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The article presents an introduction to content in the current issue including two papers on the characteristics of current and future engineering students, four papers that examine what engineering students need to learn and challenges facing them, and three papers that explore from different angles the process of studying to become an engineer.

This paper summarizes the design and evaluation of an instructional approach aimed at improving the writing skills of a group of undergraduate engineering students. We sought to determine whether student performance in difficult writing skills such as argumentation and synthesis could be improved by integrating a single writing exercise into an upper level engineering course. In designing the exercise, we relied heavily on recommendations for best practices from the learning science community, specifically those codified in the National Academy text How People Learn [1]. We found reliable improvement in student performance in many of the areas targeted, demonstrating that the approach taken was effective. Since we modified the exercise a few times before meeting our objectives for student learning, we could compare the effectiveness of different implementations of our approach. Our success and failures provide guidance for others seeking to improve the competence of engineering undergraduates in writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Supporting undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has been a persistent need. However, assessing the impact of support efforts can prove challenging as it is difficult to operationalize student support and subsequently monitor the combined impacts of the various supports to which students have access simultaneously. Purpose/Hypothesis: This paper describes the development of the STEM student perspectives of support instrument (STEM‐SPSI) and explores how perceptions of student support constructs vary across engineering students. Design/Method: Following best practices for instrument development, forming the STEM‐SPSI consisted of an iterative cycle of feedback from various STEM stakeholders and two rounds of pilot testing with students at multiple institutions. We employed factor analysis to identify student‐support constructs and conduct validation procedures on the instrument. Results: Results suggest that student support can be conceptualized as a combination of 12 constructs. The STEM‐SPSI can help engineering educators evaluate their student‐support mechanisms at an academic‐unit level. Conclusions: The practical contribution of the STEM‐SPSI is to assist colleges in monitoring the extent to which their portfolio of support mechanisms is perceived as helpful by undergraduate students. This work makes a theoretical contribution to the model of cocurricular support that undergirds the instrument by producing empirical evidence for its constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Women and men of color and White women participate in American engineering education in lower proportions than they represent in the general U.S. population. Much existing engineering education research uses individual‐level (such as psychological) theories to explain this difference. The study reported here instead takes a structural perspective, asking how social relations are coordinated in engineering education. Purpose: This study explores how the intersection of ruling relations, critical race, and feminist theories can investigate how gender and race are built into engineering education's institutional structure. Design/Method: This study used interviews collected from 17 women and men of color and White women who were engineering undergraduate students at U.S. universities. The interviews were drawn from a project that takes as its premise that learning from such small numbers of students facilitates analyzing data intersectionally. The primary analysis used narrative methods through repeated readings. Results: I offer empirically based illustrations of ruling relations in U.S. universities and schools of engineering that unduly impact minoritized populations. These illustrations include discussions of financial aid knowledge, meeting the needs of transfer and Native students, and how schools crafting "the ideal student" as a young, single White male problematically impact minoritized students. The results illustrate how ruling relations structure engineering education in White‐ and male‐dominated ways. Conclusions: This paper offers questions to help readers consider how ruling relations race and gender their own institutions. In addition, it offers an interpretive, emergent method for interrogating institutional structure and ideas for future work using ruling relations in engineering education research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While recent engineering education research has focused on the pathways that students take as they transition into engineering programs in higher education, little has explicitly focused on developing an understanding of students as they select and transfer into engineering from other majors. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of how engineering students enter the engineering field by comparing commonalities across their experiences. Given recent literature that describes student dissatisfaction toward, misinformation about, and attrition in engineering programs, we explore the lived experiences of students entering the engineering field, with a particular focus on students changing their majors to engineering. Methods: This paper synthesizes the stories of 21 undergraduate engineering students from a southeastern research university, 15 of whom began their undergraduate program in other majors and transferred into engineering. We employ a unique narrative structuralizing scheme based on Campbell's hero's journey and use the metaphor of the beginning of the journey to understand student trajectories that locate students in engineering studies. Conclusions: With this information, we can better understand student conceptions of the engineering field when they enter; who enters the engineering field and why; how students' expectations are met or not in engineering programs; and what are the factors that ultimately contribute to first‐year retention in engineering programs. In general, students entering engineering tend to have a limited understanding of what is entailed in an engineering program and benefit from interactions with advisors, teachers, and peers in the field. Such interactions may help students to more clearly decide what aspects of engineering are appropriate for them to pursue and help them to persist as they begin coursework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective writing skills are crucial for engineers, and engineering programs have always struggled with how to prepare their students for the writing they will do as professionals. Now, programs must also show the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) that they have clear educational outcomes for engineering communication and have a process for assessing student performance on those outcomes. At the University of Washington, we have spent the last five years developing an outcomes-based assessment program for engineering writing. In spring 2001, the first round of writing assessment was completed. The assessment indicated that most of our students are competent in the outcomes we have developed. It also uncovered several weak areas, particularly in regard to working with sources