ABSTRACT
HyFlex learning environments have been meeting the unique needs of students and institutions for nearly 20 years. However, it was the pandemic that gave HyFlex its widespread acceptance and application. Literature suggests that HyFlex may now be considered part of the new norm in education and therefore, further study is needed on how it affects both teaching and learning. Our flipped design thinking course leverages active learning requiring the instructor and students to interact extensively. We piloted a specific version of HyFlex we named "Interactive Synchronous HyFlex" where students can participate on a daily basis in person or synchronously online. In this specific instance of HyFlex we explore: (1) Does student academic performance differ in the HyFlex environment compared to the Face to Face only environment? And (2) Does student academic performance differ based on how they chose to participate in the HyFlex course? Data were collected for this quasi-experimental study design on overall semester grades and three significant design projects during the semester. We compared the course offered as a Face to Face only experience to the course offered as a HyFlex course enabling remote participation. Second, we parse students in the HyFlex course into two categories: those who did not participate remotely vs. those who participated remotely once or more times. Students in the HyFlex course had a significantly different grade distribution earning more A's and more F's than their Face to Face only counterparts. Given the positive results of the Interactive Synchronous HyFlex approach, we plan to continue implementing it in our introductory design course though we will increase our attention on the remote students as they may need additional scaffolding to be successful.
ABSTRACT
Owing to the fact that all educational activities have been moved to an online setting due to restrictions to control the spread of the Corona Virus, the realm of education has been subject to unprecedented changes. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the perspectives of freshman English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students and their instructors at Anadolu University regarding the Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) practice. Designed as a qualitative case study, this research has employed reflective journals, virtual focus group discussions, and virtual classroom observations as sources of data. A total of 15 participants took part in this research, 11 freshman students and 4 of their instructors. The data have been analyzed through qualitative content analysis, and the research findings have shown that the ERT practice has been a challenging and mostly disadvantageous process for both students and their instructors. Among the disadvantages are technical problems, self-related problems, student and instructor-related problems, live session-related problems, and assignment and exam-related problems. The advantages reported by the participants include self-related advantages, live session-related advantages, and exam-related advantages. Besides, relevant suggestions are put forward by both the instructors and students. The findings have been discussed in accordance with the relevant literature, and various implications have been drawn along with suggestions for future studies. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
ABSTRACT
This Innovative Practice Full Paper presents experiences in designing a student-led virtual freshmen orientation program that uses a Minecraft environment. We describe the planning process, roles of the organizing committee members, and how the game was constructed for participants to learn and interact with one another. The student organizers not only created a virtual environment that scales the college map where more than a hundred freshmen (participants) could have an immersive experience of the campus, but also ensured the branding and marketing, logistics, and safety/well-being aspects of the event. In this paper, we present students' experience of this program from both the designers' as well as the participants' perspectives. We conducted surveys with the organizing committee members and interviewed the participants to gain insights on their perception of this event. Our analysis showed that student organizers had the autonomy to brainstorm, suggest creative ideas, develop novel games, and procure materials. They also felt that they developed authentic programming and leadership skills. On the other hand, participants felt engaged as the event was well-organized, had clear delivery of information, introduced them to new technology, made them more familiar with the campus, provided a conducive environment to hone their soft skills such as communication and teamwork even before they officially enrolled as undergraduate students in an engineering program, and helped them establish social networks to support them throughout their undergraduate education journey. © 2022 IEEE.
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This paper provides an overview of a multidisciplinary project focused on application of acoustic technologies in the discipline of forensic engineering. This freshman project was developed by faculty in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering to highlight collaboration between disciplines and provide students a highly interactive hands-on experience. The course objectives were to: identify the broad range of applications of acoustics in electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering to solve complex technical problems, apply acoustic and ultrasonic technologies to collect and analyze data for material classification and flaw detection, nondestructively evaluate material characteristics of products and structures, construct and destructively evaluate reinforced concrete beams, and to clearly and succinctly present technical data in written, visual, and oral formats. The format of the lectures, hands-on laboratory exercises, and homework assignments are provided. Course and teacher survey data highlight the many aspects of the project that were successful and data comparisons between other courses are made. Recommendations for how this topic could be included in other discipline-specific courses and potential modifications due to Covid-19 are presented. © Forensic Engineering 2022: Elevating Forensic Engineering - Selected Papers from the 9th Congress on Forensic Engineering.All rights reserved.
