Improving Project-Based Learning Outcomes by Formative Assessment and Strategic Time Optimization

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo Stocco ◽  
Roberto Rosales ◽  
Ignacio Galiano ◽  
Andy Liu ◽  
David Feixo
Keyword(s):  
Formative Assessment ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Electrical Engineering ◽  
Subjective Evaluation ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Optimization Strategy ◽  
Time Optimization ◽  
The Impact

The 3rd year Electrical Engineering Design Studio (EEDS) course is a project-based learning (PBL) course that gives students hands-on experience with putting electrical engineering principles into practice. It is an electro-mechanical project which provides a particular challenge since electrical engineering students often lack mechanical design skills. It is found here that learning outcomes are improved by a 2-stage formative assessment and time optimization strategy that allows students to extract as much value as possible out of the limited time they have to devote to this exercise. It consists of an innovative assessment strategy that includes formal, informal and self-assessments, and an innovative budgeting, lecture scheduling, parts distribution, and order queueing system. The impact on efficiency is shown through an end-of-term student survey and a subjective evaluation of their work, in comparison to the previous year.

scholarly journals Project-based STEM-courses for engineering students

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-68
Author(s):  
Galyna Vasylivna Lutsenko ◽  
◽  
Oksana Mykolaivna Podolian ◽  
Lyudmyla Mikhailivna Ozhyndovych ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Optimal Strategies ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Project Work ◽  
Approaches To Teaching ◽  
Stem Disciplines ◽  
National University ◽  
The Impact

One of the world-recognized practices of modern higher education is the application of problem-based and project-based approaches to teaching STEM-disciplines. In case of integration of problem-based and project-based learning, the educational process is organized around the problem to be solved by students and stimulates them to find optimal strategies for solving, and project activities are chosen as a way of organizing work. The article describes the ongoing experience of implementation of project-based STEM-courses "Hydro- and Gas Dynamics" and "Applied Mechanics and Fundamentals of Design", which is part of training of engineering students of 151 Automation and Computer-integrated technologies speciality at the Bohdan Khmelnytskyy National University of Cherkasy during 2017-2019 academic years. The impact of problem-based and project-based approaches to teaching STEM-disciplines on the formation of professional and general competencies of future engineers had been analyzed. The dynamics of changes of personal and interpersonal skills of junior students during the teamwork on mono- and multidisciplinary projects had been studied. The case study method was chosen as the general research method, which corresponds to the number of research participants and the active role of researchers in the educational process. The results of surveys developed using the 5-point Likert scale, demonstrates that students mostly positively evaluate the projects and teamwork. The possibility of self-grouping, which made possible to form teams based on common interests and promote freer and more natural communication within the team, was the important factor of positive perception of project work. The disadvantages of the implemented approaches include the difficulties that manifested itself at the stage of students' planning of the project process. One of the reasons for this is the lack of previous experience in the realization of students' team projects. The introduction of multidisciplinary projects made it possible to optimize the workload of students working simultaneously on a project in two disciplines and increase the motivation to study the disciplines of the STEM cycle.

Understanding the Impact of Engineering Through Appropriate Technology Development

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nickey Janse van Rensburg ◽  
Z. Simpson ◽  
N. Malan
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Research Collaboration ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Appropriate Technology ◽  
Open Market ◽  
Market Growth ◽  
The Impact

This research describes a pilot project which aimed to introduce CDIO-type (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate), project-based learning through a community-based project in a third year Material Science module. The project formed part of an agriculture research initiative, and relied on interdisciplinary research collaboration between engineering, social sciences, management, entrepreneurship, and industrial arts. The initiative seeks to develop an agribusiness solution that will create an open-market, growth-oriented food economy. As part of the initiative, engineering students, participating in teams, worked alongside a community of urban farmers, most of whom are working poor, so as to develop appropriate, intermediate technology/ies that could support the farmers. This was informed by the need to have students demonstrate high level understanding of disciplinary content, but also to engage in human-centered design thinking and practice.

scholarly journals Makerspaces in First-Year Engineering Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Pooya Taheri ◽  
Philip Robbins ◽  
Sirine Maalej
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Applied Science ◽  
First Year ◽  
Maker Movement ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Group Project ◽  
Main Component ◽  
Diploma Program ◽  
The Impact

Langara College, as one of the leading undergraduate institutions in the province of British Columbia (BC), offers the “Applied Science for Engineering” two-year diploma program as well as the “Engineering Transfer” two-semester certificate program. Three project-based courses are offered as part of the two-year diploma program in Applied Science (APSC) and Computer Science (CPSC) departments: “APSC 1010—Engineering and Technology in Society”, “CPSC 1090—Engineering Graphics”, and “CPSC 1490—Applications of Microcontrollers”, with CPSC 1090 and CPSC 1490 also part of the Engineering Transfer curriculum. Although the goals, scopes, objectives, and evaluation criteria of these courses are different, the main component of all three courses is a group-based technical project. Engineering students have access to Langara College’s Makerspace for the hands-on component of their project. Makerspaces expand experiential learning opportunities and allows students to gain a skillset outside the traditional classroom. This paper begins with a detailed review of the maker movement and the impact of makerspace in higher education. Different forms of makerspace and the benefits of incorporating them on first-year students’ creativity, sense of community, self-confidence, and entrepreneurial skills are discussed. This paper introduces Langara’s engineering program and its project-based design courses. Langara’s interdisciplinary makerspace, its goals and objectives, equipment, and some sample projects are introduced in this paper in detail. We then explain how the group-project component of APSC 1010, CPSC 1090, and CPSC 1490 are managed and how using makerspace improves students’ performance in such projects. In conclusion, the paper describes the evaluation of learning outcomes via an anonymous student survey.

