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Background: Developing self-directed learning (SDL) skills in engineering students is critical to support life-long learning. This research was conducted at Iron Range Engineering (IRE), an innovative, problem-based learning (PBL) engineering program, which has suffused the concept of metacognition throughout its curriculum. Purpose/Hypotheses: (1) Using measures of metacognition obtained from think-aloud problem-solving activities, to what extent do students change their use of SDL strategies from the beginning of their junior year to the end of their senior year of the 2-year PBL engineering program?; (2) Using evidence obtained from interview data, how do students' conceptualizations of metacognition and use of SDL strategies change from the beginning of their junior year to the end of their senior year of the 2-year PBL engineering program?; and (3) What is the relationship between think-aloud and interview measures of metacognition, and how could the two types of measures better inform us about the potential impact of the IRE program on students' use of SDL strategies? Design/Method: Twelve students participated in both think-aloud problem-solving tasks and interviews. Results: Data from think-aloud problem-solving activities showed that nearly one-half of students' verbalizations were metacognitive and that they talked more about strategies and made more use of domain knowledge by the end of their program. Interview data showed that one-half of the students showed an increase in the complexity of their understanding of SDL. Conclusions: Our data show an increased use of strategies during problem-solving at the end of the program. The results are promising, but further research is needed to understand the development of SDL in engineering students.

"Frack Attack" is a transferable classroom activity that combines active learning and teamwork to critically evaluate sustainability topics in contemporary engineering contexts. The activity was recently explored in three chemical engineering courses at Montana State University: two elective courses on sustainable energy (one freshmen-level and one senior-level) and one core sophomore-level fluid mechanics course. In all courses, the activity aimed to show the broader impacts of engineering (e.g., fracking), while tying in basic engineering concepts and practices (e.g., pump sizing). This article describes the class activity, its implementation and assessments, as well as opportunities for improvement and adoptability into other engineering courses.

This study explores the effects of an academic seminar on the persistence of first-year college students, including effects on students most at risk of dropping out. A secondary interest was demonstrating the utility of using classification and regression tree analysis to identify relevant predictors of student persistence. The results of the study showed that persistence rates improved for all students who took the seminar and, most importantly, that the persistence rate for higher-risk students showed double the improvement of that of lower-risk students. Results also suggest that changes in student perception of the value of a college education and engagement in classroom discussion are factors for improving the persistence of higher-risk students.

The use of project circuits (a photoplethysmograph circuit and a simple audio amplifier), introduced in a sophomore-level electric circuits course utilizing active learning and inquiry-based methods, is described. The development of the project circuits was initiated to promote enhanced engagement and deeper understanding of course content among students. The new activities were assessed by student surveys, student scores on essay exams probing deeper learning, and classroom observations by an assessment specialist. The results are compared to similar assessments made before the introduction of the project circuits and are related to other applications of active learning approaches in the teaching of electric circuits.

This paper presents a comparison of online to traditional face-to-face delivery of undergraduate digital systems material. Two specific components of digital content were compared and evaluated: a sophomore logic circuits course with no laboratory, and a microprocessor laboratory component of a junior-level computer systems course. For each of these, a baseline level of student understanding was evaluated when they were being taught using traditional, face-to-face delivery. The course and lab component were then converted to being fully online, and the level of student understanding was again measured. In both cases, the same purpose-developed assessment tools were used to carry out the measurement of understanding. This paper presents the details of how the course components were converted to online delivery, including a discussion of the technology used to accomplish remote access of the electronic test equipment used in the laboratory. A comparison is then presented between the control and the experimental groups, including a statistical analysis of whether the delivery approach impacted student learning. Finally, student satisfaction is discussed, and instructor observations are given for the successful remote delivery of this type of class and laboratory.

The United States, as well as the rest of the world, will face critical civil, environmental, energy, communication, manufacturing, and health-care challenges in the coming decades, and more scientists and engineers will be needed to address those problems. The number of jobs in the U.S. labor force requiring science and engineering skills, in fact, is growing almost five percent per year, while the rest of the job market is growing at just over one percent. Ironically, at the same time that anxiety exists concerning how to increase U.S. engineering enrollments, many potential engineering students are wondering if most engineering jobs in the future won't be sent offshore by U.S. employers to lower-wage engineers in places such as India, China, and Eastern Europe. In response to these pressures and the need for reform in engineering education, in 2003 the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation initiated a comprehensive project, the Engineering Schools of the West Initiative (ESWI), to improve engineering education by means of the collective efforts of nine primarily bachelor's- and master's-granting institutions in the Western United States. In this article, the authors describe the ESWI, an engineering-education project that can serve as a model for other collaborations among institutions, not just in engineering but also across the entire curriculum. (Contains 5 resources.)