and to adequately stating and supporting the purpose of the writing. We will be addressing these areas with additional instruction in the stand-alone technical writing courses taken by engineering students. The process described in this paper could be helpful for other engineering programs preparing for ABET accreditation visits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Quantitative researchers have noted the impact of mentoring and support programming for students from underrepresented groups in engineering. Qualitative researchers have also noted the importance of student agency in persistence through marginalization. Nevertheless, challenges and questions remain in identifying practices which are effective in supporting underrepresented students. Purpose: The study applies scholarship from critical theory and narrative as a new resource for approaching and understanding the process of supporting marginalized student agency. Method: A longitudinal interview study with a female undergraduate engineering student, Emilia, developed into a way for her to process marginalizing educational experiences and to develop new narratives that expanded her agency. After an in‐depth member check, Emilia became a co‐author contributing a post hoc account of the impact of these discussions. Results: Our analysis indicates that naming one's own oppression and creating narratives that repurpose and resituate stereotypical stories of oppression was a liberatory act for Emilia. We trace three marginalizing themes of the participant's experience that are subverted and resisted through the student co‐constructed narrative. Conclusions: The paper builds theory for diversity support, suggesting critical theorizing may present a new form of agency not yet represented in the literature. It also points to possible value for student participants from qualitative methodologies exploring student experiences. Finally, it suggests supporting critical theorizing as a potential new orientation for diversity practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks how undergraduate engineering education supports students' ethical development, broadly defined, in a diverse sample of U.S. engineering schools and offers an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of those efforts. The paper draws on observational case studies that were based on site visits to undergraduate mechanical and electrical engineering programs at seven universities or engineering schools in the U.S. It begins by proposing professional codes of ethics in engineering as a useful framework for thinking about the goals for student learning in the area of ethics and professional responsibility. The paper then discusses how and to what degree these goals are being addressed in the case study schools, with additional context provided through reference to published research in the field. The paper concludes with recommendations for strengthening the teaching of engineering ethics and professional responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABET Engineering Criteria 2000 has encouraged changes in engineering education. The deregulation of the electric power industry is also causing changes in the types of jobs power engineers take upon graduation. This paper describes efforts by power faculty at Kansas State University to provide students more hands-on active learning experience with power systems and machinery. A summary of the power curriculum is provided. The courses affected include an energy conversion course required of all electrical engineering students, and a new power laboratory course required of students taking the electric power option. Examples of student assignments are provided. Observations and discussion of the in-class experiences are provided. The paper describes work done and in progress to convert the traditional power courses into studio-type courses in which instruction can flow from lecture to laboratory to computer demonstration formats with ease. Future plans for the project are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Conceptual change is a process in which an individual's understanding and the basis of this understanding change over time. Vosniadou's framework theory explains conceptual change in terms of how students learn to relate the observable and unobservable in everyday phenomena. As a result, courses that relate physical phenomena to complex abstractions – such as Mechanics of Materials – are useful spaces for exploring conceptual change. Purpose: This paper leverages Vosniadou's framework theory of conceptual change to explore students' reasoning and to identify trends about their understanding of fundamental concepts of mechanics of materials. Design/Method: This research is based on the qualitative analysis of semi‐structured interviews with ninety engineering undergraduate students enrolled in a Mechanics of Materials course. Interviews were qualitatively analyzed to capture students' understanding of mechanics of materials concepts under different loading scenarios. Results: Our results found two common persistent beliefs in student reasoning in both the axial and bending load cases: that shear and normal stress depend on (a) the direction and (b) the location of an applied load. We propose that students' “nonscientific” beliefs are part of an intermediate, synthetic model of conceptual understanding created as students assimilate their presuppositions of mechanics of materials with newly acquired information based on the scientific concepts. Conclusions: Students form naïve conceptual beliefs based on their experiences with loading scenarios that impede their abilities to more effectively assimilate new concepts into their current framework theories. A better understanding of student reasoning and what influences it can inform instructional techniques to help students develop science‐based reasoning in mechanics of materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Introductory gateway engineering courses are notorious for their high attrition rates. Deficiencies in students' problem-solving processes may contribute to their failure in these courses. In an empirical study of student problem solving, we observed that students struggle because of misconceptions regarding the basic syntax and semantics of disciplinary diagrams and corresponding mathematical equations. PURPOSE (HYPOTHESIS) We hypothesize that a scaffolded software environment that provides dynamically-generated feedback on the syntactic and semantic correctness of students' evolving disciplinary diagrams and mathematical equations can improve engineering students' problem-solving abilities. DESIGN/METHOD We iteratively developed ChemProV, a software environment to assist chemical engineering students in solving material balance problems. To evaluate ChemProV's effectiveness, we performed two between-subjects experimental studies. The first study compared a preliminary version of the ChemProV to pen-and-paper. The second study compared a redesigned version of ChemProV with dynamic feedback to the same version of ChemProV without dynamic feedback. RESULTS While it did not uncover any significant differences, the first study provided insight into how to improve ChemProV's dynamic feedback mechanism. The second study found that the "feedback" version of ChemProV promoted a statistically-significant advantage in problem-solving accuracy, significantly more time-on-task, and a transfer-of-training to an unscaffolded problem-solving situation. CONCLUSIONS A scaffolded software environment like ChemProV can serve as a