How Students Study? An Analysis of Learning Strategies in Engineering and Technology Courses

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education and Research in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2014

A Didactic Model of Computer Supported Education in Higher Mathematics

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education and Research in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2016

Practice based learning for automotive engineering design students

The automotive industry combines a multitude of professionals to develop a modern car successfully. Within the design and development teams the collaboration and interface between Engineers and Designers is critical to ensure design intent is communicated and maintained throughout the development process. This study highlights recent industry practice with the emergence of Concept Engineers in design teams at Jaguar Land Rover Automotive group. The role of the Concept Engineer emphasises the importance of the Engineering and Design/Styling interface with the Concept engineer able to interact and understand the challenges and specific languages of each specialist area, hence improving efficiency and communication within the design team. Automotive education tends to approach design from two distinct directions, that of engineering design through BSc courses or a more styling design approach through BA and BDes routes. The educational challenge for both types of course is to develop engineers and stylist's who have greater understanding and experience of each other's specialist perspective of design and development. The study gives examples of two such courses in the UK who are developing programmes to help students widen their understanding of the engineering and design spectrum. Initial results suggest the practical approach has been well received by students and encouraged by industry as they seek graduates with specialist knowledge but also a wider appreciation of their role within the design process.

Assessing the effectiveness of five-year mechanical engineering technology programs of junior colleges in Taiwan, R.O.C.: An application of the CIPP evaluation model

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the mechanical engineering technology curriculum effectiveness at the junior college in Taiwan by using the CIPP evaluation model. The study concerned the areas of the curriculum, curriculum materials, individualized instruction, support services, teaching effectiveness, student achievement, and job performance. A descriptive survey method was used with questionnaires for data collection from faculty, students, graduates, and employers.^ All categories of respondents tended to agree that the curriculum provides appropriate occupational knowledge and skills. Students, graduates, and faculty tended to be satisfied with the curriculum; faculty tended to be satisfied with student achievement; graduates tended to be satisfied with their job preparation; and employers were most satisfied with graduates' job performance.^ Conclusions were drawn in the context, input, process, and product of the CIPP model. In Context area: Students were dissatisfied with curriculum flexibility in students characteristics. Graduates were dissatisfied with curriculum design for student's adaptability in new economic and industrial conditions; practicum flexibility in student characteristics; and course overlap. Both students and graduates were dissatisfied with practicum credit hours. Both faculty and students were dissatisfied with the number of required courses.^ In Input area: Students, faculty, and graduates perceived audiovisuals and manipulative aids positively. Faculty and students perceive CAI implementation positively. Students perceived textbooks negatively.^ In Process area: Faculty, students, and graduates perceived all support service negatively. Faculty tended to perceive the ratios of graduates who enter advanced study and related occupation, and who passed the professional skills certification, negatively. Students tended to perceive teaching effectiveness in terms of instructional strategies, the quality of instruction, overall suitability, and receivable, negatively. Graduates also tended to identify the instructional strategies as a negative perception. Faculty and students perceived curriculum objectives and practicum negatively. Both faculty and students felt that instructors should be more interested in making the courses a useful learning experience.^ In Product area: Employers were satisfied with graduates' academic preparation and job performance, adaptability, punctuality, and their ability to communicate, cooperate, and meet organization needs. Graduates were weak in terms of equipment familiarity and supervisory ability.^ In sum, the curriculum of the five-year mechanical engineering technology programs of junior college in Taiwan has served adequately up to this time in preparing a work force to enter industry. It is now time to look toward the future and adapt the curriculum and instruction for the future needs of this high-tech society. ^

A review of Taiwan's technological five-year junior college mechanical engineering curriculum development: 1948 to 1994

Taiwan's technological five-year junior college (TFYJC) was founded in 1948 to train technicians to meet the demand coming from national construction. Site level professionals never were trained in curriculum development as this was under strict national control. The purpose of this study is to present an accurate narrative of Taiwan's TFYJC mechanical engineering curriculum development history in order to display the focus, rationale, and influencing forces of the evolving curriculum. This study employed historical research methodology and used document analysis as the primary approach.^ This analysis revealed that the target FYJC curriculum was manufacturing-oriented. The range of government control shifted from little, to full, then to partial control of the curriculum, from autonomy to uniformity then to partial autonomy. The intention of the target curriculum development was always to advance domestic economic development. Voices from the academia and government also influenced curriculum development decisions. Currently, the government has instituted a shift in focus and content causing individual institutions to develop curriculum responses addressing the challenge of advancing Taiwan's position in a global economy.^ Considering the shift in policy and practice, individual institutions intending to design curriculum are advised to implement empirical needs assessments of students, graduates, and employers and to engage in critical studies of emerging resources in order to provide effective in service training. To accomplish this end, TFYJC faculty and administration need training in curriculum theory and practice and evaluation. ^

The Timing of Motherhood While Earning a PhD in Engineering

In spite of tremendous efforts, women are still under-represented in the field of science. Post-graduate education and early tenure track employment are part of the academic career establish-ment in research and development during periods that usually overlap with family formation. Though women tend to leave science mainly after obtaining their PhD, and the timing of mother-hood plays a vital role in a successful research career, qualitative data on this life period are scarce. Our paper focuses on how the normative and institutional contexts shape female PhD engineering students’ family plans. The research was based on intersections of life course and risk and uncertainty theories. Using qualitative interviews we explored how contradicting social norms of childbearing cause tensions in postgraduate students’ lives, and how the different uncer-tainties and risks permeate young researchers’ decisions on early life events. We concluded that, despite the general pattern of delaying motherhood among higher educated women, these students struggle against this postponement, and they hardly have any good options to avoid risk stem-ming from uncertainties and from some characteris-tics of studying and working in engineering. Find-ings of this research may call the attention of stake-holders to possible intervention points.