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Background: The prevalence of depressive symptoms has become very high among college freshmen, with interpersonal sensitivity serving as an important predictor of depression. Combining internal and external positive resources can effectively prevent and alleviate depression. This study explores the moderating role of psychological capital (PsyCap) in the relationship between interpersonal sensitivity and depression, as well as the moderating effect of familial support on the conditional influence of PsyCap among Chinese college freshmen. Methods: A cross-sectional mental health survey was performed and the anonymous self-reported questionnaires, including the Patient Health Questionnaire, interpersonal sensitivity subscale of Symptom Checklist-90, Psychological Capital Questionnaire 24, and Perceived Social Support from Family, were distributed to the freshmen. Pearson's coefficient was employed to describe correlations between variables. The PROCESS macro and slope difference tests were used to explore the moderating role of PsyCap and family support in the relationship between interpersonal sensitivity and depression. Results: The prevalence of depression among freshmen was 30.89% (694/2,247). The correlation analysis revealed that depression negatively related to PsyCap (r = -0.187, p < 0.001) and family support (r = -0.193, p < 0.001) and positively related to interpersonal sensitivity (r = 0.399, p < 0.001). The moderation analysis showed that PsyCap negatively moderated the positive relationship between interpersonal sensitivity and depression (ß = -0.159, p < 0.001). We also found that family support played a moderating role in the conditional influence of PsyCap (ß = 0.076, p < 0.01). The slope difference test further showed that family support weakened the effect of interpersonal sensitivity on depression in freshmen when they had low PsyCap. Conclusion: More attention should be paid to freshmen's mental health and interpersonal interaction problems. For freshmen with interpersonal sensitivity and depression, mental health departments can conduct PsyCap development interventions to alleviate psychological symptoms. Freshmen themselves should also seek family support in time, but those individuals with high PsyCap should seek an appropriate level of family support to maintain their autonomy.
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Happiness is an important factor influencing academic performance, and many college freshmen have experienced adjustment difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic. We applied Q methodology to explore South Korean freshmen students' perceptions of happiness in 2020. Participants were divided into three groups according to perceptions of happiness: (a) those who considered relationships as vital for happiness, (b) those who considered freedom to have new experiences as vital for happiness, and (c) those who considered setting and achieving goals as vital for happiness. These findings can serve as basic data for the development of curricula and programs to help college freshmen adapt to college life. © 2021 Scientific Journal Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved
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Reviewing the literature indicates a lack of studies that explicitly describe the dynamics of design-knowledge construction in architectural pedagogy. Accordingly, this study attempts to empirically explore the process of constructing design-knowledge within a freshman architectural-design studio in the Egyptian context. In the spring 2020 semester, interpretive qualitative research was initially conducted in an on-campus setting, followed by a period within an online setting, after the COVID-19 lockdown. A total of 12 students, in addition to four teaching assistants and the course instructor, were involved in this study. Multiple data-gathering tactics, such as field observations, semi-structured interviews, and document archives were employed. Conventional content analysis was adopted, in order to extract the patterns that describe the design-knowledge construction within the case under investigation. The study revealed ten themes within three categories: students’ learning activities, faculty-pedagogical strategies, and social interactions. This paper discusses one theme from each of these categories: (1) students’ recourse to self-directed learning, (2) the faculty’s coaching within the educational setting, and (3) the studio’s socio-communal cohesion. The findings of this study confirmed that the construction of design-knowledge is an integrally situated process, which cannot be studied without the presence of all its various components. Such a study presents a contribution that could inform future pedagogical initiatives which aim to create stimulating architectural learning environments in a post-pandemic reality. ©Authors
