scholarly journals GET A HEAD START! EXPERIENCES OF RUNNING A SUMMER ONLINE CALCULUS COURSE FOR INCOMING FIRST YEAR STUDENTS

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shai Cohen ◽  
Micah Stickel
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Early Introduction ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
Online Format ◽  
The University

One of the great advantages of developing online courses is that it enables the institution to reimagine how they can deliver that content to their students. In recent years, the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto has worked to develop a set of first year calculus courses in an online format. These courses were designed specifically for engineering students to: (a) situate the material in an engineering context through multiple real-world examples and “on-site” videos, (b) place an increased emphasis on the form of the solution, and (c) incorporate a significant experience in mathematical modeling through a self-defined project.In July and August of 2014, the Calculus for Engineers I online course was offered to incoming first-year students that were to start in September 2014. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the experiences related to this unique offering from the perspectives of the students as well as the Faculty administration and course instructor.Of the 900 students that were invited to take the course, 170 initially registered for the course in early July, and of those 48 students completed the course at the end of August. Of the 44 students that passed the course, 20 (48%) decided to continue on with the online offering of Calculus for Engineers II in the fall 2014 term.Overall, students were quite positive about their online learning experience and were glad to have the opportunity to complete a credit before their official start. This allowed them to either take an elective in their first year or have a lighter workload in one of the terms.In their course survey comments, they noted that they appreciated the opportunity to learn and review the material at their own pace, the way in which the instructor connected the mathematics to an engineering context, and having an early introduction to the university learning environment.Delivering an online university-level calculus course to incoming first-year students is an exciting and novel way to enhance the engineering student experience in first year. This paper provides an introductory summary of this approach from the students’, instructor’s, and administrators’ perspectives.

scholarly journals Leveraging Escape Room Popularity to Provide First-Year Students with an Introduction to Engineering Information

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Walsh ◽  
Michelle Spence
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Library Services ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
Research Skills ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
Engineering Information ◽  
The University

Incoming first-year engineering students at the University of Toronto often have difficulty navigating the library and its resources. Orientation activities at the Engineering & Computer Science Library are designed to introduce students to the library in an informal and entertaining way. In 2017, as a result of dropping interest in previous years' orientation activities, librarians at the Engineering & Computer Science Library collaborated with instructors and staff in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering to develop an orientation activity grounded in curriculum and based on the popular escape room game. Core library services and engineering resources were used to build a challenging program that introduced students to basic, but essential, research skills. Voluntary student participation in the game exceeded previous years' participation and all expectations of the game designers.

CAD Platform Independent Software for Automatic Grading of Technical Drawings

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanchit Ingale ◽  
Anirudh Srinivasan ◽  
Diana Bairaktarova
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Spatial Reasoning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Spatial Visualization ◽  
First Year ◽  
Spatial Skills ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
Students Success ◽  
Mechanical Objects

Spatial visualization is the ability of an individual to imagine an object mentally and understand its spatial orientation. There have been multiple works proving that spatial visualization skills can be improved with an appropriate training. Such training warrant a critical place in the undergraduate engineering curricula in many engineering schools as spatial skills are considered vital for students’ success in the technical and design fields [1–4]. Enhanced spatial skills help not only professionals in the engineering field but also everyone in the 21st century environment. Drawing sectional views requires mental manipulation and visual thinking. To enhance students spatial reasoning, one of the authors of this study, conducted a class in spatial visualization. The course-learning goal aimed at improving first-year engineering students’ spatial reasoning through instruction on freehand drawings of sectional view. During the semester, two teaching assistants had to grade more than 500 assignments that consisted of sectional views of mechanical objects. This was a tedious and a time consuming task. Motivated by this experience, this paper proposes a software aiming at automating grading of students’ sectional view drawings. The proposed software will also give live feedback to students while they are working on the drawings. This interactive tool aims to 1) improve the learning experience of first year students, with limited CAD knowledge, and 2) introduce a pedagogical tool that can enhance spatial visualization training.

