Introduction to Engineering Through Service-Learning

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kazmer ◽  
John Duffy ◽  
Linda Barrington ◽  
Beverly Perna
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Traditional Teaching ◽  
Engineering Curriculum ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Teaching Evaluations ◽  
Academic Subject ◽  
Course Offerings

Service-learning (S-L) is the integration of academic subject matter with service to the community in credit-bearing courses. In an engineering context, service-learning provides a project-based experience in which students are presented with real clients and their problems, often of immediate need. This paper reflects on three years of service-learning integrated into a first engineering course with approximately three hundred students per year. The costs and benefits of service-learning to students, faculty, and clients are analyzed through several means including traditional teaching evaluations, blind pre- and post-assessments by students and clients, multi-year institutional data regarding student performance, and others. The results indicate that a majority of students personally believe that the described service-learning project is a valuable experience and should be integrated throughout the engineering curriculum. However, the service-learning experience varied significantly across teams, students, and course offerings.

scholarly journals Examining the Efficacy of E-Service-Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Figuccio
Keyword(s):  
Distance Learning ◽  
Developmental Disabilities ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Atypical Development

E-service-learning is a pedagogical technique in which instruction and/or service occur online. Students in a distance learning section of Atypical Development created a Google Site with resources for individuals with developmental disabilities. Additionally, students met with youths with developmental disabilities biweekly via Blackboard Collaborate Ultra sessions. At the end of the semester, students completed a questionnaire assessing their e-service-learning experience and wrote reflection papers. Students reported that the e-service-learning experience was related to course content, increased their understanding of individuals with disabilities, increased student engagement, helped them relate the subject matter to everyday life, positively impacted their future academic and career choices, and overall had a positive experience. Students in a traditional face-to-face section of Atypical Development who completed an in-person service-learning project did not significantly differ on any of the aforementioned questionnaire measures. Interestingly, students in the distance learning section reported in their reflection papers that the e-service-learning experience reduced their levels of anxiety. Course evaluations were also examined for both sections. Students in the e-service-learning section reported greater satisfaction than the in-person service-learning course. Specifically, e-service-learning students reported: the instructor attempted to make the course relevant to students; the assignments helped me learn the subject matter; I enjoyed the class greater than students in the in-person service-learning course. These results indicate that e-service-learning is an efficacious pedagogical practice in distance learning courses.

scholarly journals A Study of the Correlation of the Improvement of Teaching Evaluation Scores Based on Student Performance Grades

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chi Yuan Chen ◽  
Shu-Yin Wang ◽  
Yi-Fang Yang
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
Negative Correlation ◽  
Teaching Evaluation ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Teaching Evaluations ◽  
Evaluation Scores ◽  
Final Grades ◽  
Academic Year

The purpose of the study is to explore the influence of teaching evaluations on teachers in that they might try to please their students by giving higher grades in order to get higher teaching evaluation scores. To achieve this purpose, the study analyzed the correlations between teaching evaluation scores, student’s final grades and course fail rates, and it also examined whether students’ final scores and course fail rates are important predictors of teaching evaluation scores. The study used teaching evaluation scores and students’ final grades of the courses offered in the fall term of academic year 2014 and the spring term of academic year 2015 in one university in Taiwan as research samples. The results showed that both student’s final grades and course fail rates are predictors of teaching evaluation scores. There is a positive correlation between teaching evaluation scores and students’ final grades, and a negative correlation between teaching evaluation scores and course fail rates. Based on the findings, the study inferred that the implementation of teaching evaluations may influence teachers to give better grades and lower course requirements to please their students in order to get higher teaching evaluation scores.

scholarly journals Online or not? A comparison of students’ experiences of an online and an on-campus class

Curationis ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tennyson Mgutshini
Keyword(s):  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Measurement Tool ◽  
Online Students ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Multiple Data

Educational discourse has long portrayed online, or e-based, learning and all non-campus-based learning options as second best to traditional face-to-face options. Critically much of the research and debate in this area of study has focused on evidence relating to student performance, attrition and retention with little consideration of the total learning experience, which values both the traditional learning outcome measures side-by-side with student-centered factors, such as students’ satisfaction with their learning experience. The objective of this study was to present a synchronous head-to-head comparison between online and campus-based students’ experiences of an undergraduate course. This paper reports on a qualitative comparative cross-sectional study, which used multiple data collection approaches to assess student learning and student satisfaction of 61 students who completed a semester of an undergraduate course. Of the 61 students, 34 were enrolled purely as online students, whilst the remaining 27 students studied the same material entirely through the traditional face-to-face medium. Methods included a standardised student satisfaction survey and an ‘achievement of learning outcomes’ measurement tool. Students on the online cohort performed better in areas where ‘self-direction’ in learning was indicated, for example self-directed problem-based tasks within the course. Online students gave less positive self-assessments of their perceived content mastery than their campus-based counterparts, despite performing just as well in both summative and formative assignments. A multi-factorial comparison shows online students to have comparable educational success and that, in terms of student satisfaction, online learners reported more satisfaction with their learning experience than their campus-based counterparts.

