Fostering Innovation Through Experiential Learning

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahed Siddique ◽  
Patricia Hardre´ ◽  
Amy Bradshaw ◽  
Mrinal Saha ◽  
Farrokh Mistree
Keyword(s):  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Formula Sae ◽  
Race Car ◽  
Instructional Activities ◽  
Team Design ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

Globalization has put engineering education and the profession at a challenging crossroad. The impact of rapid technological innovations on modern societies has been amplified by the globalization of the economy. The competitiveness of the U.S., which is linked to our standard of living, is dependent on our ability to produce a large number of sufficiently innovative engineers prepared to address issues related to complex systems. Hence, our focus is on the research and development of instructional activities that address the engineering competencies related to innovation. Engineering educators and practitioners have suggested that collaborative-competitive team design events promote innovation. These competitions are popular, and they attract sponsors and participants. Beyond being popular, they are believed to provide rich learning opportunities for students. The University of Oklahoma’s Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Racing team is highly ranked in the U.S. and world. We are in the early stages of designing, implementing, and testing a four course curriculum, around the FSAE race car, that fosters meaningful learning, innovation, systems level thinking, and the attainment of career-sustaining skills as a result of authentic experiences. We plan to identify the activity features that match with the theoretical frameworks of innovation, match them to the professional competencies, translate the events from extracurricular to curricular activities, and assess their effects on student learning and development in four technical courses our curriculum. With a view to stimulating discussion, in this paper, we highlight some of the salient features of our plan and some issues that warrant further investigation.

scholarly journals Information Literacy Beyond Librarians: A Data/Methods Triangulation Approach to Investigating Disciplinary IL Teaching Practices

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-37
Author(s):  
Britt Foster
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Faculty Perceptions ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Institutional Research ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Key Phrases ◽  
The University ◽  
Research Office

Abstract Objective – While library literature contains many studies examining faculty perceptions of the value of librarian-led information literacy (IL)instruction, there is little evidence regarding IL instruction practices of disciplinary faculty independent of librarians. In a climate of uncertain budgets, increasing student enrollment, and increased conversation around the need for IL, media, and digital literacy skills, this study aimed to investigate a little-researched area of the IL instruction, learning, and development milieu. Methods – In collaboration with the institutional research office, a data and methods triangulation approach was used. A survey of disciplinary faculty was administered and disciplinary faculty focus groups were also conducted. Student outcomes and annual assessment reports, documents that describe teaching and assessment methods for courses across the university, were analyzed. Voyant, a text-mining tool, was also used to determine key phrases and terms related to IL in these documents. Results – Results revealed that disciplinary faculty highly value skills and understandings affiliated with IL competency. Faculty provide the majority of IL learning opportunities independent of librarians, although these learning opportunities are generally provided through implicit, rather than explicit, methods. Pedagogical methods that may enable explicit practices, such as the use of standards and competencies, are infrequently used. Conclusion – Evidence and findings from this study are being used to inform several initiatives to work with disciplinary faculty for IL instruction, including new services, resources, and instruction models to support IL development in students.

Impact of Using Blackboard on Vocabulary Acquisition: KKU Students’ Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 598
Author(s):  
Hadeel Ali Hussain Alamer
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Item Questionnaire ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

This research aims to investigate the impact of employing the learning management system (Blackboard) on attitudes of King Khalid University (KKU) students. The research examines the students' knowledge and skills in employing the Blackboard in their learning process, and investigates the elements, which influence the students' attitude and performance in using Blackboard in classroom instruction from their perspectives. To this end, the author has selected a sample of 34 of KKU students, where they have been requested to complete a 14-item questionnaire. Findings of the current study revealed that KKU students faced several difficulties in learning English language vocabulary. Consequently, the students have developed negative attitudes towards English vocabulary. The study found that Blackboard had a little influence on the attitude and performance of the KKU students in vocabulary learning. The study also showed that there were some limitations in the use of Blended Learning. It needs an action plan in order to make supportive learning opportunities for  the university students.

