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The present study is related to the problem associated with student assessment with online examinations at higher educational institutes (HEIs). With the current COVID-19 outbreak, the majority of educational institutes are conducting online examinations to assess their students, where there would always be a chance that the students go for malpractice. It is difficult to set a question paper for any technical course with great novelty. Under these circumstances, safeguarding academic integrity has become a challenge for HEIs. This study is aimed at improving the quality of questions for online exams to increase the accountability of HEIs by proper evaluation of their students. A detailed procedure with suggestions for setting the questions for technical courses, in the format of assertion and reason, matching, multiple select types, etc., has been discussed with adequate examples. It deals with a strategy for ensuring that all the students are held to the standards that are reflected in their grades. The proposed evaluation method has been implemented on a test batch and presented the results along with a comparison with that of traditional question papers. It is witnessed that there is a simultaneous enhancement of students'learning as an additional benefit of implementing the proposed learning-oriented assessment method. IEEE
ABSTRACT
This paper documents the remote management of a first-year foundations of engineering course with special focus on students' learning by completing a prototype-based project in an online course. The COVID-19 pandemic brought on unprecedented challenges to the teaching and learning communities around the world. Educators made purposeful changes in their teaching approaches, shifting rapidly from in-person to online mode of instruction. This study documents a project-based course that adopted an asynchronous mode of instruction as a part of the general engineering curriculum at a large Southeast university in the United States during the pandemic. This asynchronous course - through implementing necessary changes and adaptations - simulated the experience of a cross-border engineering workplace. The course content focuses on engineering design and problem-solving, physical prototyping, simulated data collection and analysis, contemporary software tools, and professional practices and expectations (e.g., communication, teamwork, and ethics). Learning activities are designed to introduce students to the types of work that engineers do daily and to challenge students' knowledge and abilities as they explore the different elements of engineering by completing an aesthetic wind turbine project. Our paper reports on the development of the course site as informed by recent national developments in scholarship and practice for online teaching and learning. The principles of course design alignment as well as instructor presence and learner interaction as suggested by these national standards are discussed. Further, the study records strategies adapted to enable students to complete a successful prototype-based project working in geographically distributed and virtual, international teams. © 2022 SEFI 2022 - 50th Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education, Proceedings. All rights reserved.
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Self-regulated learning is a key attribute in tertiary engineering education, and forms the basis of engineering judgement. The experience of remote learning during the COVID-19 era revealed particular challenges in self-regulated student learning practices, but also resulted in a number of systemic, technology-based interventions to enable improved student learning. Drawing on a 3rd-year electronic design course case study at a contact-based engineering faculty in South Africa, this paper presents an approach to bridging the gap between student perceptions and their actual assessment performance during independent, remote learning. Using scaffolded reflective and peer learning strategies, the research team sought to answer the question: What is the impact on self-efficacy of frequent self- and peer-assessment opportunities across a range of project-based learning tasks? Results were analysed using Bandura's four self-efficacy 'mastery' and experiential domains, and indicate an improvement in alignment between perceptions and actual performance. We suggest that a well-designed, scaffolded set of assignments with reflective and peer-learning opportunities can contribute significantly to the development of student confidence and mastery. © 2022 IEEE.