Presents eight current projects involving faculty in the University of Washington's Department of Technical Communication that illustrate the broadening of the field. Notes these projects address: the cognitive processing of visual material; Web-based education; strategic management of information; communicating science and technology in the public arena; digital libraries, international adoption of information and communication technology; multimedia tools for international communication; and outcomes assessment of learning. (PM)

Gives a theoretical rationale for a portfolio evaluation project and describes a directly applicable structure and procedure for such a project. Discusses how the task of assessing the efficacy of technical communication service courses provides an opportunity to learn more about student and faculty needs and to update and improve curriculum. (SC)

Introduces the process of survey research, focusing specifically on the questionnaire method. Lists and discusses eight essential steps in the process, reviews the relevant literature, and ends with the hope that readers will become better consumers of research and possibly researchers themselves. (SR)

Suggests that technical writers should emphasize similarities rather than differences between oral and written discourse. Argues that implicit rules of conversation have much to offer the technical writer. Illustrates how the principles of conversation can be applied to the process of writing instructions. (KEH)

Increasing interests in both engineering education research and sustainability education motivated development of a survey instrument aimed at measuring engineering educators' attitudes and dispositions toward these endeavors. An online survey instrument was distributed to engineering faculty and instructors at a medium-sized land-grant university within the United States, with results briefly summarized in the 2017 Conference Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). The survey is presented here in its entirety, along with statistical analyses of the previously summarized results and discussion of responses to open-ended items. The survey instrument was effective in measuring engineering faculty support toward both engineering education research and sustainability education. The survey items also factored to measure attitudes toward climate change, teaching practices and curriculum as well as use of research-driven pedagogies. Statistical analyses of the survey structure are also presented along with suggestions for its further development and potential use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Developing self‐directed learning (SDL) skills in engineering students is critical to support life‐long learning. This research was conducted at Iron Range Engineering (IRE), an innovative, problem‐based learning (PBL) engineering program, which has suffused the concept of metacognition throughout its curriculum. Purpose/Hypotheses: Using measures of metacognition obtained from think‐aloud problem‐solving activities, to what extent do students change their use of SDL strategies from the beginning of their junior year to the end of their senior year of the 2‐year PBL engineering program?Using evidence obtained from interview data, how do students' conceptualizations of metacognition and use of SDL strategies change from the beginning of their junior year to the end of their senior year of the 2‐year PBL engineering program?What is the relationship between think‐aloud and interview measures of metacognition, and how could the two types of measures better inform us about the potential impact of the IRE program on students' use of SDL strategies? Design/Method: Twelve students participated in both think‐aloud problem‐solving tasks and interviews. Results: Data from think‐aloud problem‐solving activities showed that nearly one‐half of students' verbalizations were metacognitive and that they talked more about strategies and made more use of domain knowledge by the end of their program. Interview data showed that one‐half of the students showed an increase in the complexity of their understanding of SDL. Conclusions: Our data show an increased use of strategies during problem‐solving at the end of the program. The results are promising, but further research is needed to understand the development of SDL in engineering students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2 experiments, independent measures of detection and correction of text errors were examined. In Session 1, Ss tried to detect spelling, grammatical, and meaning errors in a text; in Session 2, Ss tried to correct the same errors in workbooklike exercises. Errors were classified according to whether they were detected in Session 1 and whether they were corrected in Session 2. With the exception of spelling errors, knowledge of how to correct an error was necessary but not sufficient for detection. For spelling error detection, knowledge of how to correct may be both necessary and sufficient. In Experiment 2, detection of meaning errors was manipulated by having Ss answer comprehension questions, surface questions, or no questions. Both question groups detected nearly twice as many meaning errors as the no-question group. Questioning had no effects on detection of spelling or grammatical errors.

Iron Range Engineering is an innovative, problem-based-learning program. Part of its innovation comes from the program's strong emphasis on developing metacognitive skills. In our research, we have been investigating the cognitive processes involved in engineering problem solving, focusing specifically on the role of metacognition. To this end, we have collected think-aloud data as students solved open-ended design problems. The think-aloud data were gathered using verbal protocols and analyzed using sequential analysis. These analyses show positive growth in both students' engineering knowledge and in their metacognitive use of that knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discuses the lessons for legal education in the U.S., derived from engineering programs' experiences with teaching and assessing aspects of professional identity formation. It addresses how outcome-based assessment can help law faculties meet the challenging responsibility in legal education to ensure that law students develop the capacity to attend professional and personal ethical norms.