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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

A Whole New Engineer, David Goldberg, Mark Somerville Oct 2014

A Whole New Engineer, David Goldberg, Mark Somerville

Mark Somerville

A Revolution Is Coming. It Isn’t What You Think. This book tells the improbable stories of Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering and the iFoundry incubator at the University of Illinois. That either one survived is story enough, but what they found out together changes the course of education transformation forever: How trust is key to unleashing young, courageous engineers. How engineers need to move from a narrow technical education to one that actively engages six minds. How emotion and culture–not content, curriculum & pedagogy–are the crucial elements of change. How all stakeholders can collaborate to disrupt the status quo.status …


Olin College: Re-Visioning Undergraduate Engineering Education, Lynn Stein, Mark Somerville, Jessica Townsend, Vincent Manno Jun 2014

Olin College: Re-Visioning Undergraduate Engineering Education, Lynn Stein, Mark Somerville, Jessica Townsend, Vincent Manno

Mark Somerville

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering was created to address several perceived needs for engineering graduates of the future and to be an experimental laboratory for engineering education. As such, Olin College is not only dedicated to innovation within its boundaries but also to catalyzing change throughout the engineering enterprise. The curriculum aims to support life-long learning, teamwork, communication, and contextual understanding, along with rigorous quantitative and qualitative skills.


Work In Progress- Understanding Discomfort: Student Responses To Self-Direction, Jonathan Stolk, Mark Somerville, John B. Geddes, Rob Martello Jul 2012

Work In Progress- Understanding Discomfort: Student Responses To Self-Direction, Jonathan Stolk, Mark Somerville, John B. Geddes, Rob Martello

Mark Somerville

The literature consistently reports that students express some degree of discomfort when they are thrown into self-directed learning environments. In this paper, we present the preliminary results of an investigation of the causes of student discomfort in several different self-directed project-based courses. Our results suggest that student motivation and opportunities for the development of deep understanding and transferable skills are important in creating a positive self-directed learning experience. Negative experiences and student discomfort in self-directed environments may stem from problems with self-regulation, low self-perceptions of content learning, lack of personal engagement with the topic, and difficulties related to the social …


Work In Progress - A Provisional Competency Assessment System, Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra, Jonathan Chambers, Ellen Cooney, Kristen Dorsey, John Geddes, Gill Pratt, Kathryn Rivard, Ann Schaffner, Lynn Stein, Jonathan Stolk, Stephen Westwood, Yevgeniya Zastavker Jul 2012

Work In Progress - A Provisional Competency Assessment System, Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra, Jonathan Chambers, Ellen Cooney, Kristen Dorsey, John Geddes, Gill Pratt, Kathryn Rivard, Ann Schaffner, Lynn Stein, Jonathan Stolk, Stephen Westwood, Yevgeniya Zastavker

Mark Somerville

Over the last two years Olin College has been defining and implementing a provisional system to develop and assess student competency levels. The system particularly emphasizes the importance of creating a community of practice that includes not only faculty but also staff and students. In this paper we provide an overview of the design process, and comment on the results of our first year of implementing the system.


Drowning In Method, Thirsty For Values: A Call For Cultural Inquiry, Jonathan Stolk, Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra Jul 2012

Drowning In Method, Thirsty For Values: A Call For Cultural Inquiry, Jonathan Stolk, Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra

Mark Somerville

A decade or more has passed since publication of most calls for reform in engineering education. In the ensuing time, there has been significant work on the design, implementation, and transferability of appropriate methodsand techniques - accompanied by, in most cases, little discussion of the values and beliefs of the people involved. But many theories of change rely on a fundamental shift in human beliefs and values, and purport that institutionalization of methods is impossible without this shift. Given this, now may be a reasonable time to re-visit the questions: What are the values of people involved in engineering education, …


Engineering Students' Conceptions Of Self-Directed Learning, Jonathan Stolk, John Geddes, Mark Somerville, Robert Martello Jul 2012

Engineering Students' Conceptions Of Self-Directed Learning, Jonathan Stolk, John Geddes, Mark Somerville, Robert Martello

Mark Somerville

Researchers have developed numerous theories and developmental models to describe self directed learning, lifelong learning, and self-regulated learning. The literature includes a large body of research that illustrates the cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, affective, and behavioral attributes of self-directed learners; the influences of social and physical environment on self-directed learning development; and the roles of self-perceptions, causal orientations,learning conceptions, and demographics in determining certain self-directed learning responses. But how do undergraduate engineering students characterize and critique self-directed learning? This paper evaluates the responses of engineering students to questions regarding the definition of self-direction and the primary positive or negative factors contributing …


Engineering Students' Definitions Of And Responses To Self-Directed Learning, Jonathan Stolk, Rob Martello, Mark Somerville, John Geddes Dec 2009

Engineering Students' Definitions Of And Responses To Self-Directed Learning, Jonathan Stolk, Rob Martello, Mark Somerville, John Geddes

Mark Somerville

COLLEGE INSTRUCTORS have struggled with a lack of self-directed learning (SDL) development in their students for many decades. Self-direction is by no means a new topic in teaching and learning, but it is one of growing significance in engineering educational discourse. In 1969, Carl Rogers articulated the need for flexible, independent learners: Teaching and the imparting of knowledge make sense in an unchanging environment. This is why it has been an unquestioned function for centuries. But if there is one truth about modern man, it is that he lives in an environment which is continually changing . . .We are, …