Pub Date : 2004-10-23DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2004.1408524
F. Colace, M. De Santo, A. Pietrosanto
During last years the interest on distance learning techniques has grown steadily as far as the use of electronic instruments in experimentation is concerned. Due to the higher and higher number of students accessing the university educational structures, the cost of laboratories for didactical electronic applications is going to be very high. As a consequence, a number of software tools and environments have been developed to help users to share distributed laboratory resources and realize virtual experiments. Nevertheless, further solutions have to be explored when students must be trained and experienced in the instrumentation programming. In this paper, we exploit modern software technologies to design and implement a distributed architecture for virtual labs allowing the approach previously described. Services integrated in this architecture aim to support students both to keep contact with real instruments both to remotely program instrumentation. This distance learning methodology is discussed and some reports from students experience with the system are showed.
{"title":"Work in progress - virtual lab for electronic engineering curricula","authors":"F. Colace, M. De Santo, A. Pietrosanto","doi":"10.1109/FIE.2004.1408524","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2004.1408524","url":null,"abstract":"During last years the interest on distance learning techniques has grown steadily as far as the use of electronic instruments in experimentation is concerned. Due to the higher and higher number of students accessing the university educational structures, the cost of laboratories for didactical electronic applications is going to be very high. As a consequence, a number of software tools and environments have been developed to help users to share distributed laboratory resources and realize virtual experiments. Nevertheless, further solutions have to be explored when students must be trained and experienced in the instrumentation programming. In this paper, we exploit modern software technologies to design and implement a distributed architecture for virtual labs allowing the approach previously described. Services integrated in this architecture aim to support students both to keep contact with real instruments both to remotely program instrumentation. This distance learning methodology is discussed and some reports from students experience with the system are showed.","PeriodicalId":339926,"journal":{"name":"34th Annual Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004.","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134014393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2004-10-23DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2004.1408573
H. Søndergaard, D. Thomas
Educational experts appear to be in broad agreement when it comes to the importance of feedback for effective learning. Students benefit from plenty of opportunity and encouragement to express their understanding, and from informed, supportive, possibly challenging, feedback. At the same time, we observe that many students at our university do not find that they receive helpful feedback. One in three engineering students disagree or strongly disagree with the quality of teaching questionnaire's "I received helpful feedback on how I was going" in the individual course, and most other disciplines find themselves in a similar situation. For the university as a whole, student responses to this question are clearly less positive than to other questions on quality of teaching, intellectual stimulation, staff interest, workload, and so on, and this state of affairs seems quite common in the Australian context. We discuss best practice in feedback provision, partly based on our interviews with students and staff. We have been particularly interested in identifying cost-effective ways of providing informed and constructive feedback to large classes. Feedback is often understood, by engineering students and staff alike, simply as comments on submitted work typically written assignments. We argue in favour of a broader concept that covers a multitude of ways for a student to develop deep learning through conversation, including questions and answers provided by others, team work, study groups, and formative teacher-provided feedback during an assessment task. We emphasize the coaching role of the teacher, and feedback designed to encourage students to monitor own learning. Large classes pose particular logistic problems. We identify staff development as a crucial factor for consistent, effective feedback, and point to web-based feedback provision as a workable solution to some logistic problems. We briefly discuss the role of information technology more broadly, both for learning enhancement and for automated feedback provision.
{"title":"Effective feedback to small and large classes","authors":"H. Søndergaard, D. Thomas","doi":"10.1109/FIE.2004.1408573","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2004.1408573","url":null,"abstract":"Educational experts appear to be in broad agreement when it comes to the importance of feedback for effective learning. Students benefit from plenty of opportunity and encouragement to express their understanding, and from informed, supportive, possibly challenging, feedback. At the same time, we observe that many students at our university do not find that they receive helpful feedback. One in three engineering students disagree or strongly disagree with the quality of teaching questionnaire's \"I received helpful feedback on how I was going\" in the individual course, and most other disciplines find themselves in a similar situation. For the university as a whole, student responses to this question are clearly less positive than to other questions on quality of teaching, intellectual stimulation, staff interest, workload, and so on, and this state of affairs seems quite common in the Australian context. We discuss best practice in feedback provision, partly based on our interviews with students and staff. We have been particularly interested in identifying cost-effective ways of providing informed and constructive feedback to large classes. Feedback is often understood, by engineering students and staff alike, simply as comments on submitted work typically written assignments. We argue in favour of a broader concept that covers a multitude of ways for a student to develop deep learning through conversation, including questions and answers provided by others, team work, study groups, and formative teacher-provided feedback during an assessment task. We emphasize the coaching role of the teacher, and feedback designed to encourage students to monitor own learning. Large classes pose particular logistic problems. We identify staff development as a crucial factor for consistent, effective feedback, and point to web-based feedback provision as a workable solution to some logistic problems. We briefly discuss the role of information technology more broadly, both for learning enhancement and for automated feedback provision.","PeriodicalId":339926,"journal":{"name":"34th Annual Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004.","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131316455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2004-10-23DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2004.1408559
William M. Farmer, M. Mohrenschildt
Engineers, particularly software engineers, need to know how to read and write precise specifications. Specifications are made precise by expressing them in a formal mathematical language. Simple type theory, also as known as higher-order logic, is an excellent educational and practical tool for creating and understanding formal specifications. It provides a better logical foundation for specification than first-order logic and is a better introductory specification language than industrial specification languages like VDM-SL and Z. For these reasons, we recommend that simple type theory be incorporated into the undergraduate engineering curriculum.
