents an on-going, rather than a post-mortem measurement strategy, and can help in the detection of existing and impeding troubles in the teaching and learning processes. This paper illustrates a model for measuring classroom performance which makes use of Statistical Process Control (SPC) in combination with classroom assessment techniques (CATs). The purpose of the model is to measure both the teacher's contribution to increasing student knowledge and the student learning outcomes. Examples of SPC charts that were used to monitor teaching and learning performance in an undergraduate engineering management course are given, together with an analysis of the obtained results. Recommendations and guidelines for an effective and efficient application of the model are provided, including an implementation algorithm, suggestions for CAT design, and a discussion of some important statistical issues. The paper is concluded with several considerations for future research.     

Student Performance and Acceptance of Instructional Technology: Comparing Technology‐Enhanced and Traditional Instruction for a Course in Statics

The College of Engineering at the University of Cincinnati has evaluated the use of instructional technologies to improve the learning process for students in fundamental engineering science courses. The goal of this effort was to both retain more students in engineering programs and improve student performance through appropriate use of technology. Four modes of instruction were used to teach an engineering fundamentals course in statics. A traditional instructor‐led course, a Web‐assisted course, a streaming media course, and an interactive video course were all presented using a common syllabus, homework, tests, and grading regimen. Evaluations of final course grades indicate that use of instructional technology improved student performance when compared with traditional teaching methods. Student satisfaction with technology varied considerably with the Web‐assisted format having the highest student approval rating of the technologies. The results indicate that time on task and interest in content can be improved through the appropriate use of technology.     

A Longitudinal Study of Engineering Student Performance and Retention. V. Comparisons with Traditionally-Taught Students

In a longitudinal study at North Carolina State University, a cohort of students took five chemical engineering courses taught by the same instructor in five consecutive semesters. The courses made extensive use of active and cooperative learning and a variety of other techniques designed to address a broad spectrum of learning styles. Previous reports on the study summarized the instructional methods used in the experimental course sequence, described the performance of the cohort in the introductory chemical engineering course, and examined performance and attitude differences between students from rural and urban backgrounds and between male and female students.^1–4 This paper compares outcomes for the experimental cohort with outcomes for students in a traditionally-taught comparison group. The experimental group outperformed the comparison group on a number of measures, including retention and graduation in chemical engineering, and many more of the graduates in this group chose to pursue advanced study in the field. Since the experimental instructional model did not require small classes (the smallest of the experimental classes had 90 students) or specially equipped classrooms, it should be adaptable to any engineering curriculum at any institution.     

Student Perceptions of High Course Workloads are Not Associated with Poor Student Evaluations of Instructor Performance

Many engineering faculty believe that when students perceive a course to have a high workload, students will rate the course and the performance of the course instructor poorly. This belief can be particularly worrying to engineering faculty since engineering courses are often perceived as uniquely demanding. The present investigation demonstrated that student ratings of workload and of overall instructor performance in engineering courses were not correlated (e.g., Spearman's rho = 0.068) in data sets from either of two institutions. In contrast, a number of evaluation items were strongly correlated (Spearman's rho = 0.7 to 0.899) with ratings of overall instructor performance across engineering, mathematics and science, and humanities courses. The results of the present study provide motivation for faculty seeking to improve their teaching and course evaluations to focus on teaching methods, organization/preparation, and interactions with students, rather than course workload.     

Laptops in the Classroom: Do They Make a Difference?

In 1996 the College of Engineering at the University of Oklahoma started to require all incoming students to have a laptop computer equipped with a wireless Internet card. Because of a pilot study and a voluntary phase‐in over the first two years, two groups of students moved through the curriculum—those with and those without laptops. During 1998 and 1999, when these students entered their junior year, we offered two sections of a third‐year water resources course: one for students who owned laptops and one “traditional” section for those who did not own laptops. We assessed student performance to evaluate if the laptops helped improve student learning. Although not a perfectly controlled experiment (i.e., the student groups were different), the two sections were uniform in terms of course content and assignments. Because of their inherently large standard deviations, class metrics (grades) are not conclusive, but they do indicate that the laptop students performed slightly better than the non‐laptop students, even though their composite grade point average entering the course was lower. Evaluations do clearly show that, when the technology is used properly and when class time is not spent resolving technical problems, the laptop students had a more positive learning experience.     

The Globally Competent Engineer: Working Effectively with People Who Define Problems Differently

This paper offers and tests an approach to conceptualizing the global competency of engineers. It begins by showing that the often‐stated goal of working effectively with different cultures is fundamentally about learning to work effectively with people who define problems differently. The paper offers a minimum learning criterion for global competency and three learning outcomes whose achievement can help engineering students fulfill that criterion. It uses the criterion to establish a typology of established methods to support global learning for engineering students. It introduces the course, Engineering Cultures, as an example of an integrated classroom experience designed to enable larger numbers of engineering students to take the critical first step toward global competency, and it offers a test application of the learning criterion and outcomes by using them to organize summative assessments of student learning in the course.     