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This Work in Progress Paper presents techniques adapted to teach first-year engineering courses post-pandemic. Challenges faced by students and faculty will also be presented in this paper along with some guidance and best practices. In March 2020, COVID-19 was announced as a pandemic that began impacting higher education during the Spring semester. Many land-grant universities were not fully equipped with the tools to offer the best learning experience to students due to lock-down and the inability to access the laboratories and teaching equipment. This global pandemic had caused the universities to change their operations and impelled instructors to switch to online instruction halfway into the semester. Many universities began exploring options and investing their resources to devise teaching pedagogies that best fit the needs of their students. Although universities had been utilizing some learning management systems such as Blackboard, D2L, Canvas, etc., an unanticipated need for online instruction impelled a mandated use of these learning management systems for full content delivery. Although engineering courses could easily be revamped to distance learning platforms, there were some challenges due to the nature of the coursework and assessment of outcomes. Adhering to the social distancing guidelines and university mask mandates along with the availability of vaccination have made it possible to return to in-person teaching and learning. The purpose of this paper is to: a) present some of the challenges faced by the first-year engineering students during the transition to and from distance learning approaches, b) share some of the results from the assessment of student attitudes during this transition, and c) share some of the best practices adopted by the instructors during these uncertain times. The first-year engineering curriculum usually involves fundamental concepts and provides an opportunity for students to explore several engineering disciplines. In a normal learning environment, engineering courses tend to be challenging due to higher expectations for problem-solving, mathematics, and scientific concepts, and adding external factors such as the pandemic adds more complications. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, students and instructors have been under constant pressure to satisfy the basic requirements of attaining student learning objectives. In this process of attaining the objectives, several challenges had been encountered and overcome in different ways. The focus of this research work is to study the first-year engineering course and present the challenges associated with the delivery of the course content, teaching engineering concepts and applications in a remote setting, and communication between instructors and students during the lock-down period. This paper also presents some of the teaching strategies that have been investigated by the instructors to assist students during difficult times while balancing student expectations. This work in progress study was initiated in Spring 2020 at a small regional campus of The Ohio State University. Challenges arising due to the transition to and from distance learning modalities were observed in the first-year engineering courses, Fundamentals of Engineering I and Fundamentals of Engineering II. These courses are two-credit hours each and introduce engineering problem-solving, data analysis, project-based learning, computer programming, 3-D Modeling and simulation, project management, and teamwork. Teaching strategies adopted by the instructors including restructuring the course, revisioning the assessment of course goals, and utilizing alternative approaches to assess student performance will be discussed in this paper. The findings of this paper will provide an opportunity for educators to learn from the unique experience and develop strategies to address the continuously changing teaching and learning environments that have evolved as a result of the pandemic. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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The driving forces changing how we work and the jobs that we do are impacting organizations of all sizes across all sectors. The global pandemic has accelerated the pace of change and disruption to a level not experienced before. The combination of Industry 4.0, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and COVID-19 are creating a new sense of urgency to drive collaboration between industry and education. In 2022, academic institutions offer three paths to prospective engineering students, which students qualify for via standardized testing;Path 1) 4-year bachelor degrees with “R1” research focus: typically following on to postgraduate degrees and careers in research or academia. Path 2) 2-year associate degree (community college): typically leading to a career based on a technical skill or trade. Path 3) 4-year bachelor degree with industry focus: typically leading to careers in technical-based industries This paper presents a new approach to the “third path,” the industry-based bachelor degrees. The new approach is an alternative to the traditional programs currently offered by the majority of engineering schools in the United States. The traditional academic approach is failing to fill the talent pipeline. Academic policies and practices are unable to keep pace with the exponential growth of technology, the evolving motivations of a four-generation workforce (soon to be 5 generation) and the unpredictable development of new engineering business models [1-4]. The global competitiveness of the United States is at risk, the stakes are too high to stay on the traditional course. The authors contend that paths 1 and 2, despite shortcomings of their own, are in far better shape than the third path, so they are not addressed in this paper. This paper, written more like a position paper, proposes a new model for the third path;it is based on extensive research that was discussed in prior publications by the same authors [10,11,24-26]. The Third Path model proposes revised roles for the four key stakeholders involved in undergraduate engineering and technical education. The stakeholders are: 1) Industry (United States), 2) Academic institutions, 3) Federal and State Governments, and most importantly 4) next-generation student-engineers and technicians. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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With the structural shift in education due to the pandemic, worldwide educators adapted by a variety of methods, including a change to the course delivery method. Many universities closed and/or moved to wholly online delivery. With the online video formats, either synchronous or asynchronous, faculty were able to create a library of videos which could be later used as a tool. This new collection of videos could be used for asynchronous delivery or online courses, or as supplemental instructional videos. A survey was conducted to determine student perceptions of supplemental instructional videos. Supplemental instructional videos were available pre-pandemic by individual instructors and publishers. Instructors may have offered videos through a Learning Management System (LMS) or a streaming platform. These types of videos vary from general topic overviews to course specific content. Certain types of courses and content have long been identified as appropriate for online delivery, like software-based courses. However, instructors have been slow to adopt online delivery for hands-on laboratory exercises or architectural studios. Because of this post-pandemic paradigm shift, there is an opportunity to identify the associated shift in student perceptions. A survey instrument was developed to assess student perceptions about supplemental instructional videos. All of the students surveyed are enrolled in courses which provide supplemental instructional videos through their LMS. The survey was not limited to perceptions about current courses. Students across engineering, engineering technology, and architecture disciplines were asked about their perceptions of supplemental instructional videos made available through LMS. The LMS collects analytical data about usage, and depending on the LMS, precisely how much and which portions of a video were viewed by students. The survey included demographic questions in addition to questions about experience with online learning and supplemental instructional videos. Students surveyed included all levels of undergraduate students and graduate students from two universities in different states. Students are generally split in their preference for online or face-to-face delivery methods. About two-thirds of the respondents had been exposed to supplemental instructional videos. Similar to completely online courses, respondents identified reasons that supplemental instructional videos were a good resource, which included the lack of time constraints and the ability to watch and re-watch the videos. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has reformed the teaching-learning processes in engineering education across the globe. Virtual classrooms substituted physical classrooms with the widespread use of online meeting platforms. The proliferation of virtual classrooms not only paved the way for accelerated digital transformation but also brought back some elementary issues in engineering education. Many engineering students face difficulties in comprehending the fundamental concepts in their courses during virtual learning. As real-world engineering solutions depend on conceptual clarity, misconceptions of basic engineering principles need to be taken seriously. If not identified, analysed and corrected with constructive feedback, misconceptions on various engineering topics can create challenging obstacles in learning. Against this backdrop, this research study introduces a novel solution titled Classification of Students Misconceptions in Individualised Learning Environment (C-SMILE). The primary objective of the C-SMILE system is to examine the usefulness of personalised automated feedback to students to enhance their conceptual understanding by pinpointing their misconceptions. Besides, we propose a method by which students' misconceptions can be effectively classified for every instructional objective in every engineering course using machine learning techniques. Our pilot-study results show that the proposed C-SMILE system can precisely classify students' misconceptions in engineering education settings. © 2022 IEEE.
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While studies have shown that oral exams are a valuable method of assessment, their use has been limited due to concerns about scalability, examiner bias and student anxiety. This paper presents preliminary results on incorporating oral exams into two large undergraduate engineering courses, examining the potential viability of these assessment strategies. This work was done when the courses were offered remotely due to COVID-19, but the results offer valuable insights that could carry over to in-person instruction as well. © 2021 IEEE.
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While living in a digital era, both teachers and students of Engineering Courses were not ready for the drastic change associated with the Covid-19 first confinement (March 2020). This forced change from a presential mode to a fully online mode provided teaching/leaning difficulties as well as new opportunities. Moreover, as most engineering courses require laboratory practice, on-line teaching raised additional challenges. This paper reports two different experiences in two different Control Engineering university courses in the North of Portugal. The goal is to share some learning tools that are particularly relevant in the pandemic time we are living: pocket-sized laboratory kits that students can easily take home and experience real-world control contents;an open Mural that can serve as an exchange of knowledge. Perceptions received both from students and lecturers regarding these two experiments are presented. © 2021 IEEE.
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Due to the recent global events, in this case, the Covid-19 pandemic, a new challenge arises at all levels. Higher education was one of the most affected areas. This communication presents the use of interactive simulation software in on-line Physics education. This resource is directed towards Engineering courses which are offered at Instituto Superior de Transportes e Comunicações (ISUTC) a private institution of higher education in Mozambique. In the field of Physics, it was necessary to move from face-to-face teaching to on-line teaching. This discipline is divided into two semesters as Physics I and Physics II, with their components, in theory, problems and laboratory. To implement the laboratory classes, a search on the web was done and a virtual lab model was selected, which made use of interactive simulation experiments. In the first semester, the laboratory experiments were selected based on the criteria that they exist in laboratory work in a face-to-face system. In the second semester it was possible to develop totally new laboratory experiments. The conventional Physics teaching laboratory, LabFis, was reinvented as a virtual laboratory. Using a platform of open access, the lab guides were prepared for the different experiments. The student is guided to use the simulations to get an effective learning. To measure the effectiveness of this strategy on the on-line system, an analysis was done of the assessment results of three groups of fifty students of different Engineering courses. A comparison was established from the results in Physics I and Physics II. The assessment results compared are of the year 2019, and the year 2020. The average of students’ assessments is used as an indicator of effectiveness of the adopted strategy. In general, it was observed an improvement on this indicator. After an uncertain start, the students were motivated and they welcomed these changes. They adapted satisfactorily to the new paradigm. © 2021 IEEE.