{"title":"Simple type theory: simple steps towards a formal specification","authors":"William M. Farmer, M. Mohrenschildt","doi":"10.1109/FIE.2004.1408559","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2004.1408559","url":null,"abstract":"Engineers, particularly software engineers, need to know how to read and write precise specifications. Specifications are made precise by expressing them in a formal mathematical language. Simple type theory, also as known as higher-order logic, is an excellent educational and practical tool for creating and understanding formal specifications. It provides a better logical foundation for specification than first-order logic and is a better introductory specification language than industrial specification languages like VDM-SL and Z. For these reasons, we recommend that simple type theory be incorporated into the undergraduate engineering curriculum.","PeriodicalId":339926,"journal":{"name":"34th Annual Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004.","volume":"76 3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116564323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2004-10-23DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2004.1408498
R. Ford, J. Goodrich, R. Weissbach
This paper describes the design and development of a multidisciplinary course that pairs business and engineering students on teams for the objective of developing a new small product. The course is team-taught by faculty from business, engineering, and engineering technology. The student teams are required to develop a product concept, an engineering design, and a business plan. The major deliverables for the course include: an intellectual property search, a project proposal, a market analysis, a product requirement specification, an engineering design, a financial plan, and a marketing plan. The course culminates with a business plan deliverable that integrates all of these elements.
{"title":"A multidisciplinary business and engineering course in product development and entrepreneurship","authors":"R. Ford, J. Goodrich, R. Weissbach","doi":"10.1109/FIE.2004.1408498","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2004.1408498","url":null,"abstract":"This paper describes the design and development of a multidisciplinary course that pairs business and engineering students on teams for the objective of developing a new small product. The course is team-taught by faculty from business, engineering, and engineering technology. The student teams are required to develop a product concept, an engineering design, and a business plan. The major deliverables for the course include: an intellectual property search, a project proposal, a market analysis, a product requirement specification, an engineering design, a financial plan, and a marketing plan. The course culminates with a business plan deliverable that integrates all of these elements.","PeriodicalId":339926,"journal":{"name":"34th Annual Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004.","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129024746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2004-10-23DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2004.1408576
Cordelia M. Brown, A. Brodersen
This paper explores the development of a general learning model that uses as a test bed a course on the introduction to digital logic. The learning model is based on techniques validated by researchers Richard Felder, Eric Mazur, John Bransford, and Shelia Tobias. The learning model features a weekly learning session, structured collaborative laboratory sessions, and challenge projects. A comparative research study is being conducted at Vanderbilt University School of Engineering (VUSE). The study contrasts the traditional instructional with the learning model. The traditionally instructed sections will primarily receive lecture-based instruction. Surveys from students, instructors, and teaching assistants will be used as a means of monitoring the effectiveness of the instructional method used. The study will evaluate the students' performance, attitude toward their instruction, retention, success rate, failure rate, and confidence levels of students in both the traditionally taught sections and the modified instruction sections. Through this study, strategies will be developed an effective model for instruction studying laboratory-based engineering courses. Preliminary results for the study conducted in the Spring 2004 will be presented.
