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This Work in Progress paper describes the effect of Homework 0 (HW 0), an activity offered at Western University designed to support Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students' successful transition to the first year of college. This transition is a critical time as students face several personal and academic challenges [1] or most, college means a new lifestyle and level of independence [1]. Pre-college academic activities are positively correlated with a student's persistence and graduation [2] because these activities can support the development of a student's sense of belonging [3] to the university, their academic community, their profession. Sense of belonging, or a feeling of mattering [4], is a well-researched and documented predictor of retention and success [5]. Relationships and social networks are critical elements to success in the first year [3] of college. Researchers urge university personnel to engage early and frequently with first-year students to cultivate their social capital further in college [6]. Taken together, these theoretical lenses served as the foundation for the pre-college activity, HW 0. HW 0 consists of three asynchronous academic assignments students completed in the summer before their first full-time semester and follow up activities are completed during the first semester. These assignments were designed to provide a way for the student to learn about resources, activities, and engagement opportunities as well as to reflect on the challenges they are going through and to define strategies to face these challenges. The main research question guiding this study is how does engagement in a pre-college activity influence a student's sense of belonging, thus, success. Survey data collected in these activities has been analyzed to identify patterns among students and thus, identify the needs among them and define better programs to support them. Results from the 2021 program offering, included in this paper, indicate students who participated developed a greater sense of belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactive textbooks generate big data through student reading participation, including animations, question sets, and auto-graded homework. Animations are multi-step, dynamic visuals with text captions. By dividing new content into smaller chunks of information, student engagement is expected to be high, which aligns with tenets of cognitive load theory. Specifically, students' clicks are recorded and measure usage, completion, and view time per step and for entire animations. Animation usage data from an interactive textbook for a chemical engineering course in Material and Energy Balances accounts for 60,000 animation views across 140+ unique animations. Data collected across five cohorts between 2016 and 2020 used various metrics to capture animation usage including watch and re-watch rates as well as the length of animation views. Variations in view rate and time were examined across content, parsed by book chapter, and five animation characterizations (Concept, Derivation, Figures and Plots, Physical World, and Spreadsheets). Important findings include: 1) Animation views were at or above 100% for all chapters and cohorts, 2) Median view time varies from 22 s (2-step) to 59 s (6-step) - a reasonable attention span for students and cognitive load, 3) Median view time for animations characterized as Derivation was the longest (40 s) compared to Physical World animations, which resulted in the shortest time (20 s). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the laboratory classroom, students have opportunities for design, problem solving, and exposure to real-world issues that are not usually present in traditional homework assignments. However, to operate effective laboratories, engineering departments and colleges must address challenges such as budget constraints, space limitations, class size, and limited teaching resources. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these issues and added more with the need for online and remote learning experiences without sacrificing the benefits of experiential learning. Laboratory and design courses were significantly impacted by the sudden move to remote delivery during pandemic lockdowns. Instructors and departments made decisions for adapting each course based on specific needs. Throughout that time, instructors in lab and design courses identified both the successes and the continuing challenges to remote and hybrid delivery. When courses returned to in-person modalities, instructors considered what lessons learned can inform the future of experiential learning-based courses. This paper describes development of a Community of Practice (CoP) of lab and design course instructors to develop strategies and best practices across one engineering college as we enter a new era of teaching and learning, post-COVID. This paper describes formation of the lab and design CoP, practical operating details of the CoP, as well as lessons learned from delivery of workshops and meetings. In addition to providing a road map for instructors to form a similar working group at their institution, we will share knowledge gained, commonalities across course types, and a summary of answers to the questions that inspired the formation of this CoP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, two trends have combined to cause engineering faculty to look for better ways to assign homework. The first is the Science of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and its emphasis on the role of metacognition in learning. The second is the growth of online answer sites like Chegg and CourseHero, which allow students to get answers to homework without actually doing the problems. Over the past decade, several approaches have been devised to deal with the fallout. They typically have students submit homework twice: the first time to provide their answers to problems, and the second time to engage in some reflective activity comparing their approach or their answers with solutions provided by the instructor. This study identifies 14 such approaches, looks at what they have in common and how they differ, and summarizes their