scholarly journals The Impact of Leadership Development on the Organizational Culture of a Canadian Academic Library

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Crawley-Low
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Leadership Development ◽  
Strategic Change ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Library Leadership ◽  
Leadership Development Program ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

Objective – To determine the perceived impact of leadership development on the behaviours and competencies of employees and the organizational culture of the University Library, University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Methods – Using grounded theory methodology, the study was conducted in an academic library serving a mid-sized medical-doctoral university in western Canada. Twenty-one librarians and support staff who had completed the University Library’s Library Leadership Development Program (LLDP) participated in one-on-one interviews of 40-60 minutes duration. Interview transcripts were prepared by the researcher and reviewed by the participants. After editing, those source documents were analyzed to reveal patterns and common threads in the responses. The coding scheme that best fits the data includes the following four headings: skill development, learning opportunities, strategic change management, and shared understanding of organizational vision and values. Results – According to the responses in interviews given by graduates of the Library Leadership Development Program, the library’s investment in learning has created a cohort of employees who are: self-aware and engaged, committed to learning and able to develop new skills, appreciative of change and accepting of challenges, or accountable and committed to achieving the organization’s vision and values. Conclusion – Competencies and behaviours developed through exposure to leadership development learning opportunities are changing the nature of the organization’s culture to be more collaborative, flexible, open and accepting of change and challenge, supportive of learning, able to create and use knowledge, and focussed on achieving the organization’s vision and values. These are the characteristics commonly associated with a learning organization.

Engineering Education Through Degree-Long Project: A New Project Based Learning Approach

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Kim ◽  
Teik Lim ◽  
Randall Allemang ◽  
Bob Rost
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Education ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Undergraduate Curriculum ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Formula Sae ◽  
Race Car ◽  
Engineering Program ◽  
The University

A new pedagogical approach called engineering education through degree-long project has been implemented in the mechanical engineering program at the University of Cincinnati as a part of the NSF CCLI project. The approach integrates selected courses across the undergraduate curriculum of the mechanical engineering program using a degree-long project (DLP) as the theme. Design of Formula SAE® race car was employed as the first DLP. In each course in the sequence, the concept of the DLP approach and the role of the assignment in the course in the overall DLP are explained to students. In early-year courses, assignments are simple problems designed to show how abstract concepts are eventually applied to engineering tasks. In later-year courses, more involved design projects are used aiming at nurturing the ability to solve open-ended engineering problems. In conducting the approach, the most difficult part was developing an interesting and challenging problem which is relevant to practical applications, especially in early year courses. Findings through student evaluations and a stake-holders workshop on the improvement of the approach are discussed.

The Marrano Specter

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Graff Zivin ◽  
Peggy Kamuf ◽  
Geoffrey Bennington
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
Latin America ◽  
North American ◽  
Queer Studies ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
The Status ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

The impact of Derrida’s work in the U.S. and continental Europe—principally in the disciplines of philosophy, English, French, Comparative Literature, gender and queer studies and postcolonial studies—has been studied at length, but the significance of his writing for Hispanism has been, until now, overlooked. And yet Derrida developes a terminology and addresses sets of problems in ways that have a direct and distinctive effect on philosophers and literary critics in Spain and Latin America, where his work circulates widely in excellent translation. Problems and themes that resonate distinctively in one way in the European or North American context echo quite differently in Latin America and in Spain: the trace; nationalism and cosmopolitanism; spectrality and hauntology; the relation of subjectivity and truth; the university; disciplinarity; and institutionality. Remarkably, the influence is in a profound sense reciprocal: over the course of his career, Derrida takes up and makes central to his thought the theme of marranismo, the phenomenon of Sephardic crypto-Judaism. Derrida’s marranismo is a means of taking apart traditional accounts of identity; a way for Derrida to reflect on the status of the secret; a philosophical nexus where language, nationalism and truth-telling meet and clash in productive ways; a way of elaborating a critique of modern biopolitics. It is far from being simply and only a marker of his work’s Hispanic identity, but it is also, and irreducibly, that.