scholarly journals Enquiry-Based Learning Online: Course Development and Student Experience of a First-Year Enquiry-Based Learning Seminar

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 129-142
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Murray ◽  
Nathan John Lachowsky ◽  
Natalie Green
Keyword(s):  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Online Course ◽  
First Year ◽  
Course Development ◽  
Online Distance Education ◽  
Online Course Development ◽  
Online Distance ◽  
The University ◽  
First Year Seminar

Online courses are increasing in popularity while universities are using first-year seminars to address the challenges of large impersonal classes, lack of student engagement, and increased skills development. Could the learning experience and benefits of an in-person first-year seminar be achieved through an online distance education (DE) format? How would students’ experience benefit from an online DE first-year seminar? At the University of Guelph, an online interdisciplinary first-year seminar was developed and offered four times. This essay includes reflections from the faculty instructor and educational developer who co-designed the course, results from pre- and post-course surveys completed by students, and interviews conducted with students.

scholarly journals INTRODUCTING A NEW ENGINEERING COURSE: A LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR STUDENTS AND FACULTY

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dare ◽  
Brian Cooke
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Design Element ◽  
Design Project ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Second Year ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time

A Task Force was created by the Faculty of Engineering at the University of New Brunswick in September 2004 charged with creating a new course for all first year engineering students to be delivered for the first time in September 2005. The course, to be taken by approximately 270 students, was to integrate material from other first year courses, introduce the students to working in teams, contain a substantial design element through a design project, and introduce communication skills. Nine professors from throughout engineering “volunteered” to help develop and deliver the course. In this paper we own up to what we did wrong during the first two years of delivery of this course, and (naturally!) counter this by celebrating our successes. Students are assessed based on a combination of individual and team submissions, with some submissions being oral and others written. This paper will outline the complex assessment scheme we initially used, and how we later simplified it. Rubrics were used to evaluate many of the course assignments. For most of the instructors, this was the first time they had used rubrics and so it was a learning experience to both develop and apply them. We show how we adapted their use in the second year of delivery after the experiences of the first year. We were pleased with the way that the assessments were mostly built around the design project – this helped the students grasp why clear communication is vital and enabled them to obtain continual feedback on the project. We were also delighted that an element of social responsibility was introduced into the course by making the project an international “Engineers Without Borders” project based in Africa. We believe this added an additional dimension to the course and especially the project. The professor-delivered skits were especially popular! Delivered by two wannabe actors, they introduced the students in a humorous manner to the different types of engineering that are taught at UNB. Engineering students at UNB have to commit to their specific engineering field from their first day at UNB, so these skits were included to ensure the students were exposed to all the UNB engineering disciplines. We conclude the paper with our plans for delivery of the course in September 2007 and beyond.

scholarly journals Methods of Applying Machine Learning to Student Feedback Through Clustering and Sentiment Analysis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Andersson ◽  
Christopher Dryden ◽  
Chirag Variawa
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Inverse Correlation ◽  
Student Feedback ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
The University ◽  
Key Events

Machine learning is used to analyze student feedback in first-year engineering courses. This exploratory work builds on previous research at the University of Toronto, where a multi-year investigation used an online survey to collect quantitative and qualitative data from incoming first-year students. [1] (N ~1000)Sentiment analysis, a machine learning method, is used to investigate the relationship between hours of study outside of scheduled instructional hours and qualitative survey feedback sentiment. The results are visualized with chronological sentiment graphs, which contextualize the results in relation to key events during the school year.Large drops in sentiment were seen to occur during weeks with major assessments and deadlines. An inverse correlation between hours spent outside of class and feedback sentiment was also noticed

scholarly journals Promoting learning with understanding: Introducing languaging exercises in calculus course for engineering students at the university level

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Alfaro Viquez ◽  
Jorma Joutsenlahti
Keyword(s):  
Mathematics Teaching ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Mathematical Thinking ◽  
First Year ◽  
Logical Thinking ◽  
Mathematical Skills ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Basic Calculus ◽  
University Level ◽  
The University