research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In online or large in-person course sections, instructors often adopt an online homework tool to alleviate the burden of grading. While these systems can quickly tell students whether they got a problem correct for a multiple-choice or numeric answer, they are unable to provide feedback on students' free body diagrams. As the process of sketching a free body diagram correctly is a foundational skill to solving engineering problems, the loss of feedback to the students in this area is a detriment to students. To address the need for rapid feedback on students' free body diagram sketching, the research team developed an online, sketch-recognition system called Mechanix. This system allows students to sketch free body diagrams, including for trusses, and receive instant feedback on their sketches. The sketching feedback is ungraded. After the students have a correct sketch, they are then able to enter in the numeric answers for the problem and submit those for a grade. Thereby, the platform offers the grading convenience of other online homework systems but also helps the students develop their free body diagram sketching skills. To assess the efficacy of this experimental system, standard concept inventories were administered pre- and post-semester for both experimental and control groups. The unfamiliarity or difficulty of some advanced problems in the Statics Concept Inventory, however, appeared to discourage students, and many would stop putting in any effort after a few problems that were especially challenging to solve. This effect was especially pronounced with the Construction majors versus the Mechanical Engineering majors in the test group. To address this tendency and therefore collect more complete pre- and post-semester concept inventory data, the research group worked on reordering the Statics Concept Inventory questions from more familiar to more challenging, based upon the past performance of the initial students taking the survey. This paper describes the process and results of the effort to reorder this instrument in order to increase Construction student participation and, therefore, the researchers' ability to measure the impact of the Mechanix system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral examinations have been widely utilized as an alternative form of assessment to traditional written exams. While oral exams are effective as a form of evaluation, students may miss on learning opportunities that come with oral exams while studying using strategies meant for traditional written exams. In this paper, we study how homework preparation (video assignments) can play a role in impacting student performance outcomes in oral examinations. We report on results from two engineering courses conducting oral examinations and analyze the correlation between student completion of video assignments and exam outcomes. Preliminary results show a correlation in better examination scores with students that consistently completed the video assignments as a part of their preparation for the oral exam. Students that completed the video assignments were able to better articulate their thoughts and show a deeper understanding of the conceptual aspects of the course content. While unconventional, video assignments alongside oral examinations provide new insight to the teaching team and students regarding the students' depth and mastery of the material that can be important to identifying knowledge gaps and dynamically improving overall course experience and learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dual-submission homework method (DSHM) has become an increasingly popular form of self-assessment in recent years due to its low-stress engagement for students and the reduction of workload on instructors and students alike. However, to date, qualitative studies have been the primary form of investigation to ascertain the effectiveness of the DSHM. The purpose of this study is to investigate, with quantitative data, whether the dual-submission homework method leads to an increase in learning comprehension and retention of the material by the participants involved. Data collected from 59 students enrolled in a sophomore-level Digital Design course for Electrical Engineering majors was the focal point of this study. The single-submission homework method (SSHM) resembles the structure traditionally used in classes. Students are assigned homework, to be submitted once, that will be graded based on accuracy and completion. The DSHM assignment, however, features two distinct portions. Students will complete their initial submission, which is graded based on effort and completion. The solution key for a DSHM assignment is released by the instructor after the initial submission. The students must then submit a corrected version of their initial assignment for the second portion of their homework grade. This corrected submission is then graded on effort, completion, and accuracy as well. Subsequent exams included questions that closely resembled those from the SSHM and DSHM assignments, respectively. Performance measures for this study included grades on homework assignments and exams that were used to accurately measure the results of the DSHM compared to the SSHM. Measured by performance on the aforementioned criteria, ANOVA analysis demonstrated that student performance on DSHM exam-based questions was substantially greater than SSHM exam-based questions. As seen in previous self-assessment studies, feedback from participants and the course instructor indicated significant qualitative advantages to the DSHM; desire for implementation in future courses and the reduction of workload and anxiety about grades for instance. In essence, this study has provided the necessary quantitative and qualitative evidence to indicate, at the very least, that the Dual-Submission Homework Method is not a novelty concept and should be given serious consideration in implementation to the same degree as the traditional single-submission homework method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instructors give homework to help students apply what they are learning in class. Grading the assignments is a time-consuming process for the