An investigation into the tension arising between natural language and mathematical language experienced by mechanical engineering students

This investigation is grounded within the concept of embodied cognition where the mind is considered to be part of a biological system. A first year undergraduate Mechanical Engineering cohort of students was tasked with explaining the behaviour of three balls of different masses being rolled down a ramp. The explanations given by the students highlighted the cognitive conflict between the everyday interpretation of the word energy and its mathematical use. The results showed that even after many years of schooling, students found it challenging to interpret the mathematics they had learned and relied upon pseudo-scientific notions to account for the behaviour of the balls.

The effect of personality on the design team:lessons from industry for design education

This study examines the effect of individual character types in design teams through case studies at ARUP associates and five United Kingdom university design degree programmes. By observing an individual's approach and contribution within a team, patterns of design behaviour are highlighted and compared within the industrial and academic examples. Initial findings have identified discreet differences in design approach and ways of working. By identifying these initial character clusters, design behaviour can be predicted to help teams and individuals to strengthen their design process. This research brings together: 1. The design process and how engineering and design teams work to solve problems. 2. The natural characteristics of individuals and how they approach problems. This difference of approach can be viewed in relation to the design process where engineers and designers will recognise their preference for certain stages of the design process. This study suggests that these individual preferences are suited to different stages of the design process, and that industry uses teams to ensure a broad range of views, an approach design education would do well to apply by establishing collaborative input in the design process.

Essays on the Economics of Higher Education

At least since the seminal works of Jacob Mincer, labor economists have sought to understand how students make higher education investment decisions. Mincer’s original work seeks to understand how students decide how much education to accrue; subsequent work by various authors seeks to understand how students choose where to attend college, what field to major in, and whether to drop out of college.

Broadly speaking, this rich sub-field of literature contributes to society in two ways: First, it provides a better understanding of important social behaviors. Second, it helps policymakers anticipate the responses of students when evaluating various policy reforms.

While research on the higher education investment decisions of students has had an enormous impact on our understanding of society and has shaped countless education policies, students are only one interested party in the higher education landscape. In the jargon of economists, students represent only the `demand side’ of higher education---customers who are choosing options from a set of available alternatives. Opposite students are instructors and administrators who represent the `supply side’ of higher education---those who decide which options are available to students.

For similar reasons, it is also important to understand how individuals on the supply side of education make decisions: First, this provides a deeper understanding of the behaviors of important social institutions. Second, it helps policymakers anticipate the responses of instructors and administrators when evaluating various reforms. However, while there is substantial literature understanding decisions made on the demand side of education, there is far less attention paid to decisions on the supply side of education.

This dissertation uses empirical evidence to better understand how instructors and administrators make decisions and the implications of these decisions for students.

In the first chapter, I use data from Duke University and a Bayesian model of correlated learning to measure the signal quality of grades across academic fields. The correlated feature of the model allows grades in one academic field to signal ability in all other fields allowing me to measure both ‘own category' signal quality and ‘spillover' signal quality. Estimates reveal a clear division between information rich Science, Engineering, and Economics grades and less informative Humanities and Social Science grades. In many specifications, information spillovers are so powerful that precise Science, Engineering, and Economics grades are more informative about Humanities and Social Science abilities than Humanities and Social Science grades. This suggests students who take engineering courses during their Freshman year make more informed specialization decisions later in college.

In the second chapter, I use data from the University of Central Arkansas to understand how universities decide which courses to offer and how much to spend on instructors for these courses. Course offerings and instructor characteristics directly affect the courses students choose and the value they receive from these choices. This chapter reveals the university preferences over these student outcomes which best explain observed course offerings and instructors. This allows me to assess whether university incentives are aligned with students, to determine what alternative university choices would be preferred by students, and to illustrate how a revenue neutral tax/subsidy policy can induce a university to make these student-best decisions.

In the third chapter, co-authored with Thomas Ahn, Peter Arcidiacono, and Amy Hopson, we use data from the University of Kentucky to understand how instructors choose grading policies. In this chapter, we estimate an equilibrium model in which instructors choose grading policies and students choose courses and study effort given grading policies. In this model, instructors set both a grading intercept and a return on ability and effort. This builds a rich link between the grading policy decisions of instructors and the course choices of students. We use estimates of this model to infer what preference parameters best explain why instructors chose estimated grading policies. To illustrate the importance of these supply side decisions, we show changing grading policies can substantially reduce the gender gap in STEM enrollment.

