Case Learning Methodology in Operations Engineering

Teaching operations engineering to traditional and non‐traditional engineering students using case learning methods presents both instructional challenges and provides learning rewards when performed properly. Unfortunately, few engineering faculty have had exposure to this learning approach. However, the skills are learnable and the results satisfying to instructor and student alike. The purpose of this paper is to explore case learning methods and illustrate their appropriateness for a course in operations engineering.     

Educational Innovations in Multimedia Systems*

Multimedia systems have emerged as one of the fastest growing segments of computing systems and thus need to be well integrated into a computer engineering curriculum. Fortunately the teaching and learning of multimedia systems can be aided with novel instructional techniques based on multimedia. The Multimedia Curriculum project at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is developing a unified set of instructional materials on the engineering techniques used in the design and test of hardware, software and networks for multimedia. This large project includes three facets: 1) multimedia instructional modules using web‐linked Digital Video Disks, 2) multimedia communication utilities to facilitate student interaction, and 3) multimedia component design projects. In this paper, we explain our approach to using multimedia as both content and instructional technology and briefly present preliminary results in each of the three facets.     

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.     

The Role of Collaborative Reflection on Shaping Engineering Faculty Teaching Approaches

Over the last several years, engineering faculty and learning scientists from four universities worked in collaboration to develop educational materials to improve the quality of faculty teaching and student learning. Guided by the How People Learn (HPL) framework, engineering faculty worked in collaboration with learning scientists to develop learner‐centered, student‐focused instructional methods. In consultation with learning scientists, engineering faculty carried out educational inquiry in their classrooms aimed at investigating student learning and enhancing instruction. In this paper we discuss the extent to which faculty engaged in these collaborative endeavors and how their teaching approaches differed as a result of their level of engagement. Study findings reveal the role that collaborative reflection plays in shaping teaching approaches. Results from this study provide insights for researchers and other practitioners in engineering and higher education interested in implementing engineering faculty development programs to optimize the impact on teaching.     

“Engineering Graduate Teaching Assistant Instructional Programs: Training Tomorrow's Faculty Members”

Although there has been increased interest in graduate teaching assistant (GTA) training programs recently, few examples of programs specifically for engineering GTA's are found in the technical literature. A survey of engineering schools in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest region of the United States has been conducted to determine the extent of instructional programs. The results of this survey and the literature indicate that there are large differences in the amount of training that GTA's in different engineering schools receive. While some are involved in extensive training programs, many receive little or no instruction in teaching, and/or inadequate feedback to help improve their teaching skills. These findings are discussed, along with details of innovative instructional programs found in the literature, and suggestions for improving the state of engineering GTA instruction.     

A Comparative Assessment of Students'Experiences in Two Instructional Formats of an Introductory Materials Science Course

An educational experiment at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is described in which the instruction of the Introduction to Materials Science course (ES2001) was modified to incorporate active and cooperative learning. The overall goal was simultaneously to enhance educational quality and faculty productivity. Aspects of the course modification included use of “active” rather than traditional lectures, assignment of students to cooperative learning teams, introduction of a “product dissection project,” and a “teacher as manager” approach to instruction, in which undergraduate Peer Learning Assistants and the graduate Teaching Assistant took on responsibilities as part of the instructional team. Data were gathered from 382 students in three traditional course offerings and two active/cooperative offerings, using various survey instruments to measure students' learning and performance, attitudes about learning, interest in materials science, and their satisfaction with the course.     

Teamed Internships in Environmental Engineering and Technology: A Project Report

This paper is a summary report of the “Teamed Internships Program” (TIP), an Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grant through the National Science Foundation (NSF). This three‐year project created internships encompassing regional industries, federal research facilities, and two‐ and four‐year educational institutions. The project cultivated teamwork and communication skills for environmental technician and engineering students, developed instructional materials, and provided valuable contacts with industry. To foster faculty and teacher enhancement and student interest in environmental science and technology, insights from the program were incorporated into instructional materials and educational modules for dissemination to local secondary schools.     

Senior/Sophomore Co-Class Instruction: Teaching Interpersonal Management Skills in Engineering

As society becomes increasingly technology-oriented, there is a growing demand for engineers and scientists to take a greater role in decision-making processes. The future success of our engineering graduates will increasingly depend on not only solid training in scientific and engineering principles, but also a more rigorous education in interpersonal management skills (IPMS). Co-class instruction of sophomore and senior engineering students provides an efficient educational structure to incorporate IPMS education into an existing engineering curriculum. Co-class instruction provides opportunities for senior students to experience direct subordinate supervisory technical management, develop project management skills, formally evaluate personnel performance and improve faculty/student contact. Younger students gain opportunities to see how their engineering education is applied and gives them an opportunity to network with graduating students. Co-class instruction did not significantly increase instructor workload, but does require that one instructor teach both sophomore and senior classes concurrently. Given the similarity in engineering curriculum structure, this method should be easily applicable to a wide range of engineering disciplines. Results indicate that students are highly receptive to co-class instruction, with excellent feedback.     