instructor or teaching assistant, so the feedback to the student comes at a time when they are no longer thinking of the problem. In addition, many students obtain access to textbook solutions. Some book publishers (e.g., Pearson's Mastering Engineering and McGraw Hill's Connect) provide automated grading for homework problems. However, using a publisher's grading site is an additional expense for the students. To keep the benefits of automated grading, without the cost to the students, question pools in Blackboard were created for textbook problems but using different numbers. The same method was used for tests in some courses, allowing each student to have a different exam than other students in the class. Besides Blackboard problems, a grading program that automatically grades Excel files was used in one class to grade more complicated homework. Solving problems in Excel allowed problems involving significant calculations and graphs, such as a stress-strain curve to be computer-graded. At the end of the semester, the students completed a survey about their experiences with the automated grading systems. Students found the grading helpful and appreciated not having the extra expense of a textbook grading system. Setting up the problems was more effort in one semester than grading the work, but it will reduce the professor's workload in future semesters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circuit Analysis is one of many engineering courses that require a lot of collaborative problem solving by students. To motivate students to practice the taught techniques outside of class, they are frequently assigned homework. The main challenge the author faced was to motivate students to put the required effort into homework problems. Students often tend to copy the solutions from others. As the course proceeds, such students begin to have difficulty in following lectures. To overcome this challenge and motivate students to solve their homework problems by themselves while collaborating with other students, the author makes it compulsory for each student to record a video explanation of his or her solution and share it with the instructor. To encourage collaboration among students, students are grouped in teams of two. The author observed a very significant improvement in student exam performance and in student perceptions about course after incorporating the video explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this series of experimental activities is to create a stronger qualitative connection between observed behaviors of simple systems and the equations, terminology, and graphical methods used to describe and represent them. This work is motivated by an observed inability of students to qualitatively model and predict how a real-life system will behave, despite an understanding of such models in homework and lecture settings. Thus, there is a disconnect between understanding how real-life physical behaviors map to the elemental and system equations of idealized models. The experiments, presented herein, and corresponding qualitative discussion among peers are designed to precede and pair with subsequent course discussion of the concepts involved. During the follow-on lectures, the instructor references, and may repeat, these demonstrations to link the student's observations to the appropriate terminology, equations, and graphical representations being taught. The four short experiments presented in this paper are described briefly below; a selection of these activities will be demonstrated at the ASEE conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study continues the work by the authors to investigate the efficacy of homework in an engineering mechanics (Statics & Dynamics) course, starting with data from the fall semester of 2013. Throughout this study we have investigated: hand-written solutions, frequent quizzes based on homework problems, and the Pearson Mastering Engineering software. Thus far variations in homework systems have had only minimal impacts on the student's overall performance in the class, as assessed by performance on exam scores. In this paper authors will present the impact of utilizing the "adaptive follow-up" modules in Pearson Mastering Engineering, as well as a reflection on the different methods used over the study period. As in previous years, assessment of the efficacy of homework assignments will be based on observation of students' performance on exams, and a survey of students' perceptions relative to historical norms. Institutional review of research protocol determined that full board review of the study and informed consent was not required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homework accomplishes little or nothing. The few student who do complete it benefit but the overwhelming majority copy (incorrectly often) their classmates' efforts and think they can build up a cushion to pass the course. There is a better way - announced quizzes. That is, suggest some problems that demonstrate the principles taught in the course then give 10-15 minute quizzes frequently (about thirty (30) times a semester) with increasing point value every week. If the quizzes exactly mirror the "suggested problems" the instructor and the student have a good measure of learning and mastery of the subject material. The task and the joy of teaching is to transfer knowledge from the teacher to the student. At its best this transfer involves a knowledgeable teacher and an engaged, participative student. Along the way the student should learn how to explore gaining knowledge without the teacher in order to instill life-long learning. The teacher usually also tries to instill a good work ethic as the student learns. For the mathematics and sciences courses this often involves assigning problem sets for the student to apply and practice the tools, techniques, and concepts presented in class and in the reading assignments. At regular intervals the student is tested on her or his ability to identify and categorize problems, select the appropriate tools to solve the problem, and apply the appropriate problem solving steps to actually solve the problem. This testing exercise is designed for assessment and feedback to the student. To encourage the