Introducing Cooperative Learning into a Dynamics Lecture Class

Numerous references have suggested that cooperative learning can significantly increase student understanding. Yet, structuring a lecture class to be given over totally to cooperative learning groups is overwhelming to most instructors and many remain unconvinced of its value. In this department, a limited experiment has served to introduce cooperative learning to the students as well as the instructor. Through a series of cooperative problem solving exercises, “lecture” classes become more active learning environments.     

ISO/TC 223简介(英文)

ISO/TC 223has five workgroups.●TC223/WG1:Framework standard on societal securit ymanagement●TC223/WG2:Terminology●TC223/WG3:Emergency management●TC223/WG4:Preparedness and continuity     

A Sentinel-Based Peer Assessment Mechanism for Collaborative Learning

This paper introduces a novel mechanism to improve the performance of peer assessment for collaborative learning. Firstly, a small set of assignments which have being pre-scored by the teacher impartially, are introduced as “sentinels”. The reliability of a reviewer can be estimated by the deviation between the sentinels’ scores judged by the reviewers and the impartial scores. Through filtering the inferior reviewers by the reliability, each score can then be subjected into mean value correction and standard deviation correction processes sequentially. Then the optimized mutual score which mitigated the influence of the subjective differences of the reviewers are obtained. We perform our experiments on 200 learners. They are asked to submit their assignments and review each other. In the experiments, the sentinel-based mechanism is compared with several other baseline algorithms. It proves that the proposed mechanism can effectively improve the accuracy of peer assessment, and promote the development of collaborative learning.     

Accounting for Individual Effort in Cooperative Learning Teams

An “autorating” (peer rating) system designed to account for individual performance in team projects was used in two sophomore‐level chemical engineering courses in which the students did their homework in cooperative learning teams. Team members confidentially rated how well they and each of their teammates fulfilled their responsibilities, the ratings were converted to individual weighting factors, and individual project grades were computed as the product of the team project grade and the weighting factor. Correlations were computed between ratings and grades, self‐ratings and ratings from teammates, and ratings received and given by men and women and by ethnic minorities and non‐minorities. Incidences of “hitchhikers” (students whose performance was considered less than satisfactory by their teammates), “tutors” (students who received top ratings from all of their teammates), dysfunctional teams, and teams agreeing on a common rating were also determined. The results suggest that the autorating system works exceptionally well as a rule, and the benefits it provides more than compensate for the relatively infrequent problems that may occur in its use.     

The Nuts and Bolts of Cooperative Learning in Engineering

A great number of engineering students work alone most of the time. This is in sharp contrast with industry where most of the work is performed in teams. The ability to work in a team effectively is not acquired automatically. It takes interpersonal and social skills which need to be developed and practiced. In addition, research shows that the student-student interaction, often neglected in traditional ways of teaching, is a most effective way of learning. Thus, it is imperative that we encourage our students to work with each other in their efforts to achieve their educational goals. In this paper I discuss my experience with Cooperative Learning (CL) in a variety of engineering courses during the last four years. The discussion includes benefits and problems along with possible solutions. Lastly, I have made an effort to evaluate the impact of CL on student performance and attitude.     

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.     

Implementation of Interdisciplinary Group Learning and Peer Assessment in a Nanotechnology Engineering Course

Nanotechnology is an inherently interdisciplinary field that has generated significant scientific and engineering interest in recent years. In an effort to convey the excitement and opportunities surrounding this discipline to senior undergraduate students and junior graduate students, a nanotechnology engineering course has been developed in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University over the past two years. This paper examines the unique challenges facing educators in this dynamic, emerging field and describes an approach for the design of a nanotechnology engineering course employing the non‐traditional pedagogical practices of collaborative group learning, interdisciplinary learning, problem‐based learning, and peer assessment. Utilizing the same nanotechnology course given the year before as a historical control, analysis of the difference between measures of student performance and student experience over the two years indicates that these practices are successful and provide an educationally informed template for other newly developed engineering courses.     