E-learning and Language and Style in Lancaster

2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mick Short
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Year ◽  
Traditional Teaching ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Traditional Lecture ◽  
Student Responses ◽  
Introductory Course ◽  
E Learning ◽  
The Web

This article reports on research conducted in the department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University from 2002 to 2005 on first-year undergraduate student performance in, and reaction to, a web-based introductory course in stylistic analysis. The main focus of this report is a comparison of student responses to the varying ways in which the web-based course was used from year to year. The description of student responses is based on an analysis of end-of-course questionnaires and a comparison of exit grades. In 2002–3, students accessed the first two-thirds of the course in web-based form and the last third through more traditional teaching. In 2003–4 the entire course was accessed in web-based form, and in 2004–5 web-based course workshops were used as part of a combined package which also involved weekly lectures and seminars. Some comparison is also made with student performance in, and responses to, the traditional lecture + seminar form of the course, as typified in the 2001–2 version of the course.

scholarly journals Service Learning Collaborations: A Formula for Reciprocity

2010 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura A. Lowe ◽  
Victoria L. Medina
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Mixed Methodology ◽  
Educational Institutions

Service learning offers opportunities for both educational institutions and the community. To demonstrate the possibilities this pedagogy can offer, this article discusses a service learning experience partnering students with a hospice agency. Using mixed methodology, impact on students, patients, and staff are examined. Results indicate that students improved their attitudes toward the elderly, and death and dying; they also believed the experience caused personal and professional growth. Interviews with patients highlighted the importance of relationships and recognition, and staff identified benefits to students, patients, and the hospice agency. The conclusion is made that service learning is best perceived in a light of reciprocity and that this method of engagement offers opportunities for educators and practitioners. Finally, some tips are given for practitioners interested in developing such collaborations.

scholarly journals Conceptual Framework for Assessing Process Variables Salient for Service-Learning Experience

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ka Hing Lau ◽  
Robin Snell
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Community Partner ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Past ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
Effective Integration

Service-learning is an established pedagogy which integrates experiential learning with community service. It has been widely adopted in higher education around the world including in Hong Kong, yet the key ingredients that determine its successful impacts for its stakeholders have not been fully assessed. This study reviewed the past literature, which indicates the key ingredients that may be found in successful service-learning programmes. We identify six key ingredients: students provide meaningful service; the community partner representative plays a positive role; effective preparation and support for students; effective reflection by students; effective integration of service-learning within the course design; and stakeholder synergy in terms of collaboration, communication and co-ownership. In order to obtain an inter-subjectively fair and trustworthy data set, reflecting the extent to which those key ingredients are perceived to have been achieved, we propose a multi-stakeholder approach for data collection, involving students, instructors and community partner representatives.

scholarly journals Kilimanjaro: A Case of Meaningful Adventure And Service Learning Abroad

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 420-433
Author(s):  
Cathy Cavanaugh ◽  
Ewa Gajer ◽  
John Mayberry ◽  
Brendan O’Connor ◽  
Jace Hargis
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Meaningful Learning ◽  
Qualitative Evaluation ◽  
Female Undergraduate ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Mount Kilimanjaro ◽  
The World

This qualitative evaluation explored how female undergraduate students developed an understanding of themselves and the broader world as a result of an adventure and service learning experience in Tanzania, Africa. The project built upon theoretical frameworks regarding meaningful learning—active, constructive, intentional, and authentic—and applied activity theory as a framework for interpreting outcomes. The study included multi-faceted examination of student perceptions of the effects of the year-long experience that culminated in a ten day trip to Tanzania, including a climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Students’ reflections on the impacts of the trip focused on wanting, doing, reflecting, and relating. Thus, the experience catalyzed change in students’ understanding of the world that strongly indicates a meaningful learning experience.

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