{"title":"Work in progress-employing a learning model on a traditional engineering course","authors":"Cordelia M. Brown, A. Brodersen","doi":"10.1109/FIE.2004.1408576","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2004.1408576","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the development of a general learning model that uses as a test bed a course on the introduction to digital logic. The learning model is based on techniques validated by researchers Richard Felder, Eric Mazur, John Bransford, and Shelia Tobias. The learning model features a weekly learning session, structured collaborative laboratory sessions, and challenge projects. A comparative research study is being conducted at Vanderbilt University School of Engineering (VUSE). The study contrasts the traditional instructional with the learning model. The traditionally instructed sections will primarily receive lecture-based instruction. Surveys from students, instructors, and teaching assistants will be used as a means of monitoring the effectiveness of the instructional method used. The study will evaluate the students' performance, attitude toward their instruction, retention, success rate, failure rate, and confidence levels of students in both the traditionally taught sections and the modified instruction sections. Through this study, strategies will be developed an effective model for instruction studying laboratory-based engineering courses. Preliminary results for the study conducted in the Spring 2004 will be presented.","PeriodicalId":339926,"journal":{"name":"34th Annual Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004.","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130226509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2004-10-23DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2004.1408520
D. Jacobson
Iowa State University has offered a course in information warfare for the past 8 years to both on campus and off campus students via streaming media. The class looks at computer security from an attack/defend viewpoint. We study attacks and look at methods to stop the attacks. The course has several lab experiments where student try out attack tools and defense mechanisms. Both on-campus and off-campus students access the lab via the Internet which creates a unique set of challenges of trying to keep the attacks off the Internet. The largest lab experiment is where the students are given the Web site address to a company that was designed for the experiment. They are to break into the company and gather as much information as they can about the company and its employees. The students must submit a report where they document every step they took to break-in and then develop a plan to fix the problems.
{"title":"Teaching information warfare with lab experiments via the Internet","authors":"D. Jacobson","doi":"10.1109/FIE.2004.1408520","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2004.1408520","url":null,"abstract":"Iowa State University has offered a course in information warfare for the past 8 years to both on campus and off campus students via streaming media. The class looks at computer security from an attack/defend viewpoint. We study attacks and look at methods to stop the attacks. The course has several lab experiments where student try out attack tools and defense mechanisms. Both on-campus and off-campus students access the lab via the Internet which creates a unique set of challenges of trying to keep the attacks off the Internet. The largest lab experiment is where the students are given the Web site address to a company that was designed for the experiment. They are to break into the company and gather as much information as they can about the company and its employees. The students must submit a report where they document every step they took to break-in and then develop a plan to fix the problems.","PeriodicalId":339926,"journal":{"name":"34th Annual Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004.","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128526128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2004-10-23DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2004.1408568
L. Richards, S. Scheer
One of us (LGR) has taught in the distance-learning mode for many years, and has offered a graduate level statistics course for many more. This year, we offered 'Statistics for Scientists and Engineers' in the distance-learning mode for the first time. With the assistance of an instructional designer (Scheer), we have redesigned this class to incorporate the advantages of the interactive videoconferencing environment. Our goal was to adapt best practices of the modern classroom to the distance-learning environment. The class was diverse including on-grounds students from a variety of disciplines, and working engineers from sites around Virginia and other states. We will review our innovations, the results we achieved, and student assessments of their experiences in this course.
{"title":"Work in progress: teaching statistics in the distance learning mode","authors":"L. Richards, S. Scheer","doi":"10.1109/FIE.2004.1408568","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2004.1408568","url":null,"abstract":"One of us (LGR) has taught in the distance-learning mode for many years, and has offered a graduate level statistics course for many more. This year, we offered 'Statistics for Scientists and Engineers' in the distance-learning mode for the first time. With the assistance of an instructional designer (Scheer), we have redesigned this class to incorporate the advantages of the interactive videoconferencing environment. Our goal was to adapt best practices of the modern classroom to the distance-learning environment. The class was diverse including on-grounds students from a variety of disciplines, and working engineers from sites around Virginia and other states. We will review our innovations, the results we achieved, and student assessments of their experiences in this course.","PeriodicalId":339926,"journal":{"name":"34th Annual Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004.","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129326825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2004-10-20DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2004.1408532
H. Diefes‐Dux, D. Follman, K. Haghighi, P. Imbrie, R. Montgomery, W. Oakes, P. Wankat
The national need for engineering education reform is widely recognized. Long-term and sustainable engineering education reform requires a pipeline for educating future engineering faculty and professionals interested in pursuing careers in K-12 teaching and administration. Purdue University is evaluating the development of a new framework for promoting engineering education reform. As part of this framework, new undergraduate and graduate degree programs in engineering education (B.S., M.S., and Ph.D.) are being considered. We present for discussion, a vision to legitimize, institutionalize, and advance the establishment of formal academic programs in engineering education and provide descriptions of the proposed programs, program coursework, admissions criteria, and anticipated job opportunities for graduates of such programs.