Cooperative Perception Optimization Based on Self-Checking Machine Learning

In the process of spectrum perception, in order to realize accurate perception of the channel state, the method of multi-node cooperative perception can usually be used. However, the first problem to be considered is how to complete information fusion and obtain more accurate and reliable judgment results based on multi-node perception results. The ideas put forward in this paper are as follows: firstly, the perceived results of each node are obtained on the premise of limiting detection probability and false alarm probability. Then, on the one hand, the weighted fusion criterion of decision-making weight optimization of each node is realized based on a genetic algorithm, and the useless nodes also can be screened out to reduce energy loss; on the other hand, through the linear fitting ability of RBF neural network, the self-inspection of the perceptive nodes can be realized to ensure the normal operation of the perceptive work of each node. What's more, the real-time training data can be obtained by spectral segmentation technology to ensure the real-time accuracy of the optimization results. Finally, the simulation results show that this method can effectively improve the accuracy and stability of channel perception results, optimize the structure of the cooperative network and reduce energy consumption.     

Reconfigurable Sensing Time in Cooperative Cognitive Network Using Machine Learning

A cognitive radio network (CRN) intelligently utilizes the available spectral resources by sensing and learning from the radio environment to maximize spectrum utilization. In CRNs, the secondary users (SUs) opportunistically access the primary users (PUs) spectrum. Therefore, unambiguous detection of the PU channel occupancy is the most critical aspect of the operations of CRNs. Cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) is rated as the best choice for making reliable sensing decisions. This paper employs machine-learning tools to sense the PU channels reliably in CSS. The sensing parameters are reconfigured to maximize the spectrum utilization while reducing sensing error and cost with improved channel throughput. The fine-k-nearest neighbor algorithm (FKNN), employed in this paper, estimates the number of samples based on the nature of the channel under-specific detection and false alarm probability demands. The simulation results reveal that the sensing cost is suppressed by reducing the sensing time and exploiting the traditional fusion rules, validating the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Furthermore, the global decision made at the fusion center (FC) based on the modified sensing samples, results low energy consumption, higher throughput, and improved detection with low error probabilities.     

Introducing Cooperative Learning through a Faculty Instructional Development Program

Cooperative Learning was officially introduced in the College of Engineering at San Jose State University in 1995 with a two‐day workshop. The Faculty Instructional Development Program in the college maintains interest in the subjsect and provides support for instructors who use Cooperative Learning, through workshops and informal discussions (Conversations on Teaching). This paper discusses the effectiveness of the program in introducing, promoting, and implementing Cooperative Learning among the faculty and students in the college of engineering. A variety of performance criteria have been used in this assessment, some faculty‐centered and some student‐centered. The results indicate that although a relatively small percentage of faculty have chosen to adopt Cooperative Learning as a teaching tool in their courses, the impact on student attitudes and learning is significant, making the effort worthwhile.     

Comparing Competitive and Cooperative Strategies for Learning Project Management

Many organizations use project management to organize and administer resources in time and in place in an effort to optimize costs and meet certain constraints. These constitute cognitive skills acquired through training and experience that have successfully been shown to be trainable through simulation. However, past research on simulation‐based project management training focused on individual learning. In this paper, we are interested in investigating whether a competitive or cooperative strategy is more desirable in using simulators for project management training. Several theories suggest that cooperative learning is more beneficial to learning than competitive learning. To investigate this problem, an experiment was set up based on the simulation‐based Project Management Trainer (PMT) software. The results suggest that using both PMT cooperative and competitive strategies yield learning in project management. However, cooperative strategies yield better results in the overall outcome.     

Student Cooperative Learning Workshops Go Mainstream: UMR's Excel Program

We offer cooperative learning workshops to all students enrolled in our largest lower division math and science courses where failure rates are high. Participation in the workshops is related to retention and higher academic achievement among engineering students of various abilities. In the tradition of workshops developed for disadvantaged students in mathematics, science, and engineering, our students meet outside of class in structured group meetings. Our contributions to this tradition include application to a broader range of courses, the inclusion of all types of students, and enhanced training of workshop facilitators in small group communication methods and modern leadership techniques. Our approach is readily adaptable to most institutions.     

