scholarly journals Problem-based learning: Effects on academic performance and perceptions of engineering students in computer sciences

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 306
Author(s):  
Danilo Amaya Chávez ◽  
Vanesa-María Gámiz-Sánchez ◽  
Antonio Cañas Vargas
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Problem Based Learning ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Probabilistic Sampling ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Impact

In the present article we analyse the impact of problem-based learning (PBL) on learning and perceptions in first-year students undertaking Engineering in Computer Sciences. The module designed took a number of advanced theories of PBL and its application within the Engineering profession. Mixed methods were used to enable data from qualitative and quantitative instruments to be obtained. A quasi-experimental design was specified, employing non-probabilistic sampling, with a control (N = 40) and experimental group (N = 39). In comparing PBL with traditional methods, the results reveal statistically significant differences in aspects such as academic performance. Teamwork, oral communication, written communication and students’ perceptions of the learning experience were also all favoured. Nonetheless, lack of adequate team dynamics in previous learning experiences and reluctance to change traditional teaching approaches, could compromise the viability of that proposed.

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 Improving Polymer Science Asynchronous Online Lecture Contents For Students’ Engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (25) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Charles Darko
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Cognitive Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Polymer Science ◽  
Structure Property ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Processing Properties ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Properties Characterization

Asynchronous online delivering methods have been found to promote excellent engagement among students but the impact in the teaching of polymer science courses have not been investigated. This work discussed and reflected critically on the ways of improving polymer science lecture contents in asynchronous videos that can enhance and motivate students’ learning. Six polymer science topic combinations in the forms of structure – characterisation, structure- processing, structure – properties, characterization – processing, properties – characterization and properties – processing were established. Lecture slides based on these combinations were created and 106 students were tasked to read and rate them on computer screens. First, second and third-year undergraduate material science and engineering students rated the combinations based on stimulation, motivation and effectiveness. Results show that there was no strong preferred choice(s) from the first years but the second year students appeared to favour the structure-property combination while third-year students preferred the structural-property-processing lecture contents. Using the cognitive learning theory and the redundant effect, the third-year students were described to have processed the information received and classified some redundant while the first-year students might have accumulated all information into their limited working memory without redundancy since they lack prior knowledge of the polymer science topics. These reasons coupled with basic students’ computer skills were attributed to influence their judgements during the rating.

scholarly journals Investigating the Impact of Model Eliciting Activities on Development of Critical Thinking

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Frank ◽  
Jake Kaupp ◽  
Ann Chen
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Learning Assessment ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Model Eliciting Activities ◽  
The Impact

This paper presents a portion of a study on how model eliciting activities (MEAs) impact critical thinking development in first year engineering. Model eliciting activities (MEAs) are realistic problems used in the classroom that require learners to document not only their solution to the problems, but also their processes for solving them. Studies have shown MEAs to be valuable in helping students to develop conceptual understanding, knowledge transfer , and generalizable problem--‐solving skills. This study is investigating the impact of the MEA- integrated course on students’ development of critical thinking skills. Ultimately, the team aims to determine whether the MEA-integrated course facilitates students’ critical thinking. During the fall semester of the 2012/2013 academic year three instruments will be used to evaluate the critical thinking skills (CTS) of first year engineering students. These instruments will be used as both a pre--‐ and post--‐test in order to benchmark CTS of the incoming first year students, and determine the effectiveness of MEA instruction on developing student critical thinking ability. These instruments are the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Cornell Z), the International Critical Thinking Essay Test (ICTET) and the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA). This paper will present the preliminary findings from analysis of the MEA results and pre and post tests from the study.

scholarly journals From students to leaders: evaluating the impact on academic performance, satisfaction and student empowerment of a pilot PAL programme among first year students and second year leaders

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Scriver ◽  
Amber Walsh Olesen ◽  
Eoghan Clifford
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Future Research ◽  
First Year ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
National University ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
Performance Satisfaction ◽  
The Impact

This paper evaluates the pilot year of the CÉIM PAL initiative at the National University of Ireland Galway through analysis of examination results, student surveys and the reflections of two students who participated as first year students in the pilot year and subsequently as student leaders in year two. The paper considers the impact of attendance at sessions on academic performance, student satisfaction with the programme, and evaluates the extent to which the initiative has assisted students to become more empowered learners as expressed through the development of self-directed learning, growth in educational self-efficacy, and confidence in navigating the learning environment. Recommendations are also made for developing the CÉIM initiative, which may be relevant to other PAL programmes and for determining the direction of future research.

scholarly journals THE EFFECT OF USING PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING UPON STUDENTS’ EMOTIONS TOWARDS LEARNING AND LEVELS OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN THREE DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Malek Jdaitawi
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Classroom Environment ◽  
Problem Based Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
The Past ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
And Control

In the past few years, teaching staff have been motivated to engage students in different communication forms. This quasi-experimental study presents the implementation of a problem-based learning (PBL) approach in the first year classroom environment to enhance the students skills of communication and to promote their positive learning emotions. The study was carried out involving students studying in health, engineering and science fields. They were categorized into two groups, namely experimental (90 students) and control group (90 students). The study period lasted 4 weeks, during which the module was taught to the 180 first year students in both groups. The findings revealed the learning approach significantly affected the students communication skills and their emotions concerning learning. Finally, conclusions were drawn from this study.

