Assessment of Active and Team-based Learning Techniques in a Transportation Engineering Introductory Course.

Active and cooperative learning has shown significant benefits to students in STEM disciplines. Several active and cooperative learning techniques have been introduced to the Introduction to Transportation Engineering course throughout the last four semesters. This work presents a comparison of student learning in the two traditionally taught semesters compared to the two semesters that used active and team-based learning. Introduction to Transportation Engineering is junior level introductory course in traffic engineering and covers vehicle dynamics, geometric design, traffic flow concepts, uninterrupted and interrupted flow analysis, quality of service assessment, and travel demand forecasting. This paper compares two semesters of traditional lecture format (Fall 2014 and Spring 2016) to two semesters using an active and team-based learning format (Spring 2017 and Spring 2018) and explores whether the implementation of active and team-based learning methods had an impact on student learning in the course. To answer this question, common exam questions between the four semesters (grouped into two groups: traditional vs. active/TBL) were compared. In addition, student surveys from the final semester provide insights into the student perception of active and team-based learning components. Results showed a statistically significant improvement in 7/25 (28%) of the compared objectives, a statistically significant decline in 5/25 (20.0%) of compared objectives, and no change in 13/25 (52.0%) of objectives. The majority of the objectives that declined focused on concepts that were not covered in the in-class problems; the majority of objectives that improved were problemsolving type questions similar to the type of questions practiced with active learning. Student feedback showed satisfaction with the active and team-based format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]