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Experiential, team-based course projects, with an emphasis on designing and building physical products, are increasingly being adopted across many engineering disciplines, including wide use in ocean engineering courses. COVID-19 presents new challenges to pedagogies that rely heavily on physical production and face-to-face teamwork. While collaborative, hands-on projects, such as designing and building ROVs, have many documented educational gains-deepening content understanding and improving motivation, to name a few-these once beneficial activities are currently infeasible. The complications brought on by the pandemic necessitate the creation of new course projects that heed social distancing guidelines, minimize touch, and accommodate remote learners, all while continuing to enhance student learning. In the Fall of 2020, our small liberal arts university reopened its classrooms for in-person teaching and learning. While most students elected to return to the physical classroom, some chose to learn remotely, resulting in a large number of hybrid course offerings. The potential for a spike in COVID-19 cases in the campus community meant that courses could pivot to fully remote teaching and learning at any moment. In response to this new pedagogical framework, the semester-long course project for an upper-level ocean engineering course was reinvented. The project was inspired by Wired Magazine's video series “5-Levels” in which experts explain a topic to a child, teenager, undergraduate, graduate student, and an expert in their field. This fall, students worked individually to create a video series in which they explained a self-selected advanced topic in ocean engineering to three distinct audiences of their choosing. The success of the new course project is assessed through analysis of students' videos, reflection papers, peer evaluations, and course surveys. More specifically, the aim of this work is to explore the efficacy of the project in meeting a variety of learning outcomes, including enhancing 21st century skills in audiovisual communication, and deepening the students' knowledge of ocean engineering concepts. Finally, this paper shares lessons learned and provides recommendations for future implementations of this course project. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
Introductory surveying engineering courses include several outdoor labs that introduce students to proper use instruments and equipment. Through practice and experiential learning students develop technical skills and learn about surveying techniques and methods. In addition, through review and reflection of their surveys, students are able to reinforce concepts learned in lectures. Outdoor labs have several challenges such as being affected by weather leading to cancellations that disrupt the educational process. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new challenges and forced virtualization of outdoor labs. Development of virtual and immersive technologies in the past decade have sparked applications in engineering education, offering viable alternatives, and enhancing traditional instructional approaches. Indeed, virtual reality and gamification technologies offer different learning approaches while various learning outcome can be achieved. In this paper two promising approaches, Web-based game and virtual reality, for virtualization of experiential educations and remote field delivery have been investigated. This study uses data collected in different institutions but in similar introductory surveying courses. The first dataset is from civil engineering students who used a game-based Web application to simulate topographic surveying. Being a game-based implementation, emphasis is placed on following best field practices rather than faithful replication of surveying instruments. The second dataset is from surveying engineering students who completed leveling labs in immersive and interactive virtual reality using Oculus hardware. The environment and instrument were faithfully modeled in Unity from their physical counterparts, giving a sense of realism. Both game-based and virtual reality approaches have different advantages and disadvantages, that makes them effective in different learning settings. A comparison of these two approaches demonstrates the synergies of future integrated implementation. Lessons learned will help instructors in understanding and identifying the proper technology to address experiential educational challenges that are related with virtually training engineering students. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
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This work-in-progress paper studied the impact of COVID-19 ramifications on first-year engineering student sense of belonging at one research intensive institution in the southeast that hosts a strong engineering program. In response to COVID-19, the vast majority of collegiate institutions have shifted courses to remote, hybrid, or hyflex formats, which may result in diverse engineering students facing a “triple threat” to their sense of belonging in engineering courses since (a) STEM disciplines, (b) minoritized student identity, and (c) remote course formatting can all impede belonging. Diminished sense of belonging can, in turn, impact student retention and persistence, potentially intensifying imbalances that already exist in STEM fields. Therefore, this study sought to examine students' sense of belonging and factors that could contribute to increased belonging for diverse engineering students, especially in remote courses. Using a concurrent, mixed methods design in the Fall of 2020, the preliminary data in this manuscript highlight survey responses from 282 students (54% response rate), 7 focus groups with a total of 28 students, course observations, and student demographic data. Key variables and concepts for the study include sense of belonging (measured with an existing 4-item scale for which the institution has historical engineering student responses as well as with qualitative interview questions), which is an empirically documented forecaster of student success, and the Community of Inquiry framework, broken into three constructs of teaching, social and cognitive presence designed to examine key elements of an online course (measured with an existing 34-item survey and qualitative interview questions). Preliminary findings suggest no statistically significant differences in sense of belonging, teaching presence, social presence or cognitive presence between students in marginalized and dominant identity groups (continued analysis of qualitative data will reveal nuances between groups not apparent in survey data);however, belonging was higher for students who attended class physically versus virtually most of the time. In addition, compared to a past (pre-pandemic) comparison, social presence was lower for all fall 2020 students. This project is supported via an NSF RAPID award created by the IUSE program in the Division of Undergraduate Education (Education and Human Resources Directorate), using funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
