Addressing Common Problems in Engineering Design Projects: A Project Management Approach

In using projects to teach engineering design, the instructor faces the question of how to structure the process to insure an effective learning environment without compromising the independence and open‐ended nature of the student's experience. The instructor faces the problems of student time scallop (the tendency to increase effort exponentially as the final deadline approaches), of potential laggards in a group (students doing little work and getting credit for the group's results) and of students learning appropriate work documentation habits. All of these problems are project management issues and project management tools can be used to solve them. This includes both the instructor's and the student's use of project management tools. In our process, students use three key techniques to address these issues: 1. a milestone schedule, 2. regular project review meetings and memos and 3. design memos which document each design task as the project progresses. Greatest success results when students utilize all three of these tasks. Both students and instructors have experienced reduced time scallop. A memo portfolio provides a measure of individual student performance. Students turn in improved projects, learn some basic project management tools, and gain experience at regular documentation of their work.     

Evaluation of Instructional Design of Computer‐Based Teaching Modules for a Manufacturing Processes Laboratory

Studies concerning student preferences and student learning as a function of the instructional design and delivery of a computer‐based teaching (CBT) module are presented. The studies were conducted in conjunction with the development of twenty‐one CBT modules for an Introduction to Manufacturing Processes laboratory that emphasized metal removal. Study results indicate there is no statistically relevant difference in learning between students using material presented with traditional multimedia (35 mm slides and cassette tapes) and the identical material presented with digital multimedia. Engineering students' preferences for interface design and audio‐visual information presentation are also presented. The most important result is that learning outcomes of a reader‐driven CBT module were found to be statistically lower than those associated with author‐driven CBT module, especially for average and below‐average students. These results suggest that if students must absolutely understand material, e.g., laboratory safety, the CBT should be author‐driven. Based on these results, we speculate that average and below average engineering students are more linear learners. A hybrid scheme, where information presentation transitions from an author‐driven to a reader‐driven environment may help weaker students develop better non‐linear, open‐ended problem solving skills.     

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.     

Integrated Virtual Learning System for Programmable Logic Controller*

A integrated virtual learning system is being researched and developed to teach students about programmable logic controllers (PLCs). This system, called the Virtual PLC, incorporates intelligent tutoring system, simulation, and animation technologies. This article describes the development and evaluation of modules on PLC timer and counter instructions. These modules were first developed using an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) authoring tool and animation tools. After the concept was proved positively, a Web‐based ITS was developed to incorporate both modules. The authoring tool‐based ITS timer modules were evaluated with 90 undergraduate manufacturing engineering students in 2002. The Web‐based ITS timer and counter modules were evaluated by 38 undergraduate students in 2003. In both cases, students made statistically significant learning gains as a result of taking the modules, and rated the modules positively in terms of ease of use and understanding, clear objectives, amount of interaction, ability to motivate, relevance, and pace.     

Hands‐On CFD Educational Interface for Engineering Courses and Laboratories

This study describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an effective curriculum for students to learn computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in introductory and intermediate undergraduate and introductory graduate level courses/laboratories. The curriculum is designed for use at different universities with different courses/laboratories, learning objectives, applications, conditions, and exercise notes. The common objective is to teach students from novice to expert users who are well prepared for engineering practice. The study describes a CFD Educational Interface for hands‐on student experience, which mirrors actual engineering practice. The Educational Interface teaches CFD methodology and procedures through a step‐by‐step interactive implementation automating the CFD process. A hierarchical system of predefined active options facilitates use at introductory and intermediate levels, encouraging self‐learning, and eases transition to using industrial CFD codes. An independent evaluation documents successful learning outcomes and confirms the effectiveness of the interface for students in introductory and intermediate fluid mechanics courses.     

Simulation‐based Learning in Engineering Education: Performance and Transfer in Learning Project Management

This paper reports empirical findings on the impact of keeping and reviewing learning history in a dynamic and interactive simulation environment of engineering education. The simulator for engineering project management had two learning history keeping modes: automatic (simulator‐controlled) and manual (student‐controlled), and a version with no history keeping. A group of industrial engineering students performed four simulation‐runs divided into three identical simple scenarios (single project) and one complicated scenario (multi‐project). The performances of participants running the simulation with the manual history mode were significantly better than users running the simulation with the automatic history mode. Moreover, the effects of using the history mechanism with the ability to undo further enhanced the learning process. The findings imply that students' decision when to record the history during their engineering training process can have a particularly strong enhancing effect on learning. In addition, the simulator as educational innovation improves students learning and performance. The practical implications of using simulators in the field of engineering learning are discussed.     