Assigning Functional Groups: The Influence of Group Size,Academic Record,Practical Experience,and Learning Style

This paper summarizes the results of a four-year study (September 1992 - December 1995) concerned with the performance of student groups in a senior engineering laboratory course. The investigation was conducted in two stages. In the first two years, the effect of group size, incoming GPA, practical experience, and the gender distribution of each group was investigated. During this period we recorded the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) scores at the end of the semester and asked students to report on the performance of their groups given their knowledge of the LSI distribution within their team. In the second stage of this study (1994–95) we evaluated the effect of grouping according to LSI, in addition to continuing our study of the effect of group size, academic record, practical experience, and gender distribution. In the final year of the study we took advantage of the disparity in the incoming GPAs of the two sections of the class (Tuesday and Thursday) to evaluate if incoming GPA influenced course grade. The study consisted of four senior classes totaling 110 students in 33 groups. The learning styles distribution of the students resulted in 6% “Type 1,” 42% “Type 2,” 42% “Type 3,” and 10% “Type 4” learners. The metric used to quantify performance was the average final course grade of students within given groups. This course grade was equally weighted between technical and writing components. Our results indicate that the most important positive correlating factor in a group's performance was the group size (four member groups statistically outperformed three member teams at α = 0.05). Although not statistically significant, observable higher average group grades indicated that the following may have an effect on group performance: the inclusion of academically outstanding individuals, the number of members with “good hands,” and the GPA history of the group. Specifically, the inclusion of a student with a GPA above 3.6 improved the performance (average group grade) of the group relative to their abilities as characterized by their average incoming GPA. Students who were good with equipment or had some practical hands-on experience had a similar positive influence on the group performance. The gender distribution within a group did not have a significant effect on either group performance or dysfunction. Insufficient data were collected to ascertain the relative performance of homogeneous and mixed learning style groups. Since group incoming GPA may be a variable in group performance, student self-selection is not recommended since it would result in an amplified disparity in the course grades. Indeed, we observed that grouping students by GPA, group size, and LSI resulted in a large number of functional teams, with the final variance in the course grade within a class reduced relative to other courses which have grouped activities.     

The Relationship Between PDA Usage and Student Performance in an Introductory Engineering Course

This research focuses on the development of a methodology to evaluate student attitudes towards technology in the classroom and the impact of this technology on student learning. A survey was developed and tested to evaluate the impact of introducing Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) in a traditional college classroom setting. PDAs were introduced in an introductory course in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University. A reliable attitude assessment tool was developed as a result of this research. Initial results of this study also provide empirical data that engineering students respond favorably to the introduction of PDAs in a traditional classroom setting. Preliminary results also provide limited evidence that student attitudes may vary based on gender, age, and/or ethnicity. Standard student performance metrics (course assignment and exam scores) and student self‐evaluations were used to assess the impact on student learning and are discussed.     

Using Writing Assignments to Improve Self‐Assessment and Communication Skills in an Engineering Statics Course

This study explores the use of writing as a tool for metacognition in the engineering classroom. We used the “explain‐a‐problem” type of assignment in the Engineering Statics course for four terms. The objectives associated with the assignments were grouped under student self‐assessment, student communication, and administration. Performance on each of four grading criteria for each assignment was tracked throughout the terms. The data indicate that explain‐a‐problem does help students achieve the self‐assessment and communication objectives, although the impact on overall course performance was not as significant as hoped. The assignment evolved to the point that the administrative objectives were also met.     

Development of a Classification System for Engineering Student Characteristics Affecting College Enrollment and Retention

Background In engineering education, a considerable amount of research effort has been dedicated to study the impacts of student characteristics on their college enrollment, major selection, and college retention. However, there is no standardized categorical classification system of engineering student characteristics in the current literature. Different researchers tend to focus on specific characteristics within the scope of their research interests. This study provides a comprehensive review and analysis of the existing research on the measurement of the characteristics of engineering students. Purpose The study addressed the three questions: (1) what engineering student characteristics have been measured; (2) how do engineering student characteristics impact their educational outcomes; and (3) what measurement and analysis methods have been applied in current studies? A standardized classification system for engineering student characteristics involving external, cognitive, affective, and demographic categories is also proposed. Scope /Method The study focused on engineering education. Representative research regarding common characteristics of students from majors of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics were also included. The review covers major academic journals, research books, conference proceedings, and government reports in the areas of science and engineering education for the past two decades. Conclusions The review analysis indicated that students with certain characteristics are more likely to choose engineering as a profession and that those characteristics are either correlated or causally related with one another. However, many research conclusions based on basic statistical analyses fail to model the interaction effects. More advanced measurement techniques are needed that can model the characteristics interactively and concurrently in a complete framework.     

The Impact of a Discipline-Based Introduction to Engineering Course on Improving Retention

An Introduction to Engineering course at the University of Florida was converted from a lecture-based offering to a laboratory format in a project sponsored by the Southeastern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education (SUCCEED) (NSF Cooperative Agreement No. EID-9109853). The revised course rotates student groups through laboratories in each of the undergraduate engineering disciplines. Majors and non-majors receive a grade for this one credit course which meets three hours per week. The laboratories employ active learning and a smaller class size to achieve two objectives: 1) to better inform students about the nature of engineering and its specific disciplines and 2) to improve the retention of these students in engineering. The achievement of the first objective has been shown in our earlier work.^1,2 This paper focuses on the achievement of the latter objective, which is shown by a longitudinal study to be dramatically improved. The magnitude (a 17% improvement in retention for the general population and greater for women and minorities) is surprising for a single course, but reasons are suggested which might explain such a large effect.