valuable aid in helping students learn engineering problem-solving skills. Its software design approach can be used as a model for designing educationally-effective software environments for other engineering disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Courseware for engineering education can feature many discrete interactive learning elements, and typically student usage is not compelled. To take advantage of such courseware, self-regulation of learning may be necessary. Evaluation of courseware should consider actual usage, learning gains, and indications of learning self-regulation. PURPOSE (HYPOTHESIS) The research question focuses on how students' interactions with the courseware affect their learning gains. The hypothesis tested is that learning gains from online courseware increase with usage, and particularly with usage that suggests learning self-regulation. DESIGN/METHOD Students in a lecture-based statics course were assigned to study previously developed courseware as part of homework assignments. Learning gains were deduced from pre- and post- paper and pencil diagnostic quizzes, and from the first class exam. Credit was based on quiz scores, rather than courseware usage. Usage of interactive elements of the courseware was inferred from log files of students' interactions with the courseware, and patterns suggesting learning self-regulation were identified. RESULTS High, statistically significant learning gains were found. Substantial usage was evident, with core learning activities initiated by, on average, three-quarters of students. Learning gains and performance on the relevant class exam appeared to be more closely correlated with usage that indicated self-regulation of learning rather than with total usage of the courseware. CONCLUSIONS Methods of assessing courseware should go beyond courseware features, learning gains, and student self-reports of effectiveness to include monitoring of actual usage and analyses relating usage to learning. Self-regulation of learning is likely to be critical to successful usage of courseware, and courseware should be designed to encourage it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U.S. engineering education needs to evolve if the country is to maintain its preeminence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. This paper, building on both national engineering student data and findings from the Academic Pathways Study, conjectures and reports on analyses of what matters to future generations of engineers. The paper compares the current generation of college students, Generation Net, with previous generations, explores motivations and choices along the engineering pathway (pre-college to the workforce), examines students' knowledge and skills relative to faculty practices, and concludes with three scenarios of engineering education and the workforce, including the consequences of stasis or change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers and tests an approach to conceptualizing the global competency of engineers. It begins by showing that the often-stated goal of working effectively with different cultures is fundamentally about learning to work effectively with people who define problems differently. The paper offers a minimum learning criterion for global competency and three learning outcomes whose achievement can help engineering students fulfill that criterion. It uses the criterion to establish a typology of established methods to support global learning for engineering students. It introduces the course, Engineering Cultures, as an example of an integrated classroom experience designed to enable larger numbers of engineering students to take the critical first step toward global competency, and it offers a test application of the learning criterion and outcomes by using them to organize summative assessments of student learning in the course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What could we know about engineering student knowing? The answer to this question represents a form of scholarship of discovery in engineering education and a valuable complement to scholarship of teaching work in the field. To illustrate the state of this scholarship, we present twelve studies and analyze these studies across aspects of knowledge, level of experience, and research approach. We then use these analyses to identify trends in the existing research and opportunities for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As college students experience the challenges of their classes and extracurricular activities, most undergo a developmental progression in which they gradually relinquish their belief in the certainty of knowledge and the omniscience of authorities and take increasing responsibility for their own learning. At a high developmental level (which few reach before graduation), they recognize that all knowledge is contextual, gather and interpret evidence to support their judgments from a wide range of sources, and willingly reconsider those judgments in the light of new evidence. This paper reviews several models of intellectual development, discusses their applicability to science and engineering education, and defines the difficulties that confront instructors seeking to promote the development of their students. A companion paper formulates an instructional model for promoting development that addresses those difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Community engagement has recently become a focus in engineering education. However, systematic reviews that catalog best practices and identify research patterns and gaps remain scarce. Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review is to generate insights and findings by reviewing studies focused on community engagement programs in engineering education from 1980 to 2019. This review offers new findings for practitioners and researchers with a menu of proven ideas and provides directions for community engagement practice and future research. Method: Articles were obtained via keyword searches for "Engineering" AND "service‐learning," "community engagement" OR "civic engagement" using available databases. Search constraints included the year of publication, peer‐reviewed articles, and articles written in English. The content analysis method was used to categorize, summarize, and evaluate selected articles. A total of 120 articles have been reviewed. Results: This systematic review identified recent trends in engineering community engagement programs. Undergraduate students were the main program participants. The vast majority of projects took place in the United States. Overall, community engagement projects increasingly recruited multidisciplinary students. Factors such as logistics constraints, cultural barriers, and disconnect issues were reported as major challenges to the success of engineering community engagement programs. Qualitative research dominated community engagement studies. The community partner remains a less‐studied subject. Research focusing on engineering graduate students in community engagement was rare. Conclusions: To obtain a holistic understanding of community engagement in engineering education, additional research should focus on community partners' perspectives, graduate students in engineering, diversity, and holistic assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to implement the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) engineering criteria, it is important for engineering educators to understand different types of knowledge and how these types relate to the outcomes described in Criterion 3. This paper first provides a heuristic for framing a program's educational objectives by identifying exemplars of the types of engineers a program seeks to graduate. Three sections then follow, each addressing categories of knowledge: tacit knowledge, four types of knowledge that can either be tacit or explicit, and knowledge created and shared in teams. Examples of the relationship of traits of knowledge to the outcomes in Criterion 3 are provided. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of how these types of knowledge are imbued in engineering students at the University of Virginia, as well as suggestions for additional ways in which they could be infused into engineering curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variety of design-process and design-methods courses exist in engineering education. The primary objective of such courses is to teach engineering design fundamentals utilizing repeatable design techniques. By so doing, students obtain (1) tools they may employ during their education, (2) design experiences to understand the "big picture" of engineering, and (3) proven methods to attack open-ended problems. While these skills are worthwhile, especially as design courses are moved earlier in curricula, many students report that design methods are typically taught at a high-level and in a compartmentalized fashion. Often, the students' courses do not include opportunities to obtain incremental concrete experiences with the methods. Nor do such courses allow for suitable observation and reflection as the methods are executed. In this paper, we describe a new approach for teaching design methods that addresses these issues. This approach incorporates hands-on experiences through the use of "reverse-engineering" projects. As the fundamentals of design techniques are presented, students immediately apply the methods to actual, existing products. They are able to hold these products physically in their hands, dissect them, perform experiments on their components, and evolve them into new successful creations. Based on this reverse-engineering concept, we have developed and tested new courses at The University of Texas, MIT, and the United States Air Force Academy. In the body of this paper, we present the structure of these courses, an example of our teaching approach, and an evaluation of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching operations engineering to traditional and non-traditional engineering students using case learning methods presents both instructional challenges and provides learning rewards when performed properly. Unfortunately, few engineering faculty have had exposure to this learning approach. However, the skills are learnable and the results satisfying to instructor and student alike. The purpose of this paper is to explore case learning methods and illustrate their appropriateness for a course in operations engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By incorporating writing in engineering courses, we can move toward several important educational goals. Writing allows students to develop and use critical thinking skills. It enhances active learning and addresses the needs of students with different learning styles. It is a uniquely powerful tool for assessing student understanding. Writing becomes particularly useful in engineering education when demonstrated as a process. Similarities between the writing and design processes can be used to highlight the fact that there is often no single "correct" solution in either and that feedback and revision are often crucial to both. Finally, the status of our profession is enhanced when engineering graduates can communicate effectively. This paper provides specific examples of how we have employed writing in our courses over the last three years and how it has served to enhance outcomes in these courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering students often have difficulty learning how to write laboratory reports in their field. To assist students with this learning process and teach them writing strategies that will prove helpful in the workplace, a writing center was established in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at the University of South Carolina. There, consultants trained in technical writing work closely with ECE faculty members and teaching assistants to create a supportive network for students as they draft reports, including discussions during recitation periods, team consultations, and individual consultations. This paper presents a theoretical framework for the writing center program, as well as specific writing strategies that have proven helpful. Assessment methods and feedback from faculty and students about the success of the program are presented as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the distance learning process by providing an informed student's perspective as well as the instructor's perspective on an Internet-based synchronous distance learning experience. Throughout the semester, the student maintained a class-by-class journal on his experiences and reactions to the Internet-based course. This journal served as a crucial resource in the subsequent evaluation of the virtual classroom experience. The analysis provided in this paper, informed by current research on traditional and distance education, suggests that community, interaction, pedagogy, attention, and feedback play important roles in the success of an Internet-based learning experience. Specific comments by the course instructor, as well as survey results from both students and other instructors for a number of synchronous Internet-based courses, are also presented. This data further illuminates the student synchronous distance education experience and contributes additional insight into the delivery method and its ongoing evolution. The unique observations and conclusions provided here are useful for both instructors and students interested in participating in synchronous as well as asynchronous computer-mediated education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Engineering education must prepare students to assume professional and ethical responsibility for the societal impacts of technology, but most engineering students do not receive adequate ethics teaching. In fact, engineering education has been described as characterized by a "culture of disengagement" in which ethical and societal concerns are constructed as different from and less important than purely technical concerns. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study explores how a culture of disengagement is discursively constructed and perpetuated in engineering education by analyzing the discursive construction of ethics and ethical reflection in an introductory engineering course in Sweden. Design/Method: The study is based on extensive ethnographic data in the form of field notes, lecture recordings, interview data, and course documents. The data are analyzed using a discourse analytic approach rooted in discourse theory. Results: The results illustrate five processes through which ethics and ethical reflection are articulated as not the responsibility of the specific field of engineering, irrelevant for the profession, of low quality and status, and not very important for the engineering degree. Conclusions: The results contribute to understanding how a culture of disengagement may be perpetuated in engineering education. The results also point toward pedagogical tools and strategies that instructors and program managers can use to construct ethics and ethical reflection as an advanced skill that is an important and integral part of engineering and engineering education—and thus better prepare future engineers to become responsible professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The flipped classroom has become more widely used in engineering education. However, a systematic and quantitative assessment of its achievement outcomes has not been conducted to date. Purpose: To address this gap, we examined the findings from comparative articles published between 2008 and 2017 through a meta‐analysis to summarize the overall effects of the flipped classroom on student achievement in engineering education. Scope/Method: We searched and analyzed journal and conference publications on flipped classroom studies in engineering education in K‐12 and higher education contexts. Twenty‐nine comparative interventions were included in a meta‐analysis involving 2,590 students exposed to flipped classroom and 2,739 students exposed to traditional lectures. A content analysis was also conducted to determine how the flipped engineering classroom benefits student learning. Conclusions: The meta‐analysis comparing these 29 traditional—flipped interventions in relation to student achievement showed an overall significant effect in favor of the flipped classroom over traditional lecturing (Hedges' g = 0.289, 95% CI [0.165, 0.414], p < .001). A moderator analysis showed that the effect of the flipped classroom was further enhanced when instructors offered a brief review at the start of face‐to‐face classes. Our qualitative findings suggest that self‐paced learning and more problem‐solving activities were the two most frequently reported benefits that promoted student learning. Based on quantitative and qualitative support, several implications are identified for future practice, such as offering a brief in‐class review of preclass materials. Some recommendations for future research are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Engineering graduate education, particularly at the doctoral level, relies heavily on mentored research experiences often conducted in a research group. PURPOSE (HYPOTHESIS) The purpose of this study is to understand how and under what conditions research groups foster successful learning and professional development for graduate engineering students, and how these findings can be used to inform management of engineering research groups to optimize student learning, productivity, and intent to complete the degree. DESIGN/METHOD This study utilizes a sequential exploratory mixed methods design, with nine months of ethnographically guided observations and interviews used to develop an online survey instrument. Data reported in this paper include results from the ethnographic analysis and survey responses from over 800 students at four institutions. RESULTS Key findings from the ethnographic analysis indicate that group size directly influences the mechanisms of student learning. Survey results confirm the prevalence of engineering graduate research groups, as well as several elements common across research groups from different universities and academic departments, including: interactions and communication, access to resources, and role of the advisor. CONCLUSIONS An understanding of the mechanisms for learning in research groups can be used by engineering administrators, faculty members, and graduate students to create an environment that fosters successful learning and professional development. We also recommend practices for ensuring positive experiences for all graduate students, which may ultimately reduce attrition from engineering graduate programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Engineers are increasingly learning from online courses, in school and the workplace, using online social and informational networks for instruction and to access expertise. Small effective changes in online learning can have large cumulative impact through-out an organization. PURPOSE (HYPOTHESIS) This study is a part of a research effort between industry and learning scientists to develop an evidence-based methodology for online learning. We investigate how learning outcomes are impacted by online courses designed to support feedback and formative assessment during learning. DESIGN/METHOD We compared two versions of an online course derived from identical resources. The new course (treatment) used integrated formative assessments to provide feedback to students during learning; focused video resources to anchor the formative assessments; and an instructional design process based on essential concepts to organize the overall design. The course was implemented with a freely available Learning Management System (LMS). RESULTS Treatment course participants learned more overall than did control course participants, with more positive attitudes towards the course content and their future learning. Learning had less dependence on initial knowledge. The collaboration capabilities of the LMS supported course development, but had limited spontaneous use by students during the experiment. CONCLUSIONS The paper demonstrates that formative feedback and design methods which stress essential concepts can make significant differences in learning outcomes in online courses, a straightforward format for implementation, and ways of measuring effectiveness. Areas for further work are integrating feedback with authentic tasks and mining the data produced by student's online activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND This study compares students' perceptions of key cognitive processes and specific content afforded by an industrially situated virtual laboratory project and two physical laboratory projects. PURPOSE (HYPOTHESIS) 1. How do students' perceptions of the nature of cognition, experimental design, and ambiguity compare across selected virtual and physical laboratory experiences? 2. In what ways do students perceive the virtual and physical laboratories as an authentic experience that is reflective of real-life engineering? DESIGN/METHOD Three, free-response survey questions were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. Content analysis was used to establish categories to group the responses, and the coding process had an interrater reliability of 0.90. RESULTS Student responses showed statistically significant increases in categories of Experimental Design, Critical Thinking, and Ambiguity in the virtual laboratories and in Lab Protocol and Specific Content in the physical laboratories. Additionally, more overall High Cognition statements were observed in the virtual laboratory. Student perceptions of ambiguity shifted from ambiguity in the instruction to an ambiguity in the experimental process itself, and many students were able to suspend disbelief in the virtual laboratories and demonstrated psychological presence, leading to the potential for a rich learning experience. CONCLUSIONS The industrially situated virtual laboratories reported in this paper provide affordances for substantially different student thinking about their thinking than the physical laboratories in the same course. This conclusion does not suggest that the differences are a direct result of the medium of the laboratory (virtual vs. physical) but rather the opportunities that the instructional design of each type of laboratory affords. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Recently, there has been a shift from using lecture-based teaching methods in undergraduate engineering courses to using more learner-centered teaching approaches, such as problem-based learning. However, research on the impact of these approaches has mainly involved student perceptions of the teaching method and anecdotal and opinion pieces by faculty on their use of the teaching method, rather than empirically collected data on students' learning outcomes. Purpose (Hypothesis) This paper describes an investigation of the impact of problem-based learning (PBL) on undergraduate electrical engineering students' conceptual understanding and their perceptions of learning using PBL as compared to lecture. Design/Method Fifty-five students enrolled in an electrical engineering course at a Midwestern university participated in this research. The study utilized a within-subjects A-B-A-B research design with traditional lecture as the baseline phase and problem-based learning as the experimental phase of the study. Participants completed pre- and post-tests surrounding the four topics covered in the study and also completed a Student Assessment of Learning Gains (SALG) survey. Results Results suggested participants' learning gains from PBL were twice their gains from traditional lecture. Even though students learned more from PBL, students thought they learned more from traditional lecture. We discuss these findings and offer implications for faculty interested in implementing PBL. Conclusions Given the limited research on the beneficial effects of PBL on student learning, this study provides empirical support for PBL. We discuss findings from this study and provide specific implications for faculty and researchers interested in problem-based learning in engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Understanding more about student decisions to leave engineering may lead to higher retention. This study builds on the literature and focuses on the experiences of a cohort of students who aimed to complete their undergraduate work in 2007. PURPOSE (HYPOTHESIS) This paper presents the outcomes of the longitudinal administration of the Persistence in Engineering survey. The goal was to identify correlates of persistence in undergraduate engineering education and professional engineering practice. DESIGN/METHOD The survey was administered seven times over four years to a cohort of students who had expressed interest in studying engineering. At the end of the study, the participants were categorized as persisters or non-persisters. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used, in conjunction with other approaches, to test for differences between the groups. RESULTS Persisters and non-persisters did not differ significantly according to the majority of the constructs. Nevertheless, parental and high school mentor influences as a motivation to study engineering, as well as confidence in math and science skills, were identified as correlates of persistence. Intention to complete an engineering major was also a correlate of persistence; it appears to decline sharply at least two semesters prior to students leaving engineering. The findings also suggest that there might be differences among non-persisters when they are further grouped by when they leave engineering. CONCLUSIONS Facilitating higher levels of mentor involvement before college might increase student motivation to study engineering, and also constitute a mechanism for fostering confidence in math and science skills. Since the intention to complete an engineering degree decreases well before students act, there may be opportunities for institutions to develop targeted interventions for students, and help them make informed decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we develop an analytical framework we refer to as "Becoming an Engineer" that focuses upon changes occurring over time as students traverse their undergraduate educations in engineering. This analytical framework involves three related dimensions that we track over time: disciplinary knowledge, identification, and navigation. Our analysis illustrates how these three dimensions enable us to understand how students become, or do not become, engineers by examining how these three interrelated dimensions unfold over time. This study is based on longitudinal ethnographic data from which we have developed "person-centered ethnographies" focused on individual students' pathways through engineering. We present comparative analysis, spanning four schools and four years. We also present person-centered ethnographic case studies that illustrate how our conceptual dimensions interrelate. Our discussion draws some educational implications from our analysis and proposes further lines of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a feedback process that assessed first-year engineering student learning using a mastery exam. The results were used to improve learning and teaching in first-year courses. To design the initial exam, basic knowledge and concepts were identified by instructors from each of the host departments (Chemistry, Math, Physics and Computer Science). In 2004, the 45-item exam was administered to 191 second-year engineering students, and in September 2005, the revised exam was administered to the next class of second-year engineering students. The exam was analyzed using Item Response Theory (IRT) to determine student abilities in each subject area tested. Between exam administrations, workshops were conducted with the four department instructor groups to present exam results and discuss teaching issues. The exam provided a learning assessment mechanism that can be used to engage faculty in science, mathematics, and engineering in productive linkages for continued improvement to curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional engineering instruction is deductive, beginning with theories and progressing to the applications of those theories. Alternative teaching approaches are more inductive. Topics are introduced by presenting specific observations, case studies or problems, and theories are taught or the students are helped to discover them only after the need to know them has been established. This study reviews several of the most commonly used inductive teaching methods, including inquiry learning, problem-based learning, project-based learning, case-based teaching, discovery learning, and just-in-time teaching. The paper defines each method, highlights commonalities and specific differences, and reviews research on the effectiveness of the methods. While the strength of the evidence varies from one method to another, inductive methods are consistently found to be at least equal to, and in general more effective than, traditional deductive methods for achieving a broad range of learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on retention in the Rowan University undergraduate engineering program with many ‘female-friendly’ features despite its design as best practices for all students. Both male and female ‘stayers’ in the program are compared to ‘leavers’ on a variety of characteristics, including pre-college and family background, grades, satisfaction with the Rowan program, engineering self-confidence, and future expectations about their engineering major and career. Data come from a special survey of all Rowan engineering students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the summer Research Experience for Undergraduates offered by the NSF-sponsored VaNTH Engineering Research Center in Bioengineering, core competency instruction in ethics and communication was integrated into students' research experiences outside of formal courses. This paper describes our