student to prepare for the test, the traditional method of teaching involves assigning homework problems to allow the student to practice on typical problems encountered while applying knowledge gained learning the subject material. The assignment of regular homework also encourages the student to develop a good work ethic and facility with the concepts presented in the classroom. To further these objectives the homework completion is often worked into the grading system. Thus, the submission of completed homework becomes and end unto itself. In each class a minority of the students dutifully attempt the problems and submit them. For most student, however, the homework assignment becomes a game of getting it in with the least effort possible. It is a short term strategy to minimize the effort (time spent solving problems) and to maximize the reward (grade awarded for completing the assignment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparison between students' efforts on homework (problem sets delivered and completed online using WebAssign) and their participation on a course-focused social media site. The social media platform, CourseNetworking (CN), has many features typical of Learning Management Systems (LMSs), but is distinct in several important ways. The interface is far more "student centric" than traditional LMSs, and is designed to increase engagement; most of the CN window is devoted to student-authored content. Also, the site measures and "gamifies" participation, using an algorithm that includes posts, completion of surveys, comments on other students' posts, and other actions. The setting for our efforts was an introductory calculus-based mechanics class enrolling approximately 150 students, most of whom were engineering majors. Course exams, problem sets, and labs followed a traditional model. Social media participation was not required, but it was encouraged and students could earn a small extra-credit bonus. We investigated correlations between social media "micropoints" and three variables associated with the homework: time on task, points earned, and assignments skipped. Our results show small to moderate correlations and statistical significance in all three cases. Pearson's correlation coefficients are r = 0.286, 0.444, and -0.436 for time on task, points earned, and assignments skipped, respectively. The associated p values are 1.2 x 10-3 for time on task, and p < 10-5 for the other two variables. Because the variables we measure are not normally distributed, we verify these results by also calculating Kendall's tau statistic. This analysis confirms both the size and significance of the correlations we observe. We do not suggest a causal connection; rather, our conclusion is that participation in the social network is a form of engagement with the class comparable to traditional measures of engagement such as homework effort and outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of homework has an interesting history in the academic literature. The consensus of the value of homework has risen and fallen several times through the literature of the last century. The focus of the majority of this previous research was based on students up and through the secondary level, with a lesser focus at the post-secondary level. Instructors at the post-secondary level see homework as necessary for students in order to practice new concepts and obtain new skills and these instructors have expectations of how, when, and why students do homework. The hypothesis for this work is that students that dedicate time to solving homework assignments will perform better on the learning objectives of a course. This paper reviews homework submissions of post-secondary students based on their performance and actions in a statics course of a mechanical engineering technology program. This paper will discuss the different strategies seen in the students' homework submissions, assess how students perform in a class based on homework completion, and provide suggestions for future work in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Student Note-Taking Achieves Performance (SNAP) concept is presented here with its utilization, observations and analysis as an alternative to other methods, such as homework problems, proffered to enhance learning. This educational initiative attempts to address the question of the formative skill for the reading of text and lecture material by a student and the immediate translation then to problem solving. SNAP is a short (15 minute) quiz using only the student's handwritten notes but no text or references. SNAP has been vetted over several semesters in diverse undergraduate Electrical and Computer Engineering courses and assessed by the comparative performance of their respective Course Learning Outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study observes the efficacy of short in class quizzes used to assess students' understanding of homework assignments in an engineering mechanics (Statics & Dynamics) course. Rather than directly grading assigned problems, a random problem was selected from the assigned homework set and used for a quiz on the following class period. Previously, students submitted scans of completed homework assignments via Canvas (learning management software, LMS) and homework was graded directly. Motivation for this research was generated by negative feedback from students in respect to the difficulty and time spent on homework and a lack of correlation between homework and other assessments of performance (quizzes and exams) in the class. Our hypothesis was that using frequent quizzes would motivate students to understand the problems and improve performance on exams. Results suggest that the change had a minimal impact on overall performance, evaluation of student and instructor perceptions show potential benefits countered by stress and time lost to overly frequent quizzes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on homework behaviors in high school and college for several engineering students at a metropolitan research institution. According to results from the National Survey of Student Engagement, engineering seniors usually spend more time preparing for class compared to seniors in any other discipline.