Convergence and translation: attitudes to inter-professional learning and teaching of creative problem-solving among medical and engineering students and staff

Background: Healthcare worldwide needs translation of basic ideas from engineering into the clinic. Consequently, there is increasing demand for graduates equipped with the knowledge and skills to apply interdisciplinary medicine/engineering approaches to the development of novel solutions for healthcare. The literature provides little guidance regarding barriers to, and facilitators of, effective interdisciplinary learning for engineering and medical students in a team-based project context. Methods: A quantitative survey was distributed to engineering and medical students and staff in two universities, one in Ireland and one in Belgium, to chart knowledge and practice in interdisciplinary learning and teaching, and of the teaching of innovation. Results: We report important differences for staff and students between the disciplines regarding attitudes towards, and perceptions of, the relevance of interdisciplinary learning opportunities, and the role of creativity and innovation. There was agreement across groups concerning preferred learning, instructional styles, and module content. Medical students showed greater resistance to the use of structured creativity tools and interdisciplinary teams. Conclusions: The results of this international survey will help to define the optimal learning conditions under which undergraduate engineering and medicine students can learn to consider the diverse factors which determine the success or failure of a healthcare engineering solution.

Utilizing Traditional Cognitive Measures of Academic Preparation to Predict First-Year Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Majors' Success in Math and Science Courses

For the past several years, U.S. colleges and universities have faced increased pressure to improve retention and graduation rates. At the same time, educational institutions have placed a greater emphasis on the importance of enrolling more students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs and producing more STEM graduates. The resulting problem faced by educators involves finding new ways to support the success of STEM majors, regardless of their pre-college academic preparation. The purpose of my research study involved utilizing first-year STEM majors’ math SAT scores, unweighted high school GPA, math placement test scores, and the highest level of math taken in high school to develop models for predicting those who were likely to pass their first math and science courses. In doing so, the study aimed to provide a strategy to address the challenge of improving the passing rates of those first-year students attempting STEM-related courses. The study sample included 1018 first-year STEM majors who had entered the same large, public, urban, Hispanic-serving, research university in the Southeastern U.S. between 2010 and 2012. The research design involved the use of hierarchical logistic regression to determine the significance of utilizing the four independent variables to develop models for predicting success in math and science. The resulting data indicated that the overall model of predictors (which included all four predictor variables) was statistically significant for predicting those students who passed their first math course and for predicting those students who passed their first science course. Individually, all four predictor variables were found to be statistically significant for predicting those who had passed math, with the unweighted high school GPA and the highest math taken in high school accounting for the largest amount of unique variance. Those two variables also improved the regression model’s percentage of correctly predicting that dependent variable. The only variable that was found to be statistically significant for predicting those who had passed science was the students’ unweighted high school GPA. Overall, the results of my study have been offered as my contribution to the literature on predicting first-year student success, especially within the STEM disciplines.

The Evolution of 'Design Build Fly' Led Teaching in Aerospace Engineering

This paper describes the evolution of a ‘Design - Build-Fly’ (DBF) approach to the delivery and assessment of a Stage Three Aircraft Design module. It focuses on the primary learning outcomes around the design and manufacturing functions associated with the development of a remotely controlled aircraft. The work covers a six year period from 2011 to present mapping the transformation of the module from report based assessment to a more hands on approach resulting in a fully functioning remotely controlled aircraft. Results show that both the staff and student experience improved across key performance metrics including student feedback, learning and competency development. Challenges still remain in methods of placing students within teams and maintaining technical rigour in reporting as students develop vocational skills and more reflective writing styles.

Are we asking the right questions? Rethinking post-graduate design education towards sustainable visions for the future

Our society is currently facing complex challenges, such us climate change, loss of biodiversity, ageing population, unemployment, to name but a few. This has created growing expectations on designers and engineers to explore, experiment and implement innovative solutions to such issues. At this critical time, if we want design to be part of the solution, we need to wonder whether we are asking designers suitable and sustainable questions. Both in post-graduate design education and in business, the brief still overwhelmingly requires designers to follow a linear problem-solving approach that focuses on product rather than strategies, services and systems. Traditional design briefs result no longer appropriate to face the challenges of our unsustainable world, as they relate to market, growth economy and human needs rather than society, business models and the needs of nature. Instead, we need to be asking questions about, for example, how we create sustainable business opportunities, how we overcome the barriers for change, or how we facilitate the process of innovation through design methodology. If the role of design is to create new visions and outline strategic directions towards a sustainable future world - for policy makers, businesses, communities and individual citizens – we need those stakeholders to create briefs for designers that allow them to do that. This paper will explain how the reframing of questions has been embedded into SustainRCA’s teaching practice in post-graduate design, art and engineering, leading to the development of new tools and methods, as well as some innovative outcomes

Preliminary Engineering Work Area, 1981

The purpose of the audit is to provide a report to management of the adequacy of controls employed to manage this work area. Where appropriate, recommendations and comments are provided for management consideration. Consideration is given to compliance with applicable policies and procedures, both federal and state. Economy and efficiency of operations are considered to the degree feasible but are not primary objectives.