scholarly journals Changing the Things I Cannot Accept: My African Experience of A U.S. Classroom

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roselyn Banda
Keyword(s):  
International Student ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
Cultural Shock ◽  
African Experience ◽  
Curriculum Choices ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

This article outlines the impact of cultural shock and my way of overcoming it as I migrated to the U.S. as an international student. Often-times, even in academia, where we learn to question and look at things from multiple angles, we essentialize subject positions and as a result silence, alienate and erase many people. Through the use of narrative, I am giving voice to my own struggles with silence and erasure inside of academia in the hopes that other scholars will consider their own complicity in this process and perhaps expand their own thinking and curriculum choices for the courses they teach. In addition, I hope to create space to build solidarity across difference both in and outside of the university.

scholarly journals Dynamic Handling Characterization and Set-Up Optimization for a Formula SAE Race Car via Multi-Body Simulation

Machines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Matteo Balena ◽  
Giacomo Mantriota ◽  
Giulio Reina
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Steering System ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Formula Sae ◽  
Race Car ◽  
Handling Characteristics ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Many ◽  
Multi Body ◽  
The Impact

There is a growing interest towards multi-body modelling and simulation that play a critical role in the development and testing of new mechanical systems, in general, and formula cars specifically to avoid expensive and time-consuming experimental track testing. Recent advances in computer-aided engineering packages, allows one not only to evaluate the basic properties that define the dynamic behavior of a newly-designed formula car, but as well as to investigate the impact on the performance of the many adjustable parameters that collectively are referred to as the car set-up. Therefore, by providing a rapid feedback of a given set-up expectation, optimal configurations can be obtained ensuring the highest level of performance. In this paper, a Formula SAE vehicle is expressly targeted. First, a full multi-body model of the prototype is described detailing the properties of each subassembly, e.g., suspensions and antiroll bars, steering system, and powertrain. Then, the basic handling characteristics are obtained via simulated track testing. Based on vehicle dynamics principles, the fine tuning of the vehicle setup is thoroughly discussed to gain the best performance in each of the contest events of the Formula SAE competition. For example, in the skidpad event where cars are required to drive along an eight-shaped track, an almost 2 km/h gain in the maximum travel velocity can be achieved by adjusting the camber angles of all tires.

scholarly journals Along the Pathway of University Missions

2020 ◽  
pp. 24-50
Author(s):  
Angelo Riviezzo ◽  
Maria Rosaria Napolitano ◽  
Floriana Fusco
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Performance Measures ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Direct Application ◽  
Entrepreneurial University ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact ◽  
State Of Art

Over the last decades, the pressure on the university to facilitate direct application and exploitation of its knowledge and capabilities to contribute to social, cultural, and economic development has steadily increased. As a result, new missions have been recognized to universities, new theoretical frameworks have been developed, and new university models have been proposed, including the “entrepreneurial university”, the “civic university”, the “community-engaged university”, the “transformative university” or the “interconnected university”. Thus, a corresponding advancement of performance metrics and indicators used to assess the impact of university activities is required. Through a bibliometric and then a critical review of the extant literature, this study provides: i) an overall picture of the state-of-art of literature on universities' missions and roles in regional development; ii) a systematisation of the contributions on performance measures and indicators of universities' activities.

The University of Technology Supporting Innovation in Small Firms

1999 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. G. Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Small Firms ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Positive Individual ◽  
Group Relationships ◽  
Partial View ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

An analysis aimed at discovering the appropriate structures for innovation and combining them in a system which maximizes the innovative capacity of a country requires the adoption of a variety of perspectives. An approach focusing on universities of technology and innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in contemporary Australia contributes another, inevitably partial view but provides a striking illustration of the complexity and variety of the interrelationships involved. The impact of recent federal government policies on industry and the role of universities is described in the context of a recent election campaign. Universities of technology are identified as particularly well suited to interaction with business and industry. This is exemplified with reference to Swinburne University of Technology Theoretical frameworks that accommodate the complex interactions are discussed. Finally, the absolute necessity of positive individual and group relationships for successful outcomes is highlighted.

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