In this paper, a novel model for incorporating an effective homework component within an engineering course is proposed. In this model, a copy of the homework assignment is submitted electronically and students are asked to self-grade their original assignments using an instructor provided solution and a grading rubric. Students are also asked to provide detailed explanation for every correction they make. The purpose of this self-grading exercise is to motivate the engineering students to actively learn and develop their well-needed self-reflection and self-judgment skills. This approach will help maximize the effectiveness of the homework component and empower the students to learn from their own mistakes. In this model, students' grades are based on their ability to clearly identify their misconceptions, make corrections, and provide a clear justification for how they graded their homework problems. In addition, this model is sought to not only discourage plagiarism but also to provide an accurate indicator of the performance of every student in class. To validate our findings, we conducted both quantitative and qualitative assessments taking into consideration all the pertinent parameters involved in this model. The effectiveness of this model was quantitatively verified by assessing the student performance in pre- and post-exams. Qualitative assessment in a form of survey was conducted to measure the level of students' satisfactions with this model. Assessment results showed that students subject to this study were able to significantly improve their performance which confirmed the merit of implementing this flipped homework model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homework has traditionally been the essential part of student learning, especially in engineering education. However, the availability of solution manuals has affected this, as it now takes just a few minutes to find solutions for specific homework problems on the internet. There are a number of papers reporting the effects of solution manuals on students' learning. Some of these reports argue that the availability of solution manuals has adversely affected student learning. Yet, there are two subjects in this area that have not been emphasized: students' perspectives toward solution manuals and the best options for instructors. Two surveys, one for students and one for faculty, were designed and submitted to the members of the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. A total of 337 responses from students and 37 responses from faculty were received. According to the results of the collected survey, the majority of respondents believe that solution manuals help them to be more motivated, learn at a deeper level, and earn better grades. Faculty survey results also show that solution manuals can be helpful if they are used properly. This paper describes the results of the data collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of assigning graded homework problems versus providing suggested problems on student exam performance in an introductory fluid mechanics course. Students at two different universities had specific chapters from the textbook for which graded homework was assigned and other chapters for which suggested problems were provided. Solutions to both the graded and suggested problems were provided roughly one week after they were assigned. Student performance on quiz and exam questions was then analyzed to determine if one mode of problem assignment resulted in increased learning. A weekly survey was used to determine the number of hours students applied to each problem assignment. It was found that students spent on average one extra hour on a graded homework assignment than suggested problems. Interestingly there was no significant difference in exam performance on questions which related to suggested homework problems than questions related to graded homework problems. The paper further relates these results to course design and discusses the implications for academic misconduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a one-semester experiment intended to assess the effect of requiring students to write abstracts for homework problems. The literature contains examples in which use of reflective writing assignments led to improved achievement of student outcomes. In this case, it was hypothesized that requiring students to write abstracts for homework problem solutions would help students to see connections between concepts and develop a methodical procedure for solving problems. Two sections of the course were taught at Rowan University in the Fall 2013 semester, allowing the authors to conduct a control experiment. Students in both sections of the course were assigned the same weekly homework assignments, consisting of problems assigned from the course textbook. Students in both sections completed these assignments in teams of three, and they submitted one solution per team. In addition, in the "experimental" section, each individual student was required to write an abstract for one problem from each homework assignment. The abstract summarized the purpose of the problem, the physical system under consideration, the known and unknown information and the solution procedure. The experimental and control sections took identical tests under identical conditions, and each problem was graded by the same instructor for both sections. There was no evidence that writing abstracts was beneficial to the students in attaining the instructional objectives; the control group scored at least as high as the experimental group on all exams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which examined the potential of providing formative feedback for engineering students facing complex homework problems. A definition of cognitive tutor is provided, as well as information on an approach to a cognitive tutoring system. Also discussed are the design of a tutor for problem solving of trusses, elements underlying cognition in the tutor system, and analysis of student work while using the tutor.

