Engineering Commons^™

Gendered Socialization With An Embodied Agent: Creating A Social And Affable Mathematics Learning Environment For Middle-Grade Females, Yanghee Kim, J. Lim

Yanghee Kim

This study examined whether or not embodied-agent-based learning would help middle-grade females have more positive mathematics learning experiences. The study used an explanatory mixed-methods research design. First, a classroom-based experiment was conducted with one hundred and twenty 9th-graders learning introductory algebra (53% male and 47% female; 51% Caucasian and 49% Latino). The results revealed that learner gender was a significant factor in the learners’ evaluations of their agent (η2 = .07), the learners’ task-specific attitudes (η2 = .05), and their task-specific self-efficacy (η2 = .06). In-depth interviews were then conducted with 22 students selected from the experiment participants. The interviews …

Demographics Of Undergraduate Students In Game Degree Programs In The Us And Uk, Monica M. Mcgill, Amber Settle, Adrienne Decker

Amber Settle

Diversity In The Game Industry: Is Outreach The Solution?, Amber Settle, Monica M. Mcgill, Adrienne Decker

Amber Settle

The Impacts Of Societal Context On Student Motivation And Engagement, Jonathan Stolk

Jonathan Stolk

Promoting a sense of societal connectedness is critical in today’s engineering educational environment. The NAE’s Grand Challenges for Engineering point to broad human concerns — sustainability, health, vulnerability, and joy of living — and human connectivity as the future of engineering problem solving. Engineering studies, however, are often presented in a completely decontextualized manner, with an emphasis on technical content that is free of any human meaning. As a result, students may have difficulty identifying either personal or societal value in their learning tasks. Through their course design, instructors can help students situate themselves and their engineering learning experiences within …

Assessing Student And Employer Satisfaction In A Liberal Arts/Engineering Bachelor Of Arts Degree, Michael Haungs

Michael Haungs

No abstract provided.

Anatomy Of An “Instruction Plan”: Information Literacy, Abet Lifelong Learning, And The Engineering Curriculum, Debbie Morrow

Debbie Morrow

Planning library instruction to help disciplinary departments meet accreditation is a strong way for academic libraries to demonstrate value. During 2012 the Liaison Librarians at Grand Valley State University undertook a new initiative to develop “instruction plans” for each of our liaison departments. The goal of a departmental instruction plan is to profile the curriculum in a discipline and strategically identify prospective courses for offering library instructional support where the greatest number of students can experience the most benefit, relevant to specific assignments and discipline-specific skill areas. The plan also captures specific information literacy core competencies that the librarian plans …

Out-Of-Classroom Experiences: Bridging The Disconnect Between The Classroom, The Engineering Workforce, And Ethical Development, Brian A. Burt, Donald D. Carpenter, Matthew A. Holsapple, Cynthia J. Finelli, Rob M. Bielby, Janel A. Sutkus, Trevors S. Harding

Brian Burt A.

The extant research on engineering ethics instruction shows that students receive ethics instruction within the engineering curricula. Unfortunately, the methods used in engineering undergraduate classrooms are described as ‘‘abstract’’ and have mixed results related to impacting students’ ethical development. Thus, exploring how out-of-classroom experiences—as a curricular alternative—influences students’ ethical development is warranted. This is an exploratory investigation to determine how out-of-classroom experiences influence students’ ethical development. The authors define ethical development using three constructs: knowledge of ethics, ethical reasoning, and ethical behavior. We draw upon a conceptual model that suggests students’ ethical development is impacted by what takes place inside …

Digital Peers To Help Children's Text Comprehension And Perception, Yanghee Kim

Yanghee Kim

Affable Reading Tutor (ART) is an online reading lesson designed for children who start reading to comprehend. A digital, human-like character (virtual peer) in ART serves as a peer model that demonstrates the use of the reading comprehension strategy questioning to help improve the learners’ comprehension of expository texts. This study, with 141 boys and girls in the fourth and fifth grades in the United States, examined the effects of virtual-peer presence (presence vs. absence vs. control) on learners’ text comprehension and also the effects of learner gender and virtual-peer attributes (human-like male vs. human-like female vs. robot still image) …