scholarly journals Teaching Societal Leadership Through Design: Case Study of a Cohort-Based Social Innovation Engineering Leadership Program

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Huynh ◽  
Mike Klassen
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Complex Projects ◽  
Design Case Study ◽  
Student Team

 Abstract – Engineering students are well equipped with a technical background to become agents of social change. This paper highlights a co-curricular social innovation program that aims to foster that potential through team-based project-based learning. Key teaching methods are described, such as how students establish a vision, scope complex projects, effectively build teams, and leverage failure and iteration for learning. The program faces challenges maintaining student engagement and getting them to fully embrace learning through failure, but has had significant success in fostering self-reflection. It has also been successful in creating a structure whereby personal and leadership learning happen alongside design and project-oriented learning. There is opportunity for the teaching methods and structure of this program to be applied to other contexts in an effort to improve student team learning outcomes and find ways to integrate leadership learning into core technical and design courses.

scholarly journals TEAM FORMATION IN ENGINEERING DESIGN COURSES

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Galaleldin ◽  
Justine Boudreau ◽  
Hanan Anis
Keyword(s):  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Team Composition ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Great Opportunity ◽  
Project Outcome ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

Engineering design courses often include a team-based project. Project-based learning offers a great opportunity for engineering students to learn about teamwork and collaboration. It also gives students a chance to learn about themselves and improve their conflict management skills. Choosing the right team members for a specific project is not trivial, as the choice of the team often affects the project outcome and the students’ experience in the course. Moreover, there is a debate among engineering educators as to whether it is better to force team composition or not. In this paper, we investigate the impact of team composition and formation on project outcomes and student satisfaction in a second-year engineering design course at the University of Ottawa. The course is open to all engineering students and has an accessibility theme. Students work in teams with a client that has a specific accessibility need. Students meet the client three times during the semester and deliver a physical prototype by the end of the semester. For this study, students in the design course were divided into two groups. Students in the first group were allowed to pick their teams, while the instructor created the teams in the second group based on multidisciplinary composition and year of study. Both groups had the same instructor and the same course material, labs, project choices, etc. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a few teams in each group.

Let’s Get Physical? The Impact of Dissection Modality on Engineering Student Design Learning

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Starkey ◽  
Alexander S. McKay ◽  
Samuel T. Hunter ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Student Learning Outcomes ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Engineering Student ◽  
Product Complexity ◽  
Design Learning ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Impact

Product dissection, or the systematic disassembly of design products, has been utilized in engineering education in order to better prepare students for industry. Despite the common use of product dissection in engineering classrooms, knowledge is lacking about how effective different methods of dissection are for encouraging learning and student engineering self-efficacy. This is problematic because without this knowledge, we do not know what components of product dissection impact (positively or negatively) learning. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the impact of dissection virtuality (physical and virtual), product power source (electrical and manual), and product complexity (simple and complex) on efficiency, learning, and engineering self-efficacy through a factorial experiment with 30 engineering students. The results of the study show that virtual dissection is more efficient than its physical counterpart and also maintains the same learning benefits as physical practices. These results are used to develop recommendations for the use of product dissection in education and propel future research that investigates relationships between example-based design practices and student learning outcomes.

scholarly journals The Impact of Skill and Attitude Performance Students of Electrical Engineering Education on Work Opportunities in Business and Industry

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Yetursance Manafe ◽  
Frans F.G. Ray ◽  
Crispinus P. Tamal
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Electrical Engineering ◽  
Ability To Work ◽  
Business World ◽  
Industrial Practice ◽  
Job Opportunities ◽  
Electrical Engineering Education ◽  
The Impact ◽  
To Receive

This study aims to determine the extent of the impact of the skills and attitudes of Electrical Engineering students in relation to job opportunities in the business and industrial world. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative research method. The subjects in this study were 70 students of Electrical Engineering Education who attended Industrial Practices. The results obtained in this study of 70 students, 64.29% managed to get good acceptance in the business world and industry and got a satisfactory score because they have competency skills which include the ability to work in teams, enthusiasm for following practice and initiative and attitude competence which includes willingness receive input and persistence, while 35.71% do not receive acceptance in the practice place and do not complete the industrial practice in the field is influenced by attitude factors including: 1). low self-discipline (44.00%), 2). low persistence of students (20.00%), 3). The ability to receive input from PKL supervisors for improvement towards a better direction (4.00%) and skill factors include: 1). The enthusiasm possessed in following the PI (12%), 2). The ability to work hard during PI (13.33%), 3). Able to work together in a team during PI (13.33%). From the results obtained, it can be concluded that the determining factor so that students can successfully follow practice and be well accepted in the business world and industry is to increase their enthusiasm for following practice and when doing practice there is a need for teamwork including being willing to accept input from supervisors essential needed in industrial practice.

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