The article discusses a study which investigated students' perspectives on homework and problem sets in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses. Students at Stanford University were surveyed through email about their views on homework grading and homework completion strategy. It was found that students preferred assignments that are relevant to the exam material and assignments that are intellectually stimulating.

Software packages that allow for homework to be submitted through the web have provided an interesting opportunity for both students and faculty. Students are given an opportunity to practice solving problems with a guided solution process and can receive instant assessment regarding their solutions. From a faculty perspective, the ability to assign homework online and have it graded automatically simplifies homework assessment. Software and book choice can mitigate time savings for the professor, requiring problems be manually coded, but overall the use of software decreases time required to administer the homework. Methods of delivery (online only or hybrid classes) can also have a large effect on the time and effort committed to a course. Here, we propose the use of online homework software does not instill the importance of presenting a logical and organized solution process. Software lacks the ability to assess a student's ability to communicate technical information effectively[1]; an important characteristic that is missing in recent engineering graduates[2]. The use of online homework can be beneficial in developing a solving process and retention of material[3-4], but may also be detrimental for classes that require illustrating an organized solution: most engineering classes. Preliminary work in assessing of "presentation of an organized solution process" and it's correlation with the final course grade has been done in a sophomore mechanics class. Early data does not support the hypothesis, that there is a positive correlation between final grades in the class and one's ability to present work clearly (p = 0.408). However, these data were included within a component of a scoring rubric. In the future, presentation of work will be a separate category in the rubric so that a more complete analysis can be done. Anecdotal evidence (discussion with colleagues) regarding "presentation of an organized solution" in the classes that follow these sophomore mechanics courses illustrate the opposite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the flipped biomedical engineering classroom focusing on the enforcement and evaluation in the medical electronics course. It says that the flipped classroom model turns inside out the traditional "teaching/lecture-learning/homework" model by bringing the instruction online outside of classroom and putting the active part of the instruction, the "homework" into the classroom.

This paper describes the development of educational modules which provide a multi-disciplinary knowledge of solar energy and which can be incorporated in the curriculum of chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, among others. Through these modules, we have made an effort to provide basic information to students on the economic, technical, and policy based aspects of solar energy. Apart from this, we are working on a module on tools which help to simulate the output and finances of solar energy installation. Every module contains background information, worked example problems and homework problems. Thus, these modules also act as a compendium of in-class and/or homework problems. Journal articles, online databases from government websites like NREL and EPA, and books are used as references while preparing these modules. Every module is published online at the energy module website http://tinyurl.com/hailstatesolar and is easily and openly accessible to any interested individual for downloading. They can be used as a teaching aid in any related course. Such usage would help to increase student awareness of and interest in solar energy. This research takes inspiration from a successful similar project on Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a number of issues affect student success, an area of great concern is student retention. Studies have shown that students are more likely to stay in college if they have clear goals, are active learners, and are active participants in classroom activities. In other words, students learn more when they are intensely involved in their education and have opportunities to apply what they are learning. Students also benefit when they are engaged in the teaching and learning of their peers, such as group work, peer review, study groups, and peer teaching in and out of class. Flipping the classroom is a relatively new active learning technique that faculty at many institutions have incorporated in their teaching. In a flipped classroom, laboratory and in-class activities replace typical class-lectures. Lectures are normally delivered over some other medium such as video on-demand or podcasts. However, there is no specific model for flipped classrooms, it simply draws on such concepts as student engagement, hybrid course design, and course podcasting. This paper describes how the flipped classroom technique was incorporated into a three-credit electrical engineering course that met twice a week. This paper presents details about the course, discusses student survey results, and describes plans to improve the delivery of this and similar courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design for manufacturability (DFM) is the practice of engineering products such that they are more easily produced in volume. DFM is traditionally taught by lecture and students are subsequently encouraged to utilize the underlying concepts in their engineering design courses and capstone project. One of the problems with this approach is that the design is rarely taken to volume production, giving students little chance to see firsthand the benefits