Workshop A: Monday 10:30 - Noon
"Design Your Process of Becoming a World-Class Engineering Student" - A Powerful Project for Enhancing Student Success
Room: Conference Center Roanoke Ballroom E/F
Steffen Peuker, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, speuker@calpoly.edu
Raymond B. Landis, California State University, Los Angeles, rlandis@exchange.calstatela.edu
A new innovative approach has been developed to enhance engineering student success by strengthening students commitment to completing their degree in engineering and changing their attitudes and behaviors to those appropriate to success in math/science/engineering coursework. The approach involves implementation of a project titled "Design Your Process of Becoming a World-class Engineering Student" in which students look at where they are and where they would need to be in a number of important areas related to their learning process and academic success and develop a plan for moving from where they are to where they need to be. The approach, including the project, can be implemented in any first-year engineering course without major changes to the overall curriculum. Currently, over 30 institutions are implementing the project.
Implementation and thorough assessment at two four-year institutions has shown an increase in cumulative first-year GPA of half a point and retention increase by 10%. Because this approach can be implemented virtually anywhere with minimal cost and change of curriculum, it is the low hanging fruit to improve engineering student success, retention rates, and time to graduation.
Participants of the workshop will have the opportunity to learn about the approach through interactive exercises and will receive extensive support material. The main focus of the workshop will be on the implementation of the project at the participants’ institutions.
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Workshop B: Monday 10:30 - Noon
Academic coaching tools for increased retention: empowering first-year engineering students in their education
Room: Conference Center Roanoke Ballroom G/H
Jennifer L. Groh, Purdue University, jgroh@purdue.edu
What steps can we take and what skills can we use to help first-year engineering students to set and work toward their own goals, to take charge of their education and career path, and to hold themselves accountable – all without adding more to the workload for support staff and faculty? The answer to this powerful question lies in this highly interactive workshop where you can learn and practice key coaching skills, such as asking powerful questions. Participants will also engage in an academic coaching process that is similar to the engineering design process: identifying the underlying problem, brainstorming solutions, and creating a timeline with action items, along with accountability (and revisiting the coaching process, if needed). Using coaching skills with students you advise, students in a classroom, mentees, or student staff you supervise can be a valuable tool for inspiring critical thinking and self-reflection and for improving student retention.
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Workshop C: Monday 10:30 - Noon
Envisioning the First-Year Engineering Body of Knowledge
Room: Conference Center Buck Mountain A
John K. Estell, Ohio Northern University, j-estell@onu.edu
David Reeping, Ohio Northern University, d-reeping@onu.edu
Kenneth Reid, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, kenreid@vt.edu
Over the years, many first year "Introduction to Engineering" courses have been developed, often from scratch, by various universities. These courses contain a wide variety of both content and outcomes, and are not necessarily integrated into the rest of the curriculum. Prior research has resulted in the development of a taxonomy for "Introduction to Engineering" courses, defining a common nomenclature suitable for describing course content and defining distinct types of courses. A next step in this research is the development of a Body of Knowledge, defined in terms of Knowledge Areas that can be used to develop a variety of feasible curriculum models and example courses that can then be readily adopted by programs. Body of Knowledge documents have been successfully used in other fields to help stratify content into varying tiers of importance. This session invites those who are either curious or who are interested in participating at some level to join together and discuss what a First-Year Engineering Body of Knowledge document should consist of and how its development should be approached.
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Workshop D: Monday 2:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Using Low Fidelity Prototyping Materials to Achieve Inexpensive, Rapid Development of Prototypes
Room: Virginia Tech Campus Goodwin 115
Tim Hinds, Michigan State University, hinds@egr.msu.edu
Matthew Wettergreen, Rice University, mwettergreen@rice.edu
Prototypes, or physical models, are an effective method to communicate mechanisms or complicated ideas. Developing materials which support regular prototype and model building can be costly and challenging to teach to students, thus limiting the use of the method. This workshop will introduce the idea of low fidelity prototyping as a method to communicate concepts and rapidly realize ideas for engineering based instruction. In this workshop, participants will learn how they can build functioning models with widely available common materials. The workshop will provide hands-on active learning examples for attendees and handouts with activities and shopping lists. It will also include a discussion of best practices for prototyping. This topic will be of interest for engineering educators who seek to have their students build prototypes and models quickly and without a large budget.
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Workshop E: Monday 2:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Transforming your advising program and student experience through collaboration, communication, and consistency
Room: Virginia Tech Campus Goodwin 125
Marlena McGlothlin Lester, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, marlenal@vt.edu
Natasha Smith, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, noliver@vt.edu
The Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech is home to all General Engineering students, which primarily consists of first-year engineering students. Our department actively promotes a culture of positive advising and faculty excellence to support student development, advancement, and success. When given the opportunity to develop an advising program for the General Engineering population of students, we wanted to develop a holistic first-year advising program that aligned with our department’s vision of preparing our students to be exceptional engineers and educators while serving as an international beacon for engineering and research.
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Workshop F: Monday 2:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Classroom Assessment Practices
Room: Virginia Tech Campus Goodwin 135
Holly Matusovich, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, matushm@vt.edu
How do you know if your course is effective in achieving learning outcomes? How can you show others the effectiveness of your course? Despite the many possible ways to assess engineering courses, many instructors rely on standardized student feedback forms implemented by the College or University. Although such forms are often easy to use, they are designed to cover a broad collection of classes making them too generic to provide a meaningful assessment of specific course learning objectives and/or instructional practices. A lack of access to convincing evidence can be frustrating for instructors engaged in trying out new or different approaches to teaching to improve learning in the courses they teach. Additionally, some topics such as teamwork and communication can seem particularly hard to assess. The good news is that effective assessment does not have to be hard! The purpose of this workshop is to actively engage participants in designing appropriate assessments of first year engineering courses. This workshop will start with a brief discussion of quantitative and qualitative assessment tools, techniques, practices, and resources, focusing on what makes them effective and what constitutes convincing evidence. Collectively, we will then identify learning objectives that the audience finds particularly challenging to assess within the context of first year courses. Working in facilitated groups, participants will discuss and develop quantitative and qualitative measures appropriate for these learning objectives. Participants will leave the workshop with assessment resources as well as some practical assessment activities ready for deployment.
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