scholarly journals Peer Tutoring in Project-Based Course

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Brousseau ◽  
Andrée Sano-Gélinas
Keyword(s):  
Peer Tutoring ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Professional Staff ◽  
Quality Level ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Tutoring Program ◽  
The Impact

In undergraduate engineering programs, design competency is mainly developed through project-based design courses. In such courses, a well framed practice is one of the best strategy to help students develop the ability to design solutions to complex, multifaceted and open-ended engineering problems. Nevertheless, supervising students, especially first-year students, requires a lot of effort and time. As the number of students increases, the task of closely supervising them becomes more difficult. Considering the small number of academic staff, peer tutors can provide a solution to the lack of resources. In addition to this, peer-tutoring is a very interesting pedagogical solution. In fact, the literature demonstrates that peer tutoring can benefit both students and tutors.Teaching assistants (TAs) have contributed in project based courses for a long time but there are not so many documented experiences about how to integrate peer-tutoring in a project-based design course or how to use fourth year students to tutor first year students.In fall 2017, a peer-tutoring program (PTP) has been implemented in the first year multidisciplinary design course. Fourth-year engineering students with relevant design experience acted as tutors for teams of four or five students. The intention was to reduce the pressure on our professional staff, while maintaining the same quality level of supervision.PTP assessment revealed that all stakeholders appreciated the experience. At low cost, it allowed more weekly hours of supervision and gave the professionals the possibility to perform tasks that only them can do. Although the impact of PTP on the quality of learning was not measured, the student level of satisfaction was very high.

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.

REVERSE ENGINEERING: TENSION RATCHET DISSECTION PROJECT

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremiah Vanderlaan ◽  
Josh Richert ◽  
James Morrison ◽  
Thomas Doyle
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Measurement Techniques ◽  
First Year ◽  
Stepping Stones ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Final Project ◽  
Undergraduate Study ◽  
Solid Edge ◽  
Part Modeling

We are a group of engineering students, in our first year of undergraduate study. We have been selected from one thousand first year students and have competed and won the PACE competition. All engineers share a common general first year, but we have been accepted into Civil and Mechanical engineering. This project was assigned as the final project in the Design and Graphics course. The project we are tasked with, called the Cornerstone Design Project, is to first dissect a product, discover how it works, dimension each part and create a fully assembled model using CAD software (Solid Edge V20 in our case). As part of discovering how it works we must benchmark it so the device can be compared with competing products. The goal of the project is to develop a full understanding of part modeling and assembly in Solid Edge, learn proper measurement techniques, and learn the process of reverse engineering and product dissection. All of these tasks were stepping stones to help us fully understand how the device, and all its components, work.

scholarly journals Bridging the gap: blending spatial skills instruction into a technology teacher preparation programme

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diarmaid Lane ◽  
Sheryl Sorby
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Future Research ◽  
First Year ◽  
Spatial Skills ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Base Level ◽  
Technology Teacher ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn recent years, there has been a surge in research in spatial thinking across the international community. We now know that spatial skills are malleable and that they are linked to success across multiple disciplines, most notably Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). While spatial skills have been examined by cognitive scientists in laboratory environments for decades, current research is examining how these skills can be developed in field-based environments. In this paper, we present findings from a study within a Technology Teacher preparation programme where we examined first-year students’ spatial skills on entry to university. We explain why it was necessary to embed a spatial skills intervention into Year 1 of the programme and we describe the impact that this had on students’ spatial scores and on academic performance. The findings from our study highlight a consistent gender gap in spatial scores at the start of the first-year with female students entering the Technology Teacher preparation programme at a lower base level than male students. We describe how we integrated spatial development activities into an existing course and how an improvement in spatial scores and overall course performance was observed. The paper concludes by discussing the long-term sustainability of integrating spatial interventions within teacher preparation programmes while also highlighting the importance of future research to examine spatial skills as a fundamental component of technological capability.

scholarly journals Between Level Up and Game Over: A Systematic Literature Review of Gamification in Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Manzano-León ◽  
Pablo Camacho-Lazarraga ◽  
Miguel A. Guerrero ◽  
Laura Guerrero-Puerta ◽  
José M. Aguilar-Parra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Game Design ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Current Lines ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Game Elements ◽  
The Impact

Educational gamification consists of the use of game elements and game design techniques in the educational context. The objective of this study is to examine the existing evidence on the impact of educational gamification on student motivation and academic performance in the last five years in order to analyze its distribution over time, educational level, variables, and most used game elements, and know the advantages of its implementation in the classroom. For this, a systematic review is proposed through the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology in three multidisciplinary databases, through an exhaustive search with inclusion and exclusion criteria on quantitative experimental studies that explore gamification in educational centers, which provide information about the most current lines of research. Fourteen studies were included in this review. These used experimental or quasi-experimental designs. Most of them report gamification as a valid learning strategy. The results support the conclusion that educational gamification has a potential impact on the academic performance, commitment, and motivation of students. Therefore, this study implies the need to expand research on the needs and challenges of students when learning with gamified techniques.

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