ABSTRACT
Motivation is a multi-faceted construct encompassing orientation towards certain types of goals, the value and expectation of achieving those goals, and attributional beliefs. Our unique dataset tracks cohorts of mechanical engineering students through time and across multiple courses, allowing us to study context-dependent variables across time. We measured intrinsic goal orientation and extrinsic goal orientation in two cohorts of mechanical engineering students at the beginning and end of the Fall 2019 and Fall 2020 terms. Though our original study was designed to evaluate instructional interventions in a “difference-of-differences” design, our cohorts were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the ongoing stress of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as widespread dissatisfaction with remote learning, we expected students to be less motivated overall in Fall 2020 compared to Fall 2019, and for motivation to erode more rapidly over the semester. Although intrinsic motivation was indeed lower in Fall 2020 compared with Fall 2019, the decrease in motivation over the course of the semester was the same. Furthermore, the availability of recorded lecture videos and class content may have mitigated against an expected drop in level of engagement for some students. Average student engagement, as measured by responses to in-class polling exercises remained constant between Fall 2019 and Fall 2020, and it appears that more students were able to maintain a 100% participation rate in the remote context, though there is significant variation in engagement within the class. We seek input from the engineering education research community on this work-in-progress study. We especially invite a discussion about how to make sense of survey results in dramatically different teaching contexts. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
Under the new ABET accreditation framework, students are expected to demonstrate “an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions” [1]. Traditional, recipe-based labs provide few opportunities for students to engage in realistic experimental design, and recent research has cast doubt on their pedagogical benefit [2]. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced institutions to move to remote learning. To address these challenges we developed a series of online labs for an upper-division mechanics of materials course. The first three labs consist of video demonstrations of traditional lab experiments with synchronous group discussions and data analysis. Two of these “traditional” virtual labs are supplemented with peer-teaching video activities. The final lab is a guided-inquiry activity focused on experimental design. Using only materials available at home, students measure the Young's modulus of aluminum and use their results to design a hypothetical product. In order to provide the same opportunity for students around the world, the test specimen is taken from an aluminum beverage can. One measure of whether or not an activity supports student agency is the diversity of solutions generated by students [3]. We analyzed 36 reports from the final guided-inquiry lab and coded the experimental procedure on five key decisions such as the type of experiment performed, specimen geometry, and measurement method. We identified 29 unique approaches to the problem, with no one approach accounting for more than three submissions. Student outcomes were measured by a survey of students' attitudes and self-efficacy administered directly after every lab activity except for the first one. The fraction of students endorsing statements related to a sense of agency increased dramatically between the “traditional” labs and the guided-inquiry lab: from 52% to 82% for goal-setting and from about 64% to 92% for choice of methods. Self-efficacy increased significantly in the primary targeted skills (designing experiments, making predictions, and generating further questions), but there was no significant shift in skills not explicitly targeted by the guided-inquiry lab (equitable sharing of labor, expressing opinions in a group, and interpreting graphs). Our experience demonstrates that at-home lab activities can achieve sophisticated learning outcomes without the use of lab equipment or customized kits. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021