Cooperative Learning Instructional Activities in a Capstone Design Course

In developing our capstone design course, we decided to include instruction in design methodology, project management, engineering communications, and professional ethics, along with a comprehensive design project. As this course evolved over a number of years, we found that active and cooperative learning was critical for effective instruction in these topics and we developed a series of instructional activities using this methodology. These activities consisted of short presentations (mini‐lectures) with interspersed team exercises. We describe our course, these instructional activities, and some evaluation data showing that our students found them effective and important. Our experiences convinced us that the cooperative learning approach both enhanced our students' understanding of these topics and encouraged them to incorporate the associated skills into their working skill set. Including team exercises that dealt with various steps in the design process provided a “jump‐start” on these unfamiliar activities in a structured, short duration exercise environment in class. Listening to presentations by other teams and reviewing and discussing another team's results as a part of the team exercises provided an opportunity to see and think about different formulations of the problem they just considered.     

The Effects of Personality Type on Engineering Student Performance and Attitudes

The Myers‐Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) was administered to a group of 116 students taking the introductory chemical engineering course at North Carolina State University. That course and four subsequent chemical engineering courses were taught in a manner that emphasized active and cooperative learning and inductive presentation of course material. Type differences in various academic performance measures and attitudes were noted as the students progressed through the curriculum. The observations were generally consistent with the predictions of type theory, and the experimental instructional approach appeared to improve the performance of MBTI types (extraverts, sensors, and feelers) found in previous studies to be disadvantaged in the engineering curriculum. The conclusion is that the MBTI is a useful tool for helping engineering instructors and advisors to understand their students and to design instruction that can benefit all of them.     

Collaborating with a Medical School to Assess Occupational Health and Safety Content in an Engineering Curriculum

A research center in the College of Medicine assisted the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department in the assessment of occupational health and safety instruction in the undergraduate agricultural engineering curriculum. An interdisciplinary team developed a questionnaire to explore three facets of health and safety instruction: 1) content and placement in the curriculum, 2) reasons for teaching occupational health and safety, and 3) adequacy of teaching resources. The questionnaire was pilot tested using agricultural engineering faculty and technicians from a large land grant university. Responses to the questionnaire revealed strengths and weaknesses in the curriculum regarding occupational health and safety instruction. The questionnaire will be expanded and further tested with a broader subject base. This cooperative effort demonstrates that medical schools can be a valuable resource to engineering schools who are looking for ways to improve occupational health and safety instruction in their curricula.     

Teaching Multi‐Disciplinary Design: Solar Car Design

Multi‐disciplinary design can be taught in a very general way focusing on methods and procedures that work for any multi‐disciplinary design project or in a very specific way focusing on a specific multi‐disciplinary design project. The general approach teaches students the principles of how to approach any multi‐disciplinary design project but often lacks meaningful examples of how the principles are applied. Focusing on a specific multi‐disciplinary design project gives the students a meaningful example of how to apply design principles but they may have difficulty generalizing what they have learned and how it can be applied to other projects. To get a good background in engineering design, engineering students should have educational experiences that are both general and specific. This paper describes a course developed at the University of Missouri‐Rolla (UMR) to teach multi‐disciplinary design by focusing on the design of a solar racing car. The purpose of the course is to teach the aspects of a multi‐disciplinary design project utilizing a specific example for student comprehension.     

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.     

Student Learning of Criterion 3 (a)‐(k) Outcomes with Short Instructional Modules and the Relationship to Bloom's Taxonomy

Engineering accreditation criteria require that engineering graduates demonstrate competency with a set of skills identified in Criterion 3 (a)‐(k). Because of a scarcity of instructional material on many of these topics, a team of engineering instructors developed and tested a set of short modules for teaching these skills. Using before and after module surveys, the students indicated their confidence in their ability to do specific tasks derived from the module's learning objectives. Data also were obtained with a control group not receiving the instruction. In comparing pre‐ and post‐module data, 33 percent of the comparisons were significantly different at the 0.05 level. In comparing control and post‐module data, the corresponding value was 44 percent. These results indicate that instruction with these short modules produced a significant effect on student learning.     