of employing DFM in their work. To address this, we have developed an in-class activity which allows student teams to design a widget and take it to volume production all within the span of a single three- hour laboratory period. We present the implementation of this activity in our optical engineering and engineering physics capstone design course; sample activity materials will also be provided and discussed. Students are tasked with designing a widget capable of holding a heavy weight at a minimum height off a table. Specifications are provided on the maximum widget size and allowable materials which can be used. The activity is organized as a competition with a goal of maximizing profit--revenue earned per widget less the cost per widget (material costs, development costs, labor, and cost of poor quality). Students are allowed to choose their team size (there are advantages and disadvantages to both small and large teams) and given time to design and prototype. During this phase the groups must also track their development costs (materials) and develop a production plan which ultimately results in a commitment to deliver a specific quantity of widgets. Following the product development phase, all prototypes and leftover materials are scrapped. The activity then moves to the production phase where teams are given exactly 10 minutes to manufacture the widgets and fulfill their commitment. Acceptance testing is performed on a sample of widgets produced by the team. Severe financial penalties are levied if widgets fail testing or if the team fails to deliver a sufficient quantity. The teams calculate their profitability, and the winning team is announced. Following the activity, the students are assigned homework where they must reflect upon the choices made in the design process and what they could have done to improve their outcome relative to the winning team. We have found this activity to be highly reusable; for example, by simply adjusting the designated costs or earning per widget, a previous winning design can be rendered ineffective given the new constraints. Further, this activity is a pedagogical approach that is not discipline-specific; we expect that it is well suited for students in all engineering fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of Texas at El Paso teamed with the "Signal Processing Education Network," (SPEN), which consists of academic, industry and professional community. SPEN, an NSF-sponsored effort, is based on four technologies: Connexions, interactive simulation tools, Quadbase question/answer system and OpenStax Tutor. It seeks to develop materials that allow educators to break away from traditional textbook-lecture-homework education, and create a new framework based on an engaged community of educators, students, and industry professionals that continuously collaborate, improve and explore interactive content. The initial effort focuses on one strategic subdiscipline in electrical engineering, signal processing, but the framework can be applied to engineering education at all levels: high school, university (undergraduate and graduate) as well as continuing education. During the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 semesters, UTEP implemented the use of Connexions, interactive examples, Quadbase system, and OpenStax Tutor in a sophomore course on Continuous-Time Signals and Systems. We organized existing material pertinent to the course into learning modules, created problems with associated solutions in Quadbase and developed interactive simulations in Mathematica to help students more effectively learn concepts with which they had difficulties. In addition, we used the assessment system provided by OpenStax Tutor to track and evaluate students' progress. OpenStax Tutor facilitates the instructors' work by automatically grading student work and exporting the grades to a spreadsheet. It also provides statistics of students' performance, e.g., reporting the time taken to complete specific assignments. These statistics enable assessment of overall class performance as the semester progresses. The feedback from students, gathered through a modified version of the SALG instrument, demonstrated that they enjoyed and learned the material better by using technology tools. The assessment of the learning gains of students in the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 semester demonstrated an increase in the assessed learning outcomes compared to the Summer 2012 semester, where the tools were not used. The use of technology tools can address multiple situations in engineering education: limited opportunity for active learning; limited opportunity for laboratory activities that are interesting or relate to students' ideas about their "real world"; lack of interactive learning demos; textbooks providing limited connections among topics; development of textbooks and course materials limited to a small number of authors; and rising textbook costs that present a financial burden for students, especially low-income students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative thinking includes the capacity to combine or synthesize existing ideas, images, or expertise in original ways and the experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative way characterized by a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking. 1 Despite all that has been demonstrated regarding problem solving and creative thinking, many engineering schools are still relying on the traditional lecture-homework-quiz format of well-defined problems and single correct answers. Unfortunately, while efficient, this format has not shown to be effective at producing the critical, innovative thinking skills needed to solve difficult technological problems. 2. 