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.     

Promoting Advanced Writing Skills in an Upper‐Level Engineering Class

This paper summarizes the design and evaluation of an instructional approach aimed at improving the writing skills of a group of undergraduate engineering students. We sought to determine whether student performance in difficult writing skills such as argumentation and synthesis could be improved by integrating a single writing exercise into an upper level engineering course. In designing the exercise, we relied heavily on recommendations for best practices from the learning science community, specifically those codified in the National Academy text How People Learn [1]. We found reliable improvement in student performance in many of the areas targeted, demonstrating that the approach taken was effective. Since we modified the exercise a few times before meeting our objectives for student learning, we could compare the effectiveness of different implementations of our approach. Our success and failures provide guidance for others seeking to improve the competence of engineering undergraduates in writing.     

Assessing K‐12 Pre‐Engineering Outreach Programs*

Motivated by a desire to excite K‐12 students about the joys of engineering and spark their interest in pre‐engineering subjects, the Integrated Teaching and Learning (ITL) Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder has developed a pre‐engineering outreach program targeted at K‐12 teachers and students. To supplement anecdotal success indicators, ITL developed several assessment tools to measure the impact of these programs. Assessment strategies consist of three key components: 1) assessment of workshop participant feedback (teachers and students), 2) assessment of long‐term outcomes (teachers), and 3) assessment tools developed for the teachers' classroom use (i.e., embedded assessment). This paper reviews the process used to develop the assessment plans and tools. Examples of the tools used to assess participant feedback and preliminary outcomes are provided. Additionally, the process used to develop embedded assessment tools is described, including development of performance criteria and assessment tools that are linked to the learning goals, objectives, and K‐12 State educational standards.     

Experiences of First‐Year Engineering Students Working on Ill‐Structured Problems in Teams

Background

As engineers solve problems that are ill‐structured and require collaboration, a common goal of engineering programs is to develop students' competencies for solving such problems in teams, often using cornerstone design experiences.

Purpose

With the goal of designing effective learning environments, this study identifies qualitatively different ways that engineering students experienced ill‐structured problems while working in teams.

Design/Method

This phenomenographic study employs interview data from 27 first‐year engineering students. Iterative data analysis resulted in categories of student experiences and their logical relationships.

Results

Seven categories describing collaborative, ill‐structured problem‐solving experiences emerged: completion, transition, iteration, organization, collaboration, reasoning, and growth. These categories are organized in an outcome space along dimensions we call reaction to ambiguity and use of multiple perspectives that can be used to frame students' perspectives from less comprehensive to more comprehensive.

Conclusions

First‐year engineering students experience team‐based, ill‐structured problem solving in a variety of ways. The resulting outcome space is of practical use to educators who teach courses involving collaborative, ill‐structured problem solving.     

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.     

Web‐Based Readiness Assessment Quizzes

Student readiness to fully participate in designed educational activities is often impeded by a lack of individual preparation through assigned readings or study. However, student preparation is rarely treated as an integral part of course design. Consequently, web‐based readiness assessment quizzes were developed for three courses in biological/biosystems engineering, at the freshman and junior levels. The overall goal was to improve student preparatory reading by assessing lower‐level knowledge just prior to the class period when that knowledge is needed for higher‐level learning activities. In this way, a web‐based educational tool was utilized as an integral, rather than just supplemental, part of the course design. The quizzes were designed to simultaneously ensure/assess student preparation and guide the students toward the highest priority topics within a given unit. The quizzes were graded automatically with the results reported electronically to the instructor. Student likelihood to read assigned materials was significantly improved (P < 0.0001), based on ratings from students in three different courses over four years of using these quizzes.     

Verbal Protocol Analysis as a Method to Document Engineering Student Design Processes

Undergraduate engineering programs have faced numerous challenges in recent years. One of these challenges is to improve the way open-ended design is taught. Although changes are underway in schools throughout the United States, not enough evaluation has been done to determine the impact of these changes. In this paper we describe a research tool that can also be used to assess student learning: verbal protocol analysis. In particular, this tool can be used to document the processes that engineering students use to solve open-ended engineering design problems. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the use of verbal protocol analysis as a method to assess student design processes. We also discuss the research questions that can be addressed by verbal protocol analysis and the opportunity to include this type of study as part of an engineering program evaluation.     

