Education Commons^™

Design Of A Professional Practice Simulator For Educating And Motivating First-Year Engineering Students, Naomi C. Chesler, Golnaz Arastoopour Irgens, Cynthia M. D'Angelo, Elizabeth A. Bagley, David Williamson Shaffer

Publications

Increasingly, first-year engineering curricula incorporate design projects. However, the faculty and staff effort and physical resources required for the number of students enrolled can be daunting and affect the quality of instruction. To reduce these costs, ensure a high quality educational experience, and reduce variability in student outcomes that occur with individual design projects, we developed a simulation of engineering professional practice, NephroTex, in which teams of students are guided through multiple design-build-test cycles by a mentor in a virtual internship. Here we report on the design process for the virtual internship and results of testing with first-year engineering students …