instructional approach and presents an initial evaluation of its effectiveness. A simple concept mapping assessment used at the beginning and end of the summer suggests that students made gains in both areas. In ethics, students developed greater awareness of key concepts, such as respect for persons (informed consent), beneficence, justice, and integrity. Gains in communication were more modest, but the maps revealed growth in understanding the importance of audience and the multifaceted nature of technical communication. Overall, the study suggests that students can make measurable strides in core competencies without taking formal courses. Future research should consider integrating components of our intervention into other non-credit experiences for engineering undergraduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quantification of conceptual understanding of students in statics was undertaken. Drawing on a prior study identifying the fundamental concepts and typical student errors in statics, multiple choice questions were devised to probe students' ability to use concepts in isolation. This paper describes a testing instrument comprising such questions, as well as psychometric analyses of test results of 245 students at five universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored student competitions for undergraduate engineering and engineering technology students to determine which institutions consistently win and what factors support their winning, and to obtain some insights into the benefits for students. Forty-four student competitions for engineering and technology students were identified, and the first, second, and third place institutions from 2001 to 2003 were tabulated. Although one institution would often win a particular competition, no institution was a consistent winner for all competitions. Advisers of winning institutions reported that their institutions won consistently because of a dedicated faculty advisor and/or the close alignment of the competition with the institution's curriculum. Also important are a tradition of winning, the quality of the students, and (for hands-on competitions) the availability of resources. Additional research is needed to determine if student competitions increase student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents comparisons of three peer evaluation instruments tested among students in undergraduate engineering classes: a single-item instrument without behavioral anchors, a ten-item instrument, and a single-item behaviorally anchored instrument. Studies using the instruments in undergraduate engineering classes over four years show that the use of behavioral anchors significantly improves the inter-rater reliability of the single-item instrument. The inter-rater reliability (based on four raters) of the behaviorally anchored instrument was 0.78, which was not significantly higher than that of the ten-item instrument (0.74), but it was substantially more parsimonious. The results of this study add to the body of knowledge on evaluating students' performance in teams. This is critical since the ability to function in multidisciplinary teams is a required student learning outcome of engineering programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As college students experience the challenges of their classes and extracurricular activities, they undergo a developmental progression in which they gradually relinquish their belief in the certainty of knowledge and the omniscience of authorities and take increasing responsibility for their own learning. At the highest developmental level normally seen in college students (which few attain before graduation), they display attitudes and thinking patterns resembling those of expert scientists and engineers, including habitually and skillfully gathering and analyzing evidence to support their judgments. This paper proposes an instructional model designed to provide a suitable balance of challenge and support to advance students to that level. The model components are (1) variety and choice of learning tasks; (2) explicit communication and explanation of expectations; (3) modeling, practice, and constructive feedback on high-level tasks; (4) a student-centered instructional environment; and (5) respect for students at all levels of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how group size and project duration impact capstone design in terms of learning objectives for the student, value to industry sponsors, and faculty resources. The analysis is based on survey results and an external faculty evaluation comparing a one-semester offering with a two-semester offering of capstone design in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In addition, we examine whether the stated learning objectives (technical writing skills, presentation skills, and technical analysis) for the course provide value to sponsors. Our findings suggest that the one-semester offering was preferred by both students and industry sponsors and required fewer resources. We also found that although students prefer smaller group sizes, sponsors do not have a definitive preference. Finally, we found that although technical analysis is significantly correlated with dollar value to the sponsor, technical writing skills and presentation skills were not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent data suggest that the United States is unable to meet the demand for individuals well prepared to contribute to science, mathematics, and engineering with their native workforce. Low participation rates of females and underrepresented minorities in these fields are major factors contributing to this situation. This study tracks the progress of the high school class of 1990 through the engineering pipeline and beyond, specifically focusing on the progress of female and underrepresented minority students within the class. Points along the pipeline where the participation rates of students dropped significantly are identified as critical decision points and factors contributing to students leaving at these decision points are discussed. Key stakeholder groups working with underrepresented minority and female students at these critical decision points are identified. The intent of this paper is to create a synthesized, national picture of the student and faculty who make up engineering schools in the United States, and of the stakeholder groups actively working to change this picture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the long-term results of a two-year experiment conducted in the 1994-1995 and 1995-1996 academic years in which a group of "average" engineering students was recruited for a first-year program that integrated curricula and fostered a learning community. Students who participated in the Connections program graduated at a significantly higher rate than their peers and reflected retrospectively that the program had a strong positive effect on their college careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the various factors that contribute to the success of minority students in engineering programs by exploring past and current paradigms promoting success and analyzing models for advancing the participation of members of these populations. Included is a literature review of articles, government reports, Web sites, and archives published since 1980. Student success is correlated to several indicators, including pre-college preparation, recruitment programs, admissions policies, financial assistance, academic intervention programs, and graduate school preparation