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Spreadsheets are a core computational tool for practicing engineers and engineering students. While Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and other spreadsheet tools have some differences, numerous formulas, functions, and other tasks are common across versions and platforms. Building upon learning science frameworks showing that interactive activities are advantageous, an interactive textbook from zyBooks was created to provide students the opportunity to acquire spreadsheet skills by doing. Interactive components include stepping through animations, completing multiple choice and matching questions, and evaluating spreadsheet formulas and functions using 100+ auto-graded, randomized questions. While the interactive reading participation was discussed in previous work, the focus here is on auto-graded questions, sometimes called online homework. Fraction correct regardless of attempts, number of attempts before correct, and number of attempts after correct provided metrics to examine deliberate practice across three cohorts encompassing over 250 students. Sections grouped as General spreadsheet skills or Functions generally showed greater median correct, ranging from 76 to 90%, than sections categorized as Advanced spreadsheet skills, which led to median correct of 68 to 81%. Median correct also varied between different question types and decreased with question order, which aligns with questions being scaffolded. Finally, a hypothesis was tested: Adding a Copy sheet feature to the auto-graded questions would encourage deliberate practice and improve fraction correct between cohorts. Over 80% of students used the new Copy sheet button, and a statistically significant increase with large effect size in fraction correct between cohorts was found, which supports the hypothesis.

The utility of Just-In-Time-Teaching (JITT) is compared across course topics and groups of students not receiving JITT exercises in class. JITT feedback incorporated various active learning exercises based on students' performance on online homework problems from Sapling Learning. With over 200 students in two sections participating in the sophomore level introductory thermodynamics course, student performance was evaluated on in-class quiz and exam problems. Student performance covering a specific course topic subsequently reinforced by a JITT exercise was found to be measurably higher (>9%) than a control group who did not receive the JITT review. Overall, comparing student achievement across five topics covered by JITT compared with five different course topics not covered by JITT did show small positive outcomes. The improvements after using JITT exercises included a higher median and 3rd quartile scores, so JITT may be beneficial to mid-performing students. Overall, student feedback on the JITT reviews showed that over 85% of the students thought the JITT exercises were helpful for engagement and a good use of class time.

The impact of solving novel video-inspired homework problems on learning attitudes toward chemical engineering was examined at beginning and end of an undergraduate material and energy balances course using a modified Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey instrument. Mean overall attitude of participants improved by a normalized gain factor of 14% with a small effect size (Hedge's g = 0.28). Improvement was most prominent in attitudes towards personal interest and relation to the real world.

Student success and attempts on hundreds of online homework problems housed in a fully interactive online textbook, Material and Energy Balances zyBook, were studied over three cohorts of students (n=284). Auto-graded homework questions with randomized numbers and content can explore proficiency in the course material. Students are allowed to attempt any question as many times as needed, and a median success of 94% was found. Also, students completed thousands of attempts after correctly answering without the incentive to improve grades.

YouTube Fridays devotes a small fraction of class time to student-selected videos related to the course topic, e.g., thermodynamics. The students then write and solve a homework-like problem based on the events in the video. Three recent pilots involving over 300 students have developed a database of videos and questions that reinforce important class concepts like energy balances and phase behavior. A set of example problems and videos are presented from a sophomore level engineering thermodynamics course and a sophomore level material and energy balances course. Student evaluations found a vast majority (79%) of the students felt better at relating real world phenomena to thermodynamics from participating in YouTube Fridays. Overall, YouTube Fridays is a student led activity that provides practice of problem solving on open-ended, course related questions.

The delivery of a material and energy balances course is enhanced through a series of in-class and out-of-class exercises. An active learning classroom is achieved, even at class sizes over 150 students, using multiple instructors in a single classroom, problem solving in teams, problems based on YouTube videos, and just-in-time teaching. To avoid rote copying of the solutions manual, a combination of homework types has proven successful. The implementation of Sapling Learning's online homework has allowed self-directed and personalized problem solving. Traditional paper and pencil homework and multiple choice quizzes round out the weekly homework assignments. The quizzes and online homework allow for just-in-time feedback (i.e., classroom exercises that review concepts from homework completed just hours earlier). Course and exam grades as well as surveys assessed the changes to the course. Timing of the first of three exams is critical to provide a fair assessment and minimize the students withdrawing from the course and likely changing majors. Student surveys show a strong preference for multiple types of homework, especially online homework, to maximize students' learning.

YouTube Fridays is a teaching tool that devotes the first five minutes of class each Friday to a YouTube video related to the course. Students select the videos, which expand the class's educational content in courses such as thermodynamics and material and energy balances. From assessments of two pilot studies using YouTube Fridays in Chemical Engineering courses, it is clear that the tech-savvy students of the net generation enjoy finding and sharing the videos. The pedagogical value of the activity is obvious, as determined from evaluation of the written reports submitted by the students. Several examples of advanced chemical engineering topics (e.g., the CSTR) have been introduced to sophomore students taking their first chemical engineering course as part of this activity. Overall, this use of technology in the classroom clearly engages the technology-centric students that encompass the majority of college campuses today.

Interactive digital technologies provide a mechanism to capture big data for higher education faculty to monitor student progress in real‐time. By measuring both performance and perseverance using auto‐graded problems, this learning analytics research examines several tenets of deliberate practice. Specifically, online homework problems integrated into an interactive textbook for chemical engineering titled Material and Energy Balances zyBook were examined. Across three cohorts totaling over 250 students and 84,000 questions, the fraction correct, attempts before correct, and attempts after correct provided metrics to examine question type and order. Fraction correct and attempts before correct varied with statistical significance as a function of question type and order, including many differences having medium and large effect sizes. Multiple choice questions led to the highest fraction correct and the least number of attempts before correct, while questions requiring multiple numeric responses led to the lowest success and the largest number of attempts before correct. Next, multiple metrics were aggregated into a deliberate practice score, to broadly quantify problem difficulty. Fraction correct, modified correct, first quartile attempts before correct, and median attempts before correct were combined at different thresholds leading to a deliberate practice score between 0 and 8. Questions with higher deliberate practice scores were disproportionality used for practice (61% of attempts on 13% of questions); practice attempts do not receive course credit. Overall, combining metrics in a deliberate practice score exhibits the potential to optimize the length of homework assignments and give students more credit for solving more challenging auto‐graded problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]