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During the Fall 2020 semester, it became even more important than before to engage students in the “classroom” whether that be in-person, online, or a hybrid model. This paper will introduce various entrepreneurial mindset (EM) techniques to engage students that could be adapted to any engineering course. All the techniques have suggestions for adapting to a fully online course as well as working for an in-person or hybrid class. The first activity presented will be name signs with badges that will promote (1) setting, evaluating, and achieving goals, (2) self-reflection, (3) considering a problem from multiple viewpoints, and (4) seeing the values of others. Example badges include: Being Brave, Stump the Professor, Discussion Board Guru, Peer Tutor Extraordinary, and Nominator. The second activity presented will be Tik-Tok-ing the student's way into learning concepts. This activity focuses on students' creating course content via videos that will promote (1) being able to teach and learn from peers, (2) modifying a product based on feedback, and (3) connecting life experiences with class content. The third activity is using Play-Doh to make connections with material. In this activity students use the Play-Doh as a medium to present technical information effectively to a wide audience and make connections with life experiences and class content. Each activity will be explained with examples from introduction to programming along with methods to adapt to other engineering courses. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
The emergence and rapid spread of COVID-19 changed the face of education. At Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech), planning for the Fall 2020 semester started well before the end of the 2019-20 academic year. For the Fall 2020 semester, faculty at our university had the option to teach in various modalities according to what fit their personal and course needs. The options included online (asynchronous materials completed with time and place flexibility), remote (synchronous, scheduled meetings that students can attend virtually), or hybrid (classes that have face-to-face meeting times, but offer students opportunities to complete most activities virtually and/or remotely). Restrictions placed on class size with physical distancing measures limited the number of students who could attend a given class session face-to-face. In the first-year program at Michigan Tech, we value an active, collaborative learning environment;an environment that would be difficult to implement asynchronously. Despite the shift to a remote or hybrid modality, we wanted our first-year students to still experience an active, collaborative learning environment. In this paper, we focus on discussing the steps we took to maintain and/or improve the connection between students and the engagement with the course materials. A comparison of responses from surveys administered in the first-semester engineering course at Michigan Technological University indicates that students were at least as satisfied or more satisfied with the remote and hybrid versions in Fall 2020 than the traditional face-to-face version in Fall 2019. Specifically, a greater percentage of students enjoyed the course, felt engaged and valued, were more prepared for lessons and saw value in the course and the skills they learned in the course. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
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This research paper examines the influence of interpersonal interactions on the course-level persistence intentions of online undergraduate engineering students. Online learning is increasing in enrollment and importance in engineering education. Online courses also continue to confront issues with comparatively higher course dropout levels than face-to-face courses. This study correspondingly explores relevant student perceptions of their online course experiences to better understand the factors that contribute to students' choices to remain in or drop out of their online undergraduate engineering courses. Data presented in this study were collected during fall 2019 and spring 2020 from three ABET-accredited online undergraduate engineering courses at a large southwestern public university: electrical engineering, engineering management, and software engineering. The data was collected during the pre-COVID time. Participants were asked to respond to surveys at 12-time points during their 7.5-week online course. Each survey measured students' perceptions of course LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and peer support for completing the course. Participants also reported their intentions to persist in the course during each survey administration. A multi-level modeling analysis revealed that the Perceptions of course LMS dialog, Perceptions of Instructor Practices, and Perceptions of Peer Support are related to Perceptions of course-level Persistence Intentions. Time was also a significant predictor of persistence intentions and indicated that the course persistence intentions decrease towards the end of the course. A multi-level modeling analysis revealed that LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and peer support are related to course persistence intentions. Time was also a significant predictor of persistence intentions and indicated that the course persistence intentions decrease towards the end of the course. Additionally, interactions between demographic variables and other predictors (Perceptions of course LMS dialogue, Perceptions of Instructor Practices, and Perceptions of Peer Support) were significant. With the increase in perceptions of course LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and perceptions of peer support, there was a relatively smaller increase in the persistence intentions of veterans than non-veterans. There is relatively more increase in the persistence intentions of females than males as their perceptions of instructor practices increase. Finally, increasing perceptions of peer support led to a relatively larger increase in the persistence intentions of non-transfer students than transfer students and a relatively smaller increase in persistence intentions of students working full-time than other students. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education on all fronts with no warning. While universities largely adapted by moving lectures from in-person to online, the response from the K-12 community was not as straightforward. Existing issues of equity, access, and inclusion required school districts, schools, and teachers to adopt a variety of untested solutions, including online instruction, canceled classes, and shipping materials/supplies to students at home. The pilot year of a project meant to introduce engineering to K-12 students, e4usa was largely running as anticipated when the COVID disruption derailed the pilot cohort of teachers. This unexpected transition provides a unique opportunity to understand changes that were made and the drivers for those changes, especially when implementing a new and innovative engineering curriculum. We know that high schools adapted quickly. This work-in-progress discusses initial findings from teacher interviews on their experience during this unforeseen and unique transition. Teacher interviews were analyzed to examine the impact of the COVID-19 disruption from the perspective of a teacher new to an engineering curriculum. Specifically, we will begin to examine the following research question: How did the pilot year e4usa teachers adapt and deliver the curriculum during the COVID-19 disruption? We explored teacher delivery of the e4usa curriculum through a variety of levels to capture the drivers that prompted decisions, identify pedagogical adjustments, and identify drivers behind the chosen changes. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
During the spring semester of 2020, four different team formation strategies were employed to assign student working groups in four otherwise identical sections of an undergraduate introductory mechanical engineering course. The four team formation strategies were 1) random, 2) by merit, with teams based on similar performance on previous exams, 3) student-selected, and 4) geographical proximity of student housing. Students were supposed to complete three team assignments during the semester, but due to COVID-19, they completed only one team assignment before being sent home. The completed assignment was a lab which included the writing of a formal report. Performance on this assignment was compared across the different teams, sections, and individual students' results, with the goal being to determine if certain team formation strategies have a beneficial effect on performance for both the teams and the individuals. Analysis of the data indicates that student-selected teams performed better on the team assignment than teams formed using other strategies, but the observed improvement was not statistically significant. We believe this was due to the small sample size. In addition, while there was no statistical difference in the incoming average student GPA for different course sections, the incoming GPA of students did have a predictive effect on team assignment performance. Finally, the transition to remote learning (in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic) had a negative effect on student performance, and this negative consequence disproportionately affected students who were already poor performers. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
During emergency remote teaching situations caused by the COVID-19 crisis, students and instructors in higher education may be dealing with challenges and inequities including increased uncertainty over health, employment, and finances;inequitable access to synchronous learning opportunities;increased challenges in conducting accurate and equitable online assessments. For project-based electrical and computer engineering courses that involve hardware components and group work, additional challenges include limited or no access to facilities for experimental work;students cannot meet in person to conduct group work, especially for projects involving hardware integration. This paper describes methods that aimed to address these challenges to transition a project-based Design with Microcontrollers course online during the COVID-19 pandemic. This course aims to teach microcontroller basics and microcontroller-based embedded system design. It is composed of weekly lectures, labs, and a term project, all based on the ARM® Cortex®-M4F based TI Tiva™ C TM4C123G LaunchPad. During the transition to online learning, a set of methods were developed to ensure the accomplishment of the student learning outcomes and to enhance resilience of students. This includes 1) combining synchronous and asynchronous learning options to provide both flexibility and humanized interactions;2) eliminating traditional exams and designing a new tech interview-style coding exam.;3) increasing social presence in the class and building a collaborative and supportive learning community;4) adjusting the term project to address the restrictions caused by remote learning;and 5) designing and distributing surveys at multiple points of the semester to understand students' needs and learning progress. According to the course assessment results and the responses from an anonymous exit-class survey, the transition of this course was a success and received quite positive feedbacks from the students. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
The Zoom application has become increasingly popular for online and hybrid teaching since the COVID-19 pandemic started in the spring of 2020. However, Zoom cannot simply replace all of the teaching techniques traditionally used during in-person lectures. In particular, student group problem solving and discussion is often replaced with a virtual version via the Zoom breakout room feature. This paper will investigate the effectiveness of these breakout rooms on student performance in engineering courses. A variety of breakout room strategies were conducted over the course of the fall 2020 semester in four engineering classes. Students were surveyed at the end of the semester to determine what strategies/factors most improved their individual comfort level, group productivity, and ability to learn the material. The results of this paper indicate that having small breakout room groups (i.e., 2-3 students), assigning specific tasks to the groups and individual students, and visiting the breakout rooms periodically have the most positive impact on the student's perception of the session. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021