The study of mathematics at the university level requires logical thinking and strong mathematical skills. Contemporary first-year students are not prepared for these demands and end up failing their courses. This study aims to present an instrument for enhancing mathematics teaching and promoting learning with understanding in higher education by a combination of symbolic, natural, and pictorial languages in different tasks. We analyze the 17 solutions of four languaging exercises administered in a basic calculus course for engineering students at the University of Costa Rica. The results suggest that these exercises promote the acquisition of skills necessary to be mathematically proficient and are a useful tool for revealing students’ mathematical thinking and misconceptions.

scholarly journals TEACHING ENGINEERING COMMUNICATION TO FIRST YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Labun
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Design Project ◽  
Engineering Communication ◽  
University Of British Columbia ◽  
The University ◽  
Written Assignments

At the University of British Columbia Okanagan School of Engineering (SOE), first year engineering students take a 3-credit course in Engineering Communication. Designed to replace the traditional 3-credits of English taken by other first year students, APSC 176 introduces students to the fundamentals of engineering communication, with a strong emphasis on written communication. The paper is describes the types of assignments given to first year students, the techniques used to encourage meaningful revision of written assignments, and the methods used to evaluate written assignments. Particular attention will be paid to a two-week first term design project (such as the assignment, supplemental materials including exercises, and marking guidelines). It should be noted that the design is entirely conceptual - students are not required to develop a prototype, but rather to work with a team to develop (and subsequently, explain and market) a concept in response to an RFP.

Assessment of Individual and Teamwork Attributes in Undergraduate Engineering Students

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas O'Neill
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Team Work ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Personal Support ◽  
Program Accreditation ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
University Of Calgary ◽  
Teamwork Skills ◽  
The University

Engineers Canada Accreditation Board lists12 Canadian Engineering Graduate Attributes necessaryfor program accreditation. One of these is the Individualand Team Work attribute. At the University of Calgary anannual survey has been developed to assess studentperceptions of teamwork. The survey examines students’overall satisfaction with teamwork activities, attitudestowards teamwork, perceived emphasis and supportreceived from the department, teamwork skills(competence and importance), and personal support forteamwork initiatives. Based on the responses from pastyears two trends can be identified: students perceive agap between their competence in teamwork skills and theimportance of those skills, and students show high levelsof support for more teamwork initiatives. Following thesetrends three recommendations can be made: teamworkskills development activities for the students, moreopportunities for peer feedback in team projects, andsupport for first year students. By annually administeringassessments engineering departments can evaluate theirsuccess in developing the necessary Individual and TeamWork attribute required by Engineers CanadaAccreditation Board for program accreditation.

scholarly journals Design and implementation of a student-taught course on research in regenerative medicine

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 360-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Naveed Tavakol ◽  
Cara J. Broshkevitch ◽  
William H. Guilford ◽  
Shayn M. Peirce
Keyword(s):  
Regenerative Medicine ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Biomedical Sciences ◽  
Undergraduate Major ◽  
Early Introduction ◽  
Introductory Course ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
The University

In the Undergraduate School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at the University of Virginia (UVa), there are few opportunities for undergraduate students to teach, let alone develop, an introductory course for their major. As two undergraduate engineering students (D. N. Tavakol and C. J. Broshkevitch), we were among the first students to take advantage of a new initiative at UVa SEAS to offer student-led courses. As part of this new program, we designed a 1000-level, 1-credit, pass-fail course entitled Introduction to Research in Regenerative Medicine. During a student’s first year at the University, opportunities to build research skills and gain exposure to topics within the field of the biomedical sciences are relatively rare, so, to fill this gap, we focused our course on teaching primarily freshman undergraduate students how to synthesize and contextualize scientific literature, covering both basic science and clinical applications. At the end of the course, students self-reported increased confidence in reading and discussing scientific papers and review articles. The critical impact of this course lies not only in an early introduction to the popularized field of regenerative medicine, but also encouragement for younger students to participate in research early on and to appreciate the value of interdisciplinary interactions. The teaching model can be extended for implementation of student-taught introductory courses across diverse undergraduate major tracks at an institution.

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