and admission. This review suggests that the problem of minority underrepresentation and success in engineering is soluble given the appropriate resources and collective national "will" to propagate effective approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly mechanical engineering departments are beginning to incorporate remotely operated laboratories into their laboratory curriculums. Yet very few studies exist detailing the extent to which this new medium for laboratory delivery fulfills the educational goals of traditional in-person laboratories. This paper describes a comparison of educational outcomes between in-person and remotely operated laboratories in the mechanical engineering curriculum. The study carried out in the 2001 Fall semester was performed using a remotely operated and an in-person jet thrust laboratory. The laboratories illustrate the fundamentals of compressible fluid mechanics as part of an undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum. The results from this study indicated no significant difference in the educational outcomes between students who performed the in-person [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the new ABET accreditation system was first introduced to American engineering education in the middle 1990s as Engineering Criteria 2000, most discussion in the literature has focused on how to assess Outcomes 3a-3k and relatively little has concerned how to equip students with the skills and attitudes specified in those outcomes. This paper seeks to fill this gap. Its goals are to (1) overview the accreditation process and clarify the confusing array of terms associated with it (objectives, outcomes, outcome indicators, etc.); (2) provide guidance on the formulation of course learning objectives and assessment methods that address Outcomes 3a-3k; (3) identify and describe instructional techniques that should effectively prepare students to achieve those outcomes by the time they graduate; and (4) propose a strategy for integrating program-level and course-level activities when designing an instructional program to meet the requirements of the ABET engineering criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the efficacy of using freshman student scores from one non-technical assignment to predict academic success as measured by cumulative grade point average after completion of the first two semesters enrolled at the Mercer University School of Engineering. The predictor assignment is keeping a dialectic course notebook and corresponds to the student's attitude, persistence, and organizational skills rather than math and science preparedness. Statistical analysis, at the 99 percent confidence level, indicated that there was a strong relationship between the student notebook scores and grade point average. Although there was scatter in the data, this one variable does provide insight into student success in the Mercer University Engineering program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Engineering Concepts Institute, and the rest of the comprehensive minority student development program that followed it, has served students of Florida A&M University matriculating to the Florida A&M University-Florida State University (FAMU-FSU) College of Engineering. A significant relationship between participation in the programs under study and graduation/retention was identified with the Pearson Chi-squared test, Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel statistics, as well as the Mantel-Haenszel estimate. Students who participated in the program were estimated to have significantly higher odds of five-year graduation and six-year graduation than students who did not participate in the program. A comparison of high school GPAs identified a selection bias, and high school GPA was then used to control for this selection bias in a multiple logistic regression model. While multiple individual cohorts remain statistically significant, the aggregate of all cohorts lacks significance due to the small number of participants and the possible overly stringent penalty imposed by the addition of high school GPA. Nevertheless, the results continue to show the positive trend observed earlier-that Minority Engineering Program participants are 25 percent more likely to be retained and graduate in engineering than students who had similar high school GPA but did not participate in the program-it is expected that continuing longitudinal study will bear out this trend as statistically significant. Although the programs described in this paper have been discontinued as a result of personnel changes, the study of the program is still useful as a contribution to the body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of such programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As issues of professional and ethical responsibility are receiving greater emphasis in engineering programs, the view of engineering as a profession in service to humanity is becoming more widespread. One approach to fostering this perspective among engineering students is the inclusion of socially relevant design projects throughout the curriculum. In this paper we present an example of one such project used in the introduction to engineering course at Smith College (the largest women's college in the U.S.) in which students are challenged to design toys that introduce children to the principles that underlie technology (TOYtech, or Teaching Our Youth Technology). Based on student surveys, we found that the majority of the course learning objectives were achieved through the implementation of the project, with students emphasizing that the project taught them about the importance of working well in teams and of considering the societal impact of engineering practice. In addition, we present our findings regarding the psychological type distribution of our inaugural class of first-year engineering students and compare these to national values for female engineering students as a whole. These preliminary Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) data suggest that our students are particularly responsive to the ethic of social responsibility in engineering, and that they are strong communicators in addition to possessing a well-organized, practical approach to problem solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on how traditional science and engineering students are being taught entrepreneurship at six American universities. Each participating institution follows one of three models, which differ with respect to location within the university, organizational structure and approach to attracting students. Teaching, new venture creation and, to a lesser degree, research are the most common goals driving the technological entrepreneurship initiatives at these universities. The most universal assets are internal champions and interest on the part of alumni and current students, while the lack of elective credits in the engineering curriculum is a common barrier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

True/false and open-ended test scores were compared for an undergraduate engineering course. There was good correlation between the scores indicating that the use of true/false test items did not alter ranking of students regardless of whether or not their first language was English. Use of a mix of test item types is recommended since this permits testing over a greater fraction of the course content, encourages students to study, and is an efficient use of instructor time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]