Personal and Professional Enrichment: Humanities in the Engineering Curriculum

The Drexel E4 approach to engineering education has evolved from emphases on teamwork and course integration to include an emphasis on faculty development through the Personal and Professional Enrichment component. One of the four components of the curriculum which are described elsewhere, the Personal and Professional Enrichment Program, encompasses a short orientation course and the year long Humanities sequence. The orientation course, taught by all the team members, provides a forum for faculty as well as students to discuss personal and educational goals. It also provides faculty with a social arena which has become important in developing and maintaining the strong sense of community the team shares. The faculty have profited from talking about themselves as individuals, as much as the students who have discovered professionals as role models—concerned citizens and parents, and lifelong learners. Students are introduced to engineering as a profession that requires not only technological skills but also an awareness of ethics, of the need for lifelong learning, and of the importance of Humanities. It is important to note that the technical faculty teach the introductory course and thus themselves attest to the value of humanistic concerns throughout the entire program. Continuing the integration of goals as well as subjects, the Humanities curriculum includes the traditional sequence in reading, writing, and research skills with an emphasis on technical writing, visuals and oral presentation skills. Meritorious texts are chosen to highlight humanistic concerns about the impact of technology so that students recognize the engineers' obligation to the world we all share. By enhancing communication skills, developing an awareness of audience and expanding their imagination, students gain confidence in expressing creative and responsible attempts at solving engineering problems.     

Personal and Professional Enrichment: Humanities in the Engineering Curriculum

The Drexel E⁴ approach to engineering education has evolved from emphases on teamwork and course integration to include an emphasis on faculty development through the Personal and Professional Enrichment component. One of the four components of the curriculum which are described elsewhere, the Personal and Professional Enrichment Program, encompasses a short orientation course and the year long Humanities sequence. The orientation course, taught by all the team members, provides a forum for faculty as well as students to discuss personal and educational goals. It also provides faculty with a social arena which has become important in developing and maintaining the strong sense of community the team shares. The faculty have profited from talking about themselves as individuals, as much as the students who have discovered professionals as role models—concerned citizens and parents, and lifelong learners. Students are introduced to engineering as a profession that requires not only technological skills but also an awareness of ethics, of the need for lifelong learning, and of the importance of Humanities. It is important to note that the technical faculty teach the introductory course and thus themselves attest to the value of humanistic concerns throughout the entire program. Continuing the integration of goals as well as subjects, the Humanities curriculum includes the traditional sequence in reading, writing, and research skills with an emphasis on technical writing, visuals and oral presentation skills. Meritorious texts are chosen to highlight humanistic concerns about the impact of technology so that students recognize the engineers' obligation to the world we all share. By enhancing communication skills, developing an awareness of audience and expanding their imagination, students gain confidence in expressing creative and responsible attempts at solving engineering problems.     

Utilizing Instructional Consultations to Enhance the Teaching Performance of Engineering Faculty

Although many kinds of data can be used to guide instructional consultations, research comparing the efficacy of such data is scant, especially in engineering. In this study, multiple modes of assessment were used to evaluate the impact of consultations informed by different kinds of data. This study illuminates two key aspects of instructional consultations: (1) their efficacy varies depending on the kind of data used to guide them, with student feedback from a Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID) having the largest positive impact, and (2) the instructional consultant plays a key role in helping both interpret the available data and identify strategies for improvement. These findings suggest three implications for practice: (1) whenever possible, SGID‐based consultations should be offered systematically and proactively for engineering faculty, (2) data for other kinds of consultations should be tailored to the needs of the individual instructor, and (3) instructional consultants should be available to collaborate with faculty to enhance their teaching, thereby building an engineering culture that actively supports teaching and learning.     

Teaching Invention and Design: Multi-Disciplinary Learning Modules

This paper outlines an approach to teaching invention and design that combines engineering, social sciences and humanities. We created an experimental course with a collaborative learning environment in which students from a wide range of majors worked in teams on modules, each of which lasted for several weeks and included strong written and oral components. Standard university curricula tend to compartmentalize engineering, humanities and social sciences. But real world engineering decisions defy such compartmentalization, as students discover when they take this course. Four active learning modules from the course are described in this paper: a hands-on project based on the invention of the telephone, a computer simulator to teach driving, an energy-efficient house and a medical decision support system based on a client's needs. A thorough evaluation of the course and modules is included, as are suggestions for future improvements.     

Design of safety-critical systems using the complementarities of success and failure domains with a case study

A safety-critical system has to qualify the performance-related requirements and the safety-related requirements simultaneously. Conceptually, design processes should consider both of them simultaneously but the practices do not and/or cannot follow such a theoretical approach due to the limitation of design resources. From our experience, we found that safety-related functions must be simultaneously resolved with the development of performance-related functions, particularly, in case of safety-critical systems. Since, success and failure domain analyses are essential for the investigation of performance-related and safety-related requirements, respectively, we articulated our perception to Axiomatic Design (AD), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), and TRIZ. A design evolution procedure considering feedbacks from AD to identify functional couplings, TRIZ methodology to explore uncoupling solutions and FTA to improve reliability in a systematic way is presented here. A case study regarding design of safety injection tank installed in a nuclear power plant is also included to illustrate the proposed framework. It is expected that several iterations between AD-TRIZ-FTA would result into an optimized design which could be tested against the desired performance and safety criteria.