ABSTRACT
The application and effects of the project-based learning (PBL) model have been carried out in various majors and courses, and the results analysed in several studies. This study was focused on the Covid-19 pandemic period from 2020 to 2022 to discuss lessons and effects of applying an on-line and off-line PBL model to engineering economics courses for engineering students in 2021 and 2022 compared with a simple on-line course in 2020 without PBL. Project teams consisting of three-four students carried out on-line collaborative learning to solve open-ended problems through a four-step PBL procedure including presentation of the final result. Except for this PBL application in 2021 and 2022, textbooks, lecture contents, assignments and tests were implemented in the same way for each semester over these three years. Through lecture evaluation and a simple survey for students, the semesters with PBL showed higher effects in inducing student-led learning and lecture satisfaction compared to the semesters without it. Further, it was established that the PBL application to the course and the evaluation method were more appropriate than the approach in other semesters. It is expected that the PBL method and operation procedure outlined in this article could be utilised as a best practice for various on-line and mixed courses in student-led collaborative learning activities to achieve better educational effects and satisfaction. © WIETE 2023.
ABSTRACT
As a subject of engineering economics, investment analysis plays an important role and use analysis techniques in the solution process. Present worth analysis, return of investment, and cost/benefit analysis are the most popular investment analysis techniques in engineering economics. However, since some investment values are determined by humans/experts and these values are based on human thoughts, it is very difficult to specify exact values. In this way, fuzzy logic can be a better alternative for calculating vagueness in engineering economics' applications. Thus, uncertain cash flows, indefinite life, and indefinite time value of money require to use fuzzy present worth analysis. As a new extension of fuzzy sets, spherical fuzzy sets have stronger capabilities to model uncertain information in investment analysis problems. In this article, spherical fuzzy present worth analysis method is presented for the first time to address the fuzzy parameters of public emergency hospital investment, which is currently a major subject in Turkey. The public emergency hospital for three locations on the European side of Istanbul is evaluated using spherical fuzzy present worth analysis method. While the best location for the emergency hospital is determined as Kemerburgaz, we also conduct a sensitivity and comparison analysis in order to show the robustness and applicability of the proposed method.
ABSTRACT
With the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, it has been seen that the importance of IT companies and digitalization investments has accelerated. Engineering economics techniques are frequently used in investments and provide use among alternatives. Although benefit/cost analysis is one of the important engineering economic techniques, it is seen that it is widely used in the literature. Engineering economics analyzes are made based on the opinions and experiences of experts. While human thoughts can contain uncertainty, these uncertainties should also be taken into account in the investment evaluation. Fuzzy sets come to the fore in the literature to eliminate the uncertainty in human opinions. Fuzzy sets represent human thoughts through membership functions. Since fuzzy sets were proposed in 1965, fuzzy sets have extended to their extensions. Some of these extensions are type 2 fuzzy sets, spherical fuzzy sets, hesitant fuzzy sets, q-rung fuzzy sets, picture fuzzy sets, Pythagorean fuzzy sets, fermatean fuzzy sets, circular intuitionistic fuzzy sets, decomposed fuzzy sets and etc. When the studies on the benefit/cost analysis method, which is one of the engineering economics approaches, are examined, it is seen that it is used with fuzzy sets and their extensions. In this study, benefit/cost analysis is extended with picture fuzzy sets, and the extended model is applied in the digital transformation investment assessment for an information technology. Future suggestions and recommendations are given in conclusion section. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Student learning experience can be disrupted significantly if the plan of study changes suddenly like it did due to the COVID-19 global pandemic in March 2020. The purpose of this paper is to compare the outcomes of two courses at Indiana State University such as student grades, number of students dropping the course, available resources, etc. before (pre-) and during (post-) the pandemic. The compared two courses are from two separate departments where one course is Engineering Economics and the other course is DC Circuits and Design. The course DC Circuits and Design has both theory and laboratory components. The null hypothesis is that there exists no difference between the course grade outcomes of pre- and post- pandemic. The hypothesis has been tested using Chi-square goodness of fit test at p=0.1. Engineering Economics on-campus post-unplanned pandemic section in Spring 2020 is found to be significantly different from the pre-pandemic in Spring 2019. However, in the online section, there is no difference between the post- and pre- because the online section is planned for virtual mode. Similar finding is reached for DC Circuits and Design that the post-unplanned pandemic section in Spring 2020 is found to be significantly different from the pre-pandemic in Fall 2019;but the post-planned in Fall 2020 is found to be statistically same as the pre-pandemic. Practical implication of this study will be helpful in planning to teach courses for pandemics or other situations outside of our control. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021