3 This paper describes a module for promoting students' creativity in a Material Balances second semester required course for Chemical, Food, and Environmental Engineering at Universidad de las Américas Puebla (Mexico). Major goals include stimulating and strengthening student cognitive flexibility that could allow them to be creative thinkers. The proposed four class-sessions module is an active and cooperative experience that was implemented as course final project. Students explored creativity through multiple representations of a problem that should be presented in written, graphic, and audio-visual manner to an expert audience for its evaluation. According to the Cognitive Flexibility Theory 4, 5, multiple representations of knowledge promote the transfer of abstract knowledge to different contexts while cognitive flexibility is one of the four base elements of creativity 6. For the design of the learning environments of the module, we followed Jonassen 7. Final projects were presented to experts in the field that assessed student creative thinking by means of a rubric adapted from the Investment Theory of Creativity developed by Sternberg and Lubart 6, 8, 9, which provided a multidimensional assessment of creativity. Additionally a Fluency Rubric was developed, which was divided into four modules that correspond to each project deliverable (dossier, poster, video, and oral presentation). Students were able to build concrete examples of a material balance in an everyday situation and represent them in many ways (physically, verbally, symbolically, and by means of a multimedia presentation). Mean values from rubric assessment of final projects were 3.13 for creative performance, 3.80 for knowledge of domain (application of formal and informal knowledge), 3.31 for intellectual style (includes indicators such as autonomy and rules), 3.28 for motivation (level of commitment, project pride, and interest in task), 3.02 for intellectual processes (which includes indicators such as sensitivity, problem identification, ideation, ability to recognize ideas that have potential to be valued, as well as ability to sell your ideas effectively and persuade of its value), and 2.90 for creative personality (with indicators such as tolerance for ambiguity, risk taking, will, and perseverance). The vast majority of students attained final project expected outcomes at an acceptable level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes the application of Agile system development process and its accomplishments on a web-based Teaching Assistant System (ViTAS). The ViTAS is developed to improve the retention rate of the students in a Hispanic-Serving Institution. In particular, this project focuses on the Agile system development process, which is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative, interactive, and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing and cross- functional teams. Also, the teaching assistant system is developed as a digital warehouse of homework assignments and students' work in STEM courses. This system provides a homework assignments grading system for the students' as well as instructors in STEM field and to provide an interactive learning environment outside the class for the students. Using ViTAS, students are able to submit the assignments online, to engage in anonymous peer review, and to discuss with their peers. The students grading their peer assignments are beneficial as during the process of grading other's work, the students get the opportunity to learn/review their own work/mistakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing the understanding of construction project delivery methods is one of the major objectives of Construction Management course. This course has been offered by the author for the last three academic years at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The course is lecture- based. The lecture-based course usually leans towards being instructor centered. Recognizing this fact, the author has developed different strategies every semester to keep the lecture more interactive and student-centered. The strategies included from group studies to company interviews and presentations. According to the author's personal experience, traditional homework assignments are not as effective as team-based assignments in a lecture-based management course. Embedding people's skills requires team-based collaborative exercises. In order to enhance students' learning, rather than having traditional homework assignments, different quiz assignments have been designed for the course. The last semester, the author has decided to explore in addition to the lecture, if collaborative working exercises can be effective in learning. The construction project delivery methods topic is used for the collaborative working exercise. First, the delivery methods are presented in a traditional lecture. The Engineering News Record (ENR) Top Lists of Design-Build, Construction Management at Risk, and Construction Management for Fee type of delivery methods are made available to students. Later, they are asked to make a group of five people and investigate those companies' websites in a detailed manner. They are supposed to find out the reasons why these companies became the leaders in respective project delivery methods. They are asked to come up with their own construction company and develop an argument for the audience explaining how their company became one of the leaders in respective project delivery methods. They are also asked to explain their approach (involvement) from initiation to completion of projects by being specific and giving examples of projects from different industry segments. During presentations, the instructor guides them on presentation skills as well. The team based, collaborative working approach creates interaction among students, enhances communication. They enjoy creating together. The results of the evaluation are expected that in addition to traditional lecture, the team based work study approach enhances the understanding of the project delivery methods; students get the chance to work in a team environment, learn by collaborating, and develop leadership skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]