Pre‐college Electrical Engineering Instruction: The Impact of Abstract vs. Contextualized Representation and Practice on Learning

Background While engineering instructional materials and practice problems for pre‐college students are often presented in the context of real‐life situations, college‐level texts are typically written in abstract form. Purpose (Hypothesis ) The goal of this study was to jointly examine the impact of contextualizing engineering instruction and varying the number of practice opportunities on pre‐college students' learning and learning perceptions. Design/ Method Using a 3 × 2 factorial design, students were randomly assigned to learn about electrical circuit analysis with an instructional program that represented problems in abstract, contextualized, or both forms, either with two practice problems or four practice problems. The abstract problems were devoid of any real‐life context and represented with standard abstract electrical circuit diagrams. The contextualized problems were anchored around real‐life scenarios and represented with life‐like images. The combined contextualized‐abstract condition added abstract circuit diagrams to the contextualized representation. To measure learning, students were given a problem‐solving near‐transfer post‐test. Learning perceptions were measured using a program‐rating survey where students had to rate the instructional program's diagrams, helpfulness, and difficulty. Results Students in the combined contextualized‐abstract condition scored higher on the post‐test, produced better problem representations, and rated the program's diagrams and helpfulness higher than their counterparts. Students who were given two practice problems gave higher program diagram and helpfulness ratings than those given four practice problems. Conclusions These findings suggest that pre‐college engineering instruction should consider anchoring learning in real‐life contexts and providing students with abstract problem representations that can be transferred to a variety of problems.     

Considering Context: A Study of First‐Year Engineering Students

High‐quality engineering design requires an understanding of how the resulting engineered artifact interacts with society, the natural environment, and other aspects of context. This study examines how first‐year engineering undergraduates approached two engineering design tasks. We focused on how much students considered contextual factors during problem‐scoping, a critical part of the design process. As part of a larger, longitudinal study, we collected data from 160 students at four U.S. institutions. Students varied in their consideration of each design task's context, and women's responses were more likely to be context‐oriented than men's. Overall, context‐orientation was positively correlated between the two design tasks, despite differences in data collection and analysis. Having found that beginning engineering students, particularly women, are sensitive to important contextual factors, we suggest that efforts to broaden participation in engineering should consider legitimizing and fostering context‐oriented approaches to engineering earlier in the curriculum.     

Pedagogies of Engagement: Classroom‐Based Practices

Educators, researchers, and policy makers have advocated student involvement for some time as an essential aspect of meaningful learning. In the past twenty years engineering educators have implemented several means of better engaging their undergraduate students, including active and cooperative learning, learning communities, service learning, cooperative education, inquiry and problem‐based learning, and team projects. This paper focuses on classroom‐based pedagogies of engagement, particularly cooperative and problem‐based learning. It includes a brief history, theoretical roots, research support, summary of practices, and suggestions for redesigning engineering classes and programs to include more student engagement. The paper also lays out the research ahead for advancing pedagogies aimed at more fully enhancing students' involvement in their learning.     

e‐Lab: An Electronic Classroom for Real‐Time Distance Delivery of a Laboratory Course

The Internet continues to demonstrate its versatility as a learning tool in the realm of higher education. As courses in everything from art history to engineering are offered on the Internet, we are experiencing a transition from traditional textbook and lecture teaching method to the virtual classroom. Yet, effective distance delivery of engineering laboratory courses remains a challenging problem. This paper introduces a new approach to deliver a senior‐level laboratory course at a distance in real‐time. The enabling technology is the combination of an interactive TV system and the Internet. The paper presents details of the laboratory setup and five sessions. Data collected for the past two years are analyzed statistically to assess student learning and achievement of learning objectives of each laboratory. Results of the analysis as well as surveys indicate that the e‐Lab created an effective learning environment.     

Socially‐Relevant Design: The TOYtech Project at Smith College

As issues of professional and ethical responsibility are receiving greater emphasis in engineering programs, the view of engineering as a profession in service to humanity is becoming more widespread. One approach to fostering this perspective among engineering students is the inclusion of socially relevant design projects throughout the curriculum. In this paper we present an example of one such project used in the introduction to engineering course at Smith College (the largest women's college in the U.S.) in which students are challenged to design toys that introduce children to the principles that underlie technology (TOYtech, or Teaching Our Youth Technology). Based on student surveys, we found that the majority of the course learning objectives were achieved through the implementation of the project, with students emphasizing that the project taught them about the importance of working well in teams and of considering the societal impact of engineering practice. In addition, we present our findings regarding the psychological type distribution of our inaugural class of first‐year engineering students and compare these to national values for female engineering students as a whole. These preliminary Myers‐Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) data suggest that our students are particularly responsive to the ethic of social responsibility in engineering, and that they are strong communicators in addition to possessing a well‐organized, practical approach to problem solving.