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The Introduction to engineering (EGGN-100) is a project-based course offered every fall semester to first-year students with undecided engineering majors at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). The primary objective of this course is to provide project-based learning (PBL) and introduce these students to major projects in Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, and Computer Engineering projects so that they can make an informed decision about their major. The PBL is an active learning method that aims to engage students in acquiring knowledge and skills through real-world experiences and well-planned project activities in engineering disciplines. The course comprises four team-based unique projects related to Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, and Computer Engineering. The project involves using a variety of engineering tools like AutoCAD, Multisim, and Arduino platforms. For the first time, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the hands-on project-based EGGN-100 course was offered virtually. In this research, we document the learning experiences of students who attended EGGN-100 in a traditional face-to-face mode of instruction and students who participated in the same course in a virtual instruction mode. Surveys conducted during seemingly different modes of instruction show varying levels of satisfaction among students. Of the students who attended the course in traditional and instructional instruction mode, 69% and 90% responded that discipline-specific projects enabled them to make an informed decision, and PBL helped them choose their preferred major. Even the percentage of students who believed the PBL helped them make an informed decision about their major, they like to do more hands-on projects and prefer to attend the classes on campus. Students rated higher satisfaction in virtual instructional mode primarily due to the availability of video lectures, self-paced learning, and readily accessible project simulations. Learning by doing would have bought out the challenges and minor nuances of designing and executing an engineering project. Learning by watching is surficial and not necessarily exposes students to minor details that are critical. As such, the significance of this study is that maybe, after all, not all courses can be taught in a virtual environment, and some courses may be strictly taught in a traditional, hands-on instruction mode. We also study the socio-psychological impact of traditional and virtual learning experiences and report the remedies to cope with stress and loneliness in the online learning environment. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
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A traditional freshman experience course transitioned to a hybrid face-to-face version in the Fall 2020 quarter because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The course features a virtual lecture each week and ten separate hands-on face-to-face activities that required different modes of instruction and involved different social distancing protocols. Furthermore, the course was required to provide virtual accommodation for those students who chose not to return to campus or were placed in quarantine during some part of the quarter. This paper describes the challenges and risks of conducting this course during a pandemic, covers the solutions implemented for each of the activities, and provides assessment data on what worked and what can be improved in the future. With the reopening of college campuses just beginning, other engineering programs with freshman experience courses would certainly benefit from these lessons learned. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
The main objective of the work presented in this paper is to investigate if technical engineering content can be effectively delivered and enhanced using Entrepreneurial Minded Learning (EML) in conjunction with Project based learning (PBL) for Freshmen engineering students. Existing research already shows that PBL is a powerful student centric model of active learning. With EML, the existing content is adapted to imbue the 3 C's of Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM) which are curiosity, connections, and value creation. This student-centered pedagogical approach presents the students the opportunity to not just master technical content but also to identify opportunities, integrate knowledge and create value for themselves and others. This paper discusses the results of a concurrent investigation on the effect of incorporating EML into the 9-week, group-based, customer-focused, and open-ended game design project in a Freshmen level programming course in the Electrical and Computer Engineering curriculum. The course was first taught with the new project model in Spring 2020 but due to COVID-19, certain aspects of the project were not implemented. Based on the student responses to the project reflection survey, the student teams indicated that their attention was heavily focused on learning the programming content. While this was a validation that technical content can be delivered effectively and even enhanced using EML approach, it seemed that some student teams missed the mark on certain learning objectives in certain project deliverables which indicate that the guidelines and rubrics need to be modified to improve their mapping to the learning objectives. The course will be taught again in Spring 2021 with applicable changes made to the guidelines and rubrics for the project deliverables based on the knowledge acquired from the initial implementation in Spring 2020. The results from the Spring 2021 implementation will be compared with the data collected in Spring 2020 and analyzed to assess the role of EML as an effective pedagogical approach to further learning for Freshmen engineering students. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021