Identification of Dysfunctional Cooperative Learning Teams Based on Students' Academic Achievement

Background Considerable evidence exists to suggest that students who study cooperatively reap significant benefits in terms of their learning performance. However, sooner or later, most cooperative learning teams have to deal with one or more members whose actions disturb the team. Unless these problems are quickly resolved, the cooperative learning team gradually becomes dysfunctional and the benefits of cooperative learning are diminished. Purpose (Hypothesis ) A method is proposed for identifying dysfunctional cooperative learning teams by comparing the academic achievement of students in a cooperative learning condition with that of students in an individual learning condition. Design /Method A series of experiments were performed in which 42 sophomore mechanical engineering students were randomly assigned to the two learning conditions and were formed into mixed‐ability groups comprising three team members. The academic performance of the students in the two learning conditions was then systematically compared in terms of their respective test scores. Results Dysfunctional teams were identified using a new quality index defined as the mean test score of the team divided by the standard deviation of the team members' test scores. The probability of a Type I error was quantified using a control chart. The identification results were verified by analyzing the students' off‐task behavior frequency and attitudes toward cooperative learning, respectively. Conclusions The experimental results confirm that the proposed quality index is a potential indicator of dysfunctional cooperative learning teams.     

Factors Related to Performance Ratings of Engineering Students in Cooperative Education Placements

The placement of post-secondary students in cooperative education (co-op) settings impacts students, employers, and academic institutions. Those responsible for securing such placements need information to guide them in maximizing the success of these assignments. The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between engineering students' performance in cooperative education placements and student demographic factors student academic factors co-op setting factors prior work experience. A survey was completed by 271 engineering students from nine U.S. engineering schools with formalized, structured cooperative education programs. Eight of the 14 predictor variables were related to performance ratings, although the statistically significant correlations were modest. The student's grade point average most highly correlated with performance in co-op placements (r=0.34). Among the other relationships found were the positive correlation of performance with the percent of coursework completed prior to placement (r=0.26) and the length of the placement (r=0.31). No evidence was found to suggest that the size of the co-op employer related to the student's performance. Coordinators of cooperative education may find these results useful to share with student advisees. However, due to the correlational nature of the study, readers are cautioned not to assume the findings reflect causal connections.     

Engineering Cooperative Education: A Statistical Analysis of Employer Benefits

This article describes the methods and results of research conducted using a survey of cooperative education directors to statistically test conclusions drawn from previously conducted studies. The perspective of employers of engineering cooperative education students is examined. Benefits to employers and problems experienced by employers that support engineering cooperative education are identified and analyzed for their statistical significance. The problems experienced by employers is a new perspective that has not previously been discussed by other cooperative education studies.     

After So Much Effort: Is Faculty Using Cooperative Learning in the Classroom?

Cooperative learning (CL) has been lauded over the years as one of the most successful teaching/learning strategies employed by professors of science, mathematics, engineering and technology (SMET) in institutions of higher education throughout Puerto Rico. The goal of the research project presented here was to examine the effectiveness of CL as perceived by SMET faculty who use it in the classroom at member institutions of the Puerto Rico Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (PR‐LSAMP). As a long‐term goal, PR‐LSAMP researchers desired to use the findings to understand and address the training needs of their SMET faculty. Data was gathered on faculty members' use of CL and their perceptions of the effect of CL strategies on student performance and attitudes. Principal survey results showed that over 60% of faculty felt confident in their knowledge of CL theory and role assignment, although somewhat less confident in conflict resolution, grading activities and individual accountability. Fifty percent (50%) reported using the strategy very often or often (primarily for the exploration and learning of new concepts, in team projects and presentations, and in quizzes). Forty‐one percent (41%) described their experience in implementing CL as excellent or very good. In addition, faculty perceived more positive than negative changes in student performance and attitudes. Based on study results, researchers concluded that the success of cooperative learning in PR‐LSAMP institutions signals the beginning of a paradigm shift in the islands' educational system. In addition, results of the study were subsequently used to develop a cadre of SMET faculty to train their peers in various areas of cooperative learning.