{"title":"Work in progress: establishing formal academic programs in engineering education","authors":"H. Diefes‐Dux, D. Follman, K. Haghighi, P. Imbrie, R. Montgomery, W. Oakes, P. Wankat","doi":"10.1109/FIE.2004.1408532","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2004.1408532","url":null,"abstract":"The national need for engineering education reform is widely recognized. Long-term and sustainable engineering education reform requires a pipeline for educating future engineering faculty and professionals interested in pursuing careers in K-12 teaching and administration. Purdue University is evaluating the development of a new framework for promoting engineering education reform. As part of this framework, new undergraduate and graduate degree programs in engineering education (B.S., M.S., and Ph.D.) are being considered. We present for discussion, a vision to legitimize, institutionalize, and advance the establishment of formal academic programs in engineering education and provide descriptions of the proposed programs, program coursework, admissions criteria, and anticipated job opportunities for graduates of such programs.","PeriodicalId":339926,"journal":{"name":"34th Annual Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004.","volume":"147 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115701931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2004-10-20DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2004.1408697
P. Moore, S. Cupp, N. Fortenberry
In previous work, we identified five student learning outcome areas that might productively augment the current engineering accreditation criteria. In this work we review the literature on a) how these outcomes might be assessed and b) what instructional practices may encourage their attainment. Multiple assessment instruments are identified for the five student learning outcome areas. We offer examples of instructional practices that appear to align with developing a) multidisciplinary systems perspectives, b) appreciation for diversity, and c) familiarity with business matters. We see the research base underlying instructional practices as lacking adequate breadth and depth.
{"title":"Linking student learning outcomes to instructional practices - phase II","authors":"P. Moore, S. Cupp, N. Fortenberry","doi":"10.1109/FIE.2004.1408697","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2004.1408697","url":null,"abstract":"In previous work, we identified five student learning outcome areas that might productively augment the current engineering accreditation criteria. In this work we review the literature on a) how these outcomes might be assessed and b) what instructional practices may encourage their attainment. Multiple assessment instruments are identified for the five student learning outcome areas. We offer examples of instructional practices that appear to align with developing a) multidisciplinary systems perspectives, b) appreciation for diversity, and c) familiarity with business matters. We see the research base underlying instructional practices as lacking adequate breadth and depth.","PeriodicalId":339926,"journal":{"name":"34th Annual Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004.","volume":"89 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115728415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2004-10-20DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2004.1408752
P. Steif, E. Gallagher
Much engineering practice today involves computer aided engineering tools. While the associated underlying theory is often beyond the abilities of many undergraduates, we still must prepare students who will be expected to use such tools in the workplace after graduation. At the same time, computer-based tools may also be used to improve learning in even the most basic subjects. For example, a significant aid in learning mechanics of materials is visualizing the basic patterns of deformations. Using readily deformable objects in class, such as foam bars, is one aid to visualization. This paper describes a very simple Web-based finite element program, which can serve two purposes. First, it acquaints students with the basic steps in carrying out a finite element analysis. Second, this program makes a wide range of deformation patterns available for visual inspection, and thereby can facilitate an increased understanding of some of the variables of importance in mechanics of materials.
{"title":"Transitioning students to finite element analysis and improving learning in basic courses","authors":"P. Steif, E. Gallagher","doi":"10.1109/FIE.2004.1408752","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2004.1408752","url":null,"abstract":"Much engineering practice today involves computer aided engineering tools. While the associated underlying theory is often beyond the abilities of many undergraduates, we still must prepare students who will be expected to use such tools in the workplace after graduation. At the same time, computer-based tools may also be used to improve learning in even the most basic subjects. For example, a significant aid in learning mechanics of materials is visualizing the basic patterns of deformations. Using readily deformable objects in class, such as foam bars, is one aid to visualization. This paper describes a very simple Web-based finite element program, which can serve two purposes. First, it acquaints students with the basic steps in carrying out a finite element analysis. Second, this program makes a wide range of deformation patterns available for visual inspection, and thereby can facilitate an increased understanding of some of the variables of importance in mechanics of materials.","PeriodicalId":339926,"journal":{"name":